Today I heard an old argument that I disagree with.\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s how it goes:<\/p>\n
Why doesn’t God just take us to heaven after we accept Christ?<\/p>\n
— The only thing we can do on earth that we can’t do in heaven better is to bring other people to Christ.<\/p>\n
— Therefore, we should devote our time on earth to bringing other people to Christ.<\/p>\n
I disagree with this.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems to me, there are plenty of things we can do on earth that we can’t do in heaven.\u00c2\u00a0 Over the years, I came up with two biggies:<\/p>\n
1.\u00c2\u00a0 Glorify God in suffering.<\/p>\n
2.\u00c2\u00a0 Bear children.<\/p>\n
Today, thinking about it again, I came up with several more, though I think maybe a lot of them could be classified under “Glorify God in suffering.”\u00c2\u00a0 Here are some:<\/p>\n
— Withstand temptation.<\/p>\n
— Forgive others who are sinning against us.<\/p>\n
— Experience God’s forgiveness or someone else’s forgiveness as we are sinning.<\/p>\n
— Exercise faith.<\/p>\n
— Have hope.\u00c2\u00a0 (Three things remain:\u00c2\u00a0 faith, hope, and love.\u00c2\u00a0 But the greatest of these is love.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t need faith when you can see the result.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t need hope when you have the object of your hope.)<\/p>\n
— Learn patience.<\/p>\n
I guess now I’m getting into a whole area of personal growth.\u00c2\u00a0 We grow through our experiences in a fallen world.<\/p>\n
I was going to add things like “Writing a book.” to the list of things we can do on earth that we can’t do in heaven, but that’s not clear at all–I think we can still exercise Creativity in heaven.\u00c2\u00a0 Though will we still be able to write those heart-rending stories that touch people deeply?\u00c2\u00a0 Or would we be able to if we hadn’t experienced pain on earth?<\/p>\n
I think the whole argument minimizes the many parts of my life that are not spent bringing others to Christ.\u00c2\u00a0 Why didn’t God just destroy the world when Adam sinned and start over?<\/p>\n
I think there is value to be found in this life.\u00c2\u00a0 That I can glorify God simply by enjoying the gifts He has given me — reading a good book, enjoying a sunset, smiling at a baby.\u00c2\u00a0 I also think that much of God’s plan for me — the reasons he made me the person I am and put me on this earth — has nothing to do with spiritual things, necessarily.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe that I am being the person He made me to be when I conduct a Storytime and connect with one small child.\u00c2\u00a0 Or when I write something that introduces someone to a good book.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
My friend Kathe is glorifying God and fulfilling her own calling and being the person God made her to be when she grooms a dog with love in her heart.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a beautiful thing to see, but I believe she’s serving God even when she does this and no other human sees her do it.<\/p>\n
All this has gotten pretty far afield from the original argument.\u00c2\u00a0 What do you think?\u00c2\u00a0 What things can you do on earth that you can’t do better in heaven?\u00c2\u00a0 And why do you think God put us on earth and why does He leave us on earth?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I heard an old argument that I disagree with.\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s how it goes: Why doesn’t God just take us to heaven after we accept Christ? — The only thing we can do on earth that we can’t do in heaven better is to bring other people to Christ. — Therefore, we should devote our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sundays-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}