In Light of Eternity

"I didn't write this book so I could tell you about something really great that awaits you thrity, forty, fifty years down the road, or however long you have left on earth. I wanted to write this book so I could share with you the greatest experience I've ever had, an experience so much better, and so far beyond anything that has ever happened to me, that I can still can't believe I'm living it. Yes I look forward to going to Heaven someday. To see Jesus face to face after loving him from afar for so long is going to be awesome. But let me tell you, beacause of the experience I am having with God right now, in a very real sense, my heaven is now. And I'm not alone." --Stephen Baldwin, The Unusual Suspect

I am enjoying Baldwin's book, its honest and raw and real. Its not necessarily a book that will change my life but it will change someone's. And he has been there, done that...all that. And to hear him say God is the only thing that brings him peace and joy, that's beautiful. His chapter on Heaven is quite good--he challenges us to live in light of eternity. To not live like eternity begins when we die, but it began when we accepted Christ. He placed heaven in our hearts. Already and not yet.

Our soul is eternal, our bodies are not. We have to wait for heaven for them to be glorified and redeemed. Likewise, the Kingdom of God is eternal, it is in our hearts, our souls, yet it is not in earth. This world waits and groans for it, it waits to be glorified--it awaits the coming Kingdom of God. Yet for us believers who have eternity in our hearts we know we can live like it is here, we can live it out. Already and not yet. Eternity is here in our hearts and we can live radically different in light of that knowledge, yet this world is decaying and so we cannot fully experience heaven. But if you have eternity in your hearts, live it.