Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX

The sun might be setting in this picture but heaven is alight with God’s presence.

Our Bible Study for the past couple of weeks is over Randy Alcorn’s book “Heaven”. There are five sessions left so if the topic is of interest to you come on by on Wednesday nights. We have a covered dish fellowship meal at 5:30, prayer at 6:15 and we start watching the video about 6:30. You are welcome at all or part of the evening. So many of us have heard so much about Heaven, about what it is like and what we will be doing. So many different ideas and many of them have nothing to do with scripture. The Rev. Dr. Randy Alcorn bases all of his ideas and statements on scripture throughout the Bible. Here is an excerpt from his book.

“A fundamental article of the Christian faith is that the resurrected Christ now dwells in Heaven. We are told that his resurrected body on Earth was physical, and that this same, physical Jesus ascended to Heaven, from which he will one day return to Earth (Acts 1:11). It seems indisputable, then, to say that there is at least one physical body in the present Heaven.

If Christ’s body in the present Heaven has physical properties, it stands to reason that others in Heaven might have physical forms as well, even if only temporary ones. It also makes sense that other aspects of the present Heaven would have physical properties-so that, for example, when Christ is seen standing at the right hand of God(Acts 7:56), he is actually standing on something. Otherwise we would have to conclude that the resurrected (and thus, embodied) Christ has been floating for two thousand years in a realm without material substance. (He could, of course, but does he?) If we know there is physical substance in Heaven (namely, Christ’s body), can we not also assume that other references to physical objects in Heaven, including physical forms and clothing, are literal rather than figurative?”

We hope to find many scriptural answers to the many questions we have. At least we will hear scripture quoted to support Randy Alcorn’s opinions and we can make educated, spirit-led decisions about our future life eternal.

With a first name like Randy, I just have to listen to him.

Have a blessed week,

Pastor Randy Branch

Tags: 1 John, Acts, eternal, God, Heaven, Jesus, john, life, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Revelation, Scripture

This entry was posted on May 2, 2012 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Pastor's Ponderings, Wesley United Methodist Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.