Article 7
By Steve J. Hogan
On this earth most of us don’t think about heaven like we should; but we need to think about it because it is our future. We are on this earth for only a few short years, and then we are in heaven, and on earth, for all eternity, forever and ever and ever. Heaven, and heaven on earth, is our future, and it is our hope, and it is what we should be hoping for and looking forward to and praying about.
Heaven is what we need to think about when our loved ones in the Lord pass away, for we know they are in the best place possible, with God and Jesus Christ and others who have gone before them. We know that they are completely free from sin and sadness, that they have no more pain, sorrow or troubles. We know they are exceedingly happy and joyful, and always at peace. We know they are perfectly praising the Lord, loving Him all the time, and that they are wonderfully enjoying the fellowship and love of other believers.
But for us still on earth, this is our hope, and speaks of that time when we will see God and Jesus Christ on Their thrones, when They will be glorified, when we will glorify Them, serve Them, and love Them. Not only that but we will be enjoying the pleasures of God and of heaven forever and ever. I encourage you to go over these verses, to pray about them, to think about them, and to be excited about the great future that God has for each one of us. From this earth we will soon go to heaven to be with our Lord and Savior, and our King and Friend.
Numbers 20:24 – “Aaron will be gathered to his people.”
Psalm 16:11 – “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
Psalm 23:6 – “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 73:24-26 – “You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 84:1, 2, 4, 10 – “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my flesh and my heart cry out for the living God… Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you…Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.”
Psalm 86:11 – “Great is your love toward me, for you have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave.”
Psalm 116:15 – “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
Job 14:5 – “Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months, and have set limits that he cannot exceed.”
Job 19:25-27 – “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes.”
Isaiah 57:1-2 – “The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.”
Luke 23:43 – “He said to her, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise.’ ”
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 5:24 – “He who hears My words and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
John 11:25-26 – “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even if he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ”
John 17:24 – “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given me, be with Me where I am, so they may see My glory which you have given Me, for you loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
John 14:2-3 – “In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may also be.”
2 Corinthians 4:17 – “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.”
Romans 8:18, 23 – “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us… Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Romans 8:29 – “Those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 – “So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”
1 Corinthians 15:53-54 – “The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ”
2 Corinthians 5:1, 8 – “If this earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands…. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
Ephesians 2:6-7 – “God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness in Christ.”
Philippians 1:21 – “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”
Colossians 1:3 – “We give thanks to God for you…praying always for you… because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”
Colossians 3:4 – “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
Philippians 3:20 – “Our citizenship is in heaven. We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 – “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 – “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
2 Timothy 4:7 – “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have loved His appearing.”
2 Timothy 4:18 – “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom.”
Hebrews 11:10, 16 – “He was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God… But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
Hebrews 12:22 – “You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the city of the living God. You have come to thousands and thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.”
1 Peter 1:3-4 – “In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.”
1 John 3:3 – “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known to us. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
Jude 24-25 – “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Christ our Lord.”
Revelation 4:2 – “Behold a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance…. Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder… And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they exited and were created.’ ”
Revelation 5:13 – “Every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.’ ”
Revelation 7:15 – “They serve Him day and night in His temple…Never again will they hunger or thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 20:6 – “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.”
Revelation 21:3-7 – “The dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be His God, and he will be my son.”
Revelation 21:10-12 – “He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone of crystal clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and the at the gates twelve angels.”
Revelation 21:22 – “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.”
Revelation 22:12 – “Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”