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Being
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Add to FavoritesThere is something within your body that you call "me", "I", or whatever your name happens to be. It is ethereal. It owns your body. It says "This is MY arm; this is MY leg.", etc. Some will call this "ego", which is merely the Latin word for "I". We perceive this ego to be somewhere in our brains, but it is no part of our brain, for that very part of you is capabable of saying "this is MY brain", "this is MY pineal gland" or "this is MY hypothalamus".
This ethereal part of you or me is referred to by some as "soul". It is nothing more than energy, a spark, or spirit. It is the "rider" who holds the reins of the "horse" that is the body.
Some believe that when we die, we ascend to a place called "heaven" or descend to a place called "hell". They refer to that ethereal soul or spark of divinity that resides within the body, not the body of course. Everyone knows that the body is interred to the ground to rot or cremated or in some other way disposed of as useless remains.
Why is it that when this soul is attached to a body, it no longer has access to the realms that people believe it goes to when it separates from the body? We catch glimpses of "heaven" whenever the body (that part of it controlled by the conscious mind) shuts down, and we enter the realm of dreams. Heaven is no more a real physical place than the palace of dreams which everyone of enters into regularly. That is not to say that heaven isn't real, or that it's simply imagined. I am saying that it is very real, but we don't have to wait to die to go there. We can go there anytime, day or night.
For some of you, you may argue because it hasn't been taught in your religious circles or in your church. Is this supported by Biblical writings? In the New Testament, Paul writes about a man whowas "caught up in the third heaven", yet he doesn't speak of a dead man. He speaks of a man who was perhaps asleep, dreaming, or in meditation or prayer, having a vision, etc.
Some may feel that there is a difference between dreams and the heaven that we supposedly go to when we die. Perhaps there is. Perhaps there is still some veil over the inner eye of the soul that clouds the vision while under the spell of the body, even while sleeping, there is a thin thread tieing it down to the body, that creates a lesser experience of heaven? The Talmud states the sleep is 1/60th of death, teaching us that the great sleep of death is a grander experience of what we can experience while in our bodies.
Rebbe Menachem Schnersohn taught that while preparing a great feast, the cook should always sample the food so as to get a taste of what is to come. So no matter which side of the debate you are on, you can and should experience heaven right here and right now.
Learn more about this author, Larry Smart.
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Place
If Heaven is not a real place, then what a miserable prospect we have for this life!
We struggle, we suffer, we endure indignity and embarrassment at the hands of others and our own faults. This life is simply a wilderness journey that we pass though on our way to our eternal home. We're born, we grow up, living in difficulty (some in desperation) and then fall into the grave. What sort of existence is that? This life is cursed by sin.
Surely a bleak picture.
However, for those who trust and believe in God's Word, Heaven is the home of God's children.
Are all God's children? Sadly, frighteningly, No. Jesus calls some, the children of the Devil. For these, there is no hope of Heaven, only a certain looking forward to judgement.
But for believers in the true God, there is the wonderful hope and promise of Heaven.
So what is Heaven like? Has anyone been there so that we can have some idea? Jesus has. He came down from Heaven, lived on this earth with all it's miseries and brokenness and gave us a glimpse into the inexpressible wonder of Heaven.
He said "In my Father's house are many mansion . . . . I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would have told you." "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:4
Heaven is not like the TV advertisements portray; a place in the clouds, where all is white and angels in female form float about in a dreamy state.
The Bible draws a picture of a new Heaven and new Earth after this universe is rolled up like a carpet and destroyed. It will be a place like the first garden in Paradise, where Adam and Eve began their existence. There is work to do. Not work like we do now, work that has little reward and burdened with drudgery. It will be glorious work that we perform out of adoration and love for our Creator and Saviour. It will be our delight to do as our gentle Master asks. Everything we apply our labour to, will prosper. The curse of sin and its consequences has no place here.
We will rule over this new creation, because we are heirs to the Lord of lords, and King of kings. We will rule in perfect wisdom and knowledge. No more mistakes, environmental destruction or waste. Our days will be filled with joy and blessing. Our whole existence will be devoted to serving our God, not ourselves.
There will be animals too, animals recreated after losing their existence through extinction and human expansion. Imagine a place with dinosaurs, lions, bears, snakes, spiders, scorpions, lambs and rabbits, all living in harmony and peace. No more ripping, tearing of tooth and claw.
Is Heaven a state of being or a place?
For believers, it's our only home. We see it with the eye of faith and live in certain hope. If it's not a place, we are of all earthly men, most miserable. A life of resistance to sin, self-denial, prayer and self-sacrifice is not much of a life if our only hope is for this world. Here we are travellers in a foreign country.
Heaven is a real place. We're on our way.
Learn more about this author, Miles Togo.
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