Deeper Still by phil mccallum

Scripture
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Revelation 21:1-3

Observation
In this life, heaven is to us a place have to go up to. But peaking over the fence into the future it is obvious that heaven is God coming down to us.

The Bible kicked off in Genesis with a new earth, humans living in a garden with God who came for visits. The Bible closes with a new earth, God living in a city and coming to live with humans forever.

I have never been able to get over the amazement of the thought of God wanting us to live with him forever. Think of it this way. Over Christmas we have family come and visit. Some family we like to see come and other family we like to see go.! A day or so of guests in our home is great, but there comes a point that we want our house back with “just us”. It takes great love to have family stay for more than a few days. But God takes it further than that. He wants us to live with him forever. That is great love.

Heaven is more than the house of God, it is the home his love has made for us. He brings his home into our world like some visiting parent in a Winnebago, but in this case it is a home so roomy that billions can live comfortably with him. Heaven is God living on our level as God with us. Heaven is space large enough for all and personal enough for each to be at home with God.

Application
If heaven is a place coming down to me rather than a city I must somehow get up to, then everything changes about the way that I live. I do not have to reach for God. He is coming to me. I can open my hands to him this day to receive from him knowing that he has the best to give to me.

When I was a child my grandfather lived in a home so old that it had been built by pioneers with wooden pegs because they could afford no nails. I thought that quaint country house with its ticking clock would last forever. But it has been gone for over 30 years now since he died. My parents now, after 64 years of marriage have sold their home and live in a small apartment in a retirement center. Home is shrinking for them and it is just a matter of time. The home I have now is just temporary accommodation on my way. I need to live with a light touch on the things around me. St. Francis said that we should wear life like a loose fitting garment that touches the skin here and there but does not bind us. This is not otherworldly thinking, because heaven is nothing of the sort. Going back to this verse, heaven is not ultimately us going up to be with God, but the Lord coming down to live with us. Heaven is the house God brings down for us to live in as we live on a world no longer ravaged but pristine.

Prayer
Father, I’m not interested in living in heaven the beautiful place, as I am living in your house with you. I crudely think of it as having an apartment in a very big building with windows large that I can open the blinds and let the sun stream in, knowing that that light means that Jesus Christ is somewhere shining outside. Heaven is slipping down the stairs, into the streets, and finding a large courtyard with jesus in the center of a large crowd. And yet, for a mount he looks my way and it seems that it is only he and I who are in the city. To be seen by Jesus is to be known, to be understood, to be accepted, and to be loved. That is my destination and today I ask that I would bring heaven wherever I go. Amen.

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Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong sing “This is Our God” while reading today’s devotion on heaven.

Scripture
God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. Rev 21:3-4

Observation
We think about heaven, occasionally. Maybe we do on the death of a loved one and if we bump into the odd Bible verse about it. Beyond that, most humans think about the life right in front of their eyes rather than in the life to come.

On the other hand, God thinks about heaven a lot. Heaven means more to him than it does to us. There is a yearning in his heart. Since Jesus returned to heaven, preparing a place for us has been his prime objective. Once we are in heaven with he is going to live with us forever. If you want to live with someone that long you know that you really love them.

What makes heaven is first and foremost that God himself is there. Everything else takes its beauty and meaning from his presence. John defined heaven as this, “[God] will live with them….”

God’s presence defines everything in heaven.

We can see God’s presence in heaven by what is there.  Everything in heaven is superlative excellence. Gems, gold, pearls, and more. Excellence honors God for it reflects his nature best. These things are excellent not in themselves, but because God is in them.

We can see God’s presence in heaven by what is not there. Two things are missing in heaven. There is no sun and there is no temple to worship God in. The reason given is that God is the sun and the temple.

The point is this, in heaven the Lord is everything. What the Lord wants to share with us more than anything else is himself.

Application
I’ve been thinking recently that until I understand what heaven is that I cannot pray well that prayer, “Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven is where God is and where he is all changes. When I grasp heaven then I can pray it down earth.

Prayer
Father, help me to long for heaven in some fraction of desire as you desire it for me. Amen.

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The white sands of the fresh water Lake MacKenzie on Australia’s Fraser Island are one of my favorite places on planet earth. I could lay in the sun here all day long. This is from a camping trip with my son in 2005.

Scripture
I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Revelation 20:12-13

Observation
I’m a History Channel addict. The series, Cities of the Underworld pulled me in through the labyrinth of tunnels under the worlds great cities. Paris surprised me most of all. The Romans found something underneath the city akin to Home Depot. Limestone bedrock could be mined out of tunnels and used to build the imposing edifices of the Champs-Élysées. Paris sits on top of a limestone quarry and is honeycombed with tunnels beneath its streets. Just after the time of Napoleon, Paris ran out off burial space because the city was surrounded by walls that choked expansion. City fathers decided to take the skeletal remains of Parisians from centuries past and rebury them in tidy stacks under the city. The documentary camera careened through nearly a kilometer of neatly organized human bones. They suggested that 6 million people were under the streets of Paris.

Seeing so many human remains at once gave me a profound sense of how short my life is, and how I am but one of billions who have lived on this planet. Today I walk on top of city streets. Tomorrow others will walk over me.

What is the greatest thing to fear? Death? Hardly. Death would be the greatest fear if it were really the end. But the Bible tells us death is a doorway not a deadbolt. Death introduces us into what we should fear.

Hell? No, not hell. What is more disturbing than hell is standing alone with the Great White Throne.

The throne means there is a king and judge sitting up on it.

Greatness suggests that the throne is the Supreme Court from which there is no appeal.

Whiteness implies that our lives will be compared with a standard higher than we can imagine.

Have you ever shopped for white paint? How many variety of whites can there be? Many! One color swatch that looks snowy white looks dingy compared to another. Without comparison against other samples our eyes can trick us to imagine that we are seeing true white.

And so it is in life. What looks white may in fact be grey. The other day I was chatting with an Ebay businessman. He’s the kind that makes a very decent living off of online classifieds. He said, “I don’t do gray market work.” He explained the nuances between black market and gray market. I was amazed at the cleverness of business minds in schemes that can be devised for money making that are just a little shady.

One day every action we have ever taken in life will be held up against the true color guide of heaven. What looks white on earth will look sooty in heaven. Gray is not good enough. That is something to fear. The road to hell is not paved in black but in shades of gray.

Application
Can we clean ourselves in preparation? Just read the Cat In the Hat by Dr. Seuss and the answer is obviously no. Dirty hands can never make a garment clean. This is our only prayer:

Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7

My hope today is that I don’t have to stand alone at the Great White Throne. Jesus will be with me.

Prayer
Father today let me be ready to stand before your throne, not because of what I have done but because of what you have done for me. And may I ready many, many more to stand before you with the color match of righteousness. Amen.

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