As Christians, we seem inappropriately preoccupied with being blessed now! We aren't the first. The Bible is full of people who wonder when God was going to "make things right."
The prophet Jeremiah felt way:
Why do you always forget us? Why do forsake us for so long? -- Lamentations 5:20 (NIV)
The church has led us to believe that you can experience all the blessings of God right now, right here. The Bible seems to tell us the same thing:
Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways.
You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.
Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD. -- Psalm 128 (NIV)
That sounds good, and yet it feels more like we are only getting a taste of that and not a complete meal. So instead of longing for God, we long for more blessings.
It also strikes me inappropriate that we spend much of our time talking to non-believers about hell. "Hell is a place of incredible suffering," we warn them. Do you know what they are thinking? "Can't be much worse than this."
We have forgotten heaven. We have forgotten the end of the story. As I have read through the book of Revelation this month, besides being confused at moments, I was struck mostly by two parts of the story that I completely understood.
(more)
No comments:
Post a Comment