I like to think about what I call my lovely wife’s and mine adventures in heaven, more specifically throughout eternity, but my mind can only see so far. I will not expound on all of them here, they are ours, and even though I realize the truth of 1st Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” I still enjoy those moments of letting my heart’s imagination follow that trial at times.
But my mind cannot wrap itself around “forever,” eternally aware, eternally cognizant, eternally alive.
Maybe a few thousand years, but not twelve trillion, much less a number beyond that.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:3)
Always in the presence of God Almighty, always in the company of Christ, of all those who have called upon Him for the salvation of their souls. Perhaps it is why Psalm 16:11 is so precious to me. “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Not only the path I am to take in this life, but every path that He will place me on throughout time without end.
My friends, our God is too big for our imaginations, we cannot even begin to realize all that lays before us. We have been shown what will happen for the next thousand years or so, depending on the day of the Rapture, beyond that we do not have a clue.
But we will.
How time moves in eternity we cannot say, our relationship to it is cemented into three known structures, past, present and future, but all we have is right here, right now. Perhaps heaven is similar to a continuous now, no one here on earth can say, and I will not waste time on conjectures, but I can believe with much assurance and tell you what hell is like in this respect.
Sameness, complete and total repetition without any semblance of change.
In the Lake of Fire there is repetition, burning, thirst and hopelessness.
That’s it.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.” (Matt. 23:14)
I do not presuppose to understand these words of our Savior, a hotter fire, a greater thirst, I do not know, but I do believe that I speak truth when I say that what those who are there will experience will never be altered and will never change. While we will know pleasures forevermore, they will know pain forever without end. While we are experiencing the fullness of joy for all time, they will know a hopelessness that no man living, perhaps not even those in hell today, can begin to realize.
But if you have been born-again you should at times try to.
I know of no better way to reveal to us the need to reach out to the lost, to place within us a burning desire to speak of the love of Christ to them, than envisioning ourselves in that place of ultimate pain and despair. It should drive us to our knees, pleading with our Father in heaven to give us a heart that would desire to speak of His wonders with great boldness. For that place is real, just as real and eternal as where we are going.
It takes your mind off the Rapture, it takes your thoughts off your own pain and suffering, it removes from you those temporary thoughts of your own temporary trials and tribulations. It teaches you to love your neighbor.
Those imaginations of eternal suffering should make your heart, your very soul praise the name of the Living God even greater, for He has chosen you, you will live forever in a bliss that we cannot comprehend.
Not all will listen and few will hear, that is not our main concern, Christ is, and He has commanded us to, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)