Part One: Stress and Anxiety
Often times we think of living on this earth as just passing time before we go to heaven. Christians are notorious for holding up signs telling people to turn to Jesus or they were burn in eternal hell. I’m not saying this isn’t true, but it is certainly NOT the way to go about sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. I think a large majority of Christians simply do what they need to do to justify going to heaven. We live with the mindset of, all that matters about Christianity is getting to heaven. When we stop sinning we don’t do it because we are hurting our relationship to Christ, we do so because we still want to go to heaven. Too often eternity is the goal we have in mind for our lives. I don’t think living for heaven and living for Jesus need to be separate, but when we focus on heaven as much as we do, we separate them. I wonder what a generation of Christians who desire first to love Christ with their lives, would look like?
Francis Chan says that our question quickly becomes:
“Can I go to heaven without truly and faithfully loving Jesus?”
I love the way John Piper puts all this into perspective…
“The critical question for our generation-and for every generation-is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?“
Pingback: Looking Someone in the Eyes | Visual Coma()