Connected to HEAVEN

This is message SIX in the series
"Connected thru Colossians."

the two goals of this series are to
1. change how we live as believers
2. expand what we know for sure

Read Colossians  3.1-11 by clicking on this link

What is so important about HEAVEN anyway? Let me answer that question with an incident that happened on a trip. A few years ago my wife, myself and our youngest son were invited to a wedding in the Dominican Republic. We had to make all sorts of arrangements. We needed plane tickets, passports, reservations at a resort. We had to check what was allowed to be in our carry-on's and what we could put in our luggage. The flight was long and tiring and flying from Washington state to the Dominican Republic put us arriving after midnight. We gathered our luggage and went to find the transportation that was part of the package deal with the resort. We came out of the airport and saw lines of buses, vans, limos, taxis, and then we saw this guy stand with a sign that said HIGHLANDS. It was written on a piece of cardboard like the guys use to panhandle at intersections. He was standing beside a car that was bellowing gray and white smoke out of the tail pipe. The windshield was cracked, no it was smashed up pretty bad, and there were cracks in every window of the car. We checked and he was there for us. He grabbed our luggage and started loading the trunk that had a bungee cord to hold it shut. About half of the luggage would fit into the trunk, so he put one more on top, pulled the trunk about half closed, attached the bungee cord and motioned for us to get into the car. We were in such a state of shock we just got in. He packed the remaining luggage in around us, ran around the car, jumped in and away we went in a giant puff of smoke.

We traveled down a road that soon left the city behind and onto a four lane road that had weeds growing two feet high trough the cracks. The car must have reached a cruising speed of around 34 mph with the engine sounding like it would explode at any minute. The only real lights were bare bulbs hanging on electric lines outside of the occasional bar we passed. Around each bar were groups of men drinking from bottles and holding machetes. Soon the city was completely out of view and the only other people we saw were groups of women standing in the road trying to get us to stop. (They were prostitutes)

Now I need to tell you something. I WAS SCARED! Not afraid, not worried, not concerned, I was very scared. I did not know it but my son and his mother were holding hands in the backseat of the taxi from hell. The were also very scared. I honestly thought the driver would stop at one of the bars where we would be hacked to death for our few belongings.
We drove past two resorts but they were not ours and then into the darkest night I can remember. The fumes from the engine filled the car so we had the windows rolled down.

Then the car started to slow and there was a large twelve foot high pink wall around something. It had a great gate at the entrance, but we drove past it and into an alley where I thought we were going to be killed. Then the driver turned into a small gate in the huge pink wall and... the whole world changed. We went from a third or fifth world environment where we were scared and entered a tropical paradise. We drove past perfectly manicured lawns and stopped in front of the main building. It was right out of a travel poster. Well lit, even at 2:30 in the morning, it was beautiful. We went to the desk got our keys and went to our rooms. (I did tip the taxi driver. It was for not killing us.) We walked down a palm lined path, past reflective pools and tropical flower beds until we came to our building.

We went to our rooms, after hugging each other and saying how much we loved each other. We were grateful to be alive. Our son took his bags to his room and we went to ours. When we opened the doors to the balcony and stepped out we were looking over a palm lined beach with waves washing up only a short distance from where we were. That week was fabulous. Everything was included in the cost of the reservations. Meals, drinks, recreation, everything.

Now I knew what to expect, but it was so much more. Here is my point. We are traveling through a very dangerous world to heaven. We have been invited to the wedding of God's son, Jesus. Heaven will be everything we expect and so much more. There is no way to describe what it will be like when we arrive and check into eternity. Right now we are focused on all the worries of this world and we do not realize how great the place we are going will be.

That is why Paul tells us "set your HEARTS on things ABOVE." We are going to a wedding of a beloved family member. This will be a joyous occasion. Next Paul tells us to "set your MINDS on things ABOVE."  He wants us to make sure there is nothing in our lives that will stop us from being able to attend the wedding. We are to pay attention to the details of our daily lives so we are ready to go when the times comes.

In order to make the trip we had to be sure there was nothing in our luggage that is on the list  of the National Transportation Safety Administration. You know like dynamite, hand grenades, chlorine for a swimming pool, gasoline, plastic explosives. Paul says the  same thing about the trip we are taking to heaven. He says there are items that should not be part of the lives, or in the luggage of a Christian believer. He gives a pretty good list:

• Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, and we are not to lie to each other.

He says these are part of our OLD SELF and that they should be replaced with NEW SELF. Jesus has invited a large and varied group of people; Greek and Jew, Barbarian, Scythian (these guys make barbarians look like Sunday school teachers), slaves and free also. The only condition is that they have given up the OLD SELF and put on the NEW SELF. Paul says Christ is ALL, and that Christ is in ALL. That means if it cannot be found in the mind or heart of Christ it should not be in your mind or heart.

We have been invited to a wedding. Everything we do should be done with that in mind. We need to make sure that we are ready to fly whenever it is our time. You will not get to take stuff out of your luggage at the last minute. Either you are ready to go or you will miss the opportunity to discover that heaven is everything you think it is going to be and so much more. We are now traveling toward the location of that wedding, and at times it can be scary. But we should always remember that we are connected to Jesus and because of that we are CONNECTED to HEAVEN.

Video message in small format available for viewing here.

Connected to HEAVEN

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