Pastoral Pings ~ The Here-and-Now and the There-and-Then

          Revelation is making one thing very clear: we get our hope for handling the here-and-now issues of life by fixing our eyes up in heaven on what God promises to do in the there-and-then of his plans and purposes.

          One of the things I have been considering is how the pictures of Revelation 4 are intended to comfort and encourage the persecuted church. Along with realizing that pictures are much easier to remember than words when going through distressing circumstances, there is also the aspect of the pictures in heaven contradicting the pictures on earth. What the eyes of faith see up in heaven is far different than what the eyes of flesh see here below.

          Here are a couple of Scriptures that expanded on the hope that shines from the book of Revelation:

¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.[1]

          In the present time, here on earth, the church is “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit”. His presence is “the guarantee” of something that we cannot have at this time, but is ours nonetheless. There is an “inheritance” that is “ours”. The very nature of an inheritance is that it is absolutely certain, but belongs to a later time. So, we endure whatever troubles and hardships that presently show us to be just as “despised and rejected” as our Savior,[2] knowing that we are the children of the heavenly Father who is holding for us an inheritance, and we will all be alive with him to enjoy it forever.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1)

          We who believe in Jesus Christ have already been “born again to a living hope”. We are living in that hope now. We will live in Christ forever. We also have already been given an inheritance, one that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading”. Everything on earth will perish, is contaminated by sin, and subject to the second law of thermodynamics which states the obvious, that everything is in a process of decay (not evolutionary improvement).

          While our eyes of flesh see the deterioration of all things, and the world going from bad to worse,[3] our eyes of faith see that there is an inheritance that is “kept in heaven” for all God’s children. It is that inheritance, guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, that keeps us “strong, firm and steadfast”[4] no matter what the world does to God’s people. There is coming a day when our Father will “do to them”, so to speak, while we are ushered away to enjoy our eternal inheritance.

          From my heart,

          Monte

 

© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] Ephesians 1

[2] Isaiah 53:3

[3] “¹² Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³ while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (II Timothy 3)

[4] “¹⁰ And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (I Peter 5)