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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.                                --John 14:3 When a Christian dies, we shouldn’t say they’re gone, because the fact is they aren’t gone. They’re just out of our sight for a while. Although we, of course, grieve, there should be little sadness when a believer goes to be with the Lord because that person is more alive than ever! Think about it. When we get to heaven, we will lose all of our limitations. Here on earth, we are limited by many things, including our bodies, but in heaven we will praise God with no limitations or constraints. Can you imagine doing the thing you love the most all the time, without end or limitation? That’s exactly what heaven is all about. We’re not just going to sit on a cloud and be served by angels in heaven; we are going to be actively praising and serving God. Heaven is a move from limitations to freedom, from questions to answers, and from tents (our aging bodies) to mansions! Everything on earth will all make sense in heaven. We will get to spend eternity in God’s presence. So what is there to be sad about? The great evangelist Dwight L. Moody said on the day he drew his last breath, “This is my coronation day!” My friend, we can live today with excitement because our coronation day is coming, too. As a believer, Jesus has prepared a place for you in heaven!

Making it Count

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”
Philippians 2:14–16

People get paid on all different schedules. Some people get a check once a week, while others get paid every two weeks. Some companies pay twice a month, and a few pay just once a month. Then there are people who are paid on commission on an irregular basis. But all of these people have something in common—they all expect to get paid. Very few people would go through the daily grind of getting up, getting dressed, going to work, and laboring through day after day if there were nothing to be gained by doing so.
We take for granted that there will be value in the money we receive in exchange for our work. (If your boss started paying you in Monopoly money, how long would you continue to work?) We recognize that it would be foolish to trade a large portion of our lives for something that has no meaning or value when it comes to work. Yet when it comes to our priorities, do we remember that lesson?
Paul was greatly concerned that what he did counted for something in the end. He recognized the temporal nature of this world and the permanent nature of the next, and he didn’t want to end his life with a huge pile of “Monopoly money” that didn’t have any real meaning or significance. All of us have different talents and abilities, but we each have the same amount of time each day. The difference between a meaningful life and a wasted one is how we choose to invest it.
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

If you devote your life to things that are eternal, your life will not be lived in vain.