Heaven's Door

Someone is knocking at the door.  I don’t know about you, but if somebody knocks at my door, I want to know who it is and what they want.   I don’t, however, want to take the chance of it being a Jehovah Witness, or a salesperson, or a particular neighbor.  So what I do is carefully peek out a window first to see who it is.  Am I alone in this?

From the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem

Allow me to peek out the window for you and tell you who is knocking at your door AND what they want.   If you feel an emptiness in your life, I can tell you what it is.  It is Jesus knocking on your heart’s door.  Jesus says, Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, andwill sup with him, and he with me.”  Open the door.  Jesus will come into your heart and replace the emptiness with love, joy, and peace.  You will be forever satisfied.  Jesus wants YOU to be able to live with him in Heaven forever.  That’s who is knocking and that is what he wants.

If Jesus is already in your life, perhaps you’ve locked him out of some areas, and he’s knocking there.  Once you let Jesus in, allow him into all rooms of your house, not just the foyer.  It is then that the real adventure begins.  It is then that deep satisfaction never leaves.  It is then, that Heaven becomes a reality here on earth.

I have a fascination with doors.  I collect them – pictures, posters, paintings.  There is a room in my home that I actually call The Door Room because the walls are covered with them.  The door headboard, my son made me from a dumpster rescued door, is in the other bedroom.  Doors represent opportunity, hope, adventure.  Think of the common saying, “If one door closes, another one opens.”  Or the Let’s Make a Deal game show.  The excitement in finding out what is behind Door #1, #2, #3.   That’s the excitement that I feel about Heaven’s Door.   I wonder what’s on the other side.  I visualize myself opening it and stepping through.   It’s exciting.  

Jesus taught that thinking on the things of Heaven would make our life easier now.   John 14: 1-6 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me. 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.   And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”  He’ll come get us!  Don’t you like it when someone else drives and you don’t have to navigate at all.  Jesus is doing that for us.

He WANTS us to think about Heaven.   He knows that it will ease our troubled hearts. 

What does your picture of Heaven look like?  Have you thought about it?

God gave me a curiosity about Heaven, so I began to research.  I searched scripture and read books of people with near death experiences and others who had been taken up like the apostle John.  You may think that you cannot know what’s on the other side because the door is still closed, but God HAS provided a peep hole.

Heaven is referred to in scripture more than you think.  

• Pearly gates, streets of gold
• In my father’s house are many mansions,  I go to prepare a place for you
• River of life, tree of life, lamb’s book of life
• Robe of righteousness, crown of jewels
• The lion will lay down with the lamb, The lion will eat straw like the ox
• A new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem
• Choirs of angels

In my readings, I have found some common threads among people with near death experiences or “taken up” experiences like the apostle John. We will have recognizable bodies....perfect bodies, but recognizable as ourselves, but they will have the glory of God on them.  When Jesus walked the earth after resurrection, he told us that WE would have bodies like His then.  There is no sickness, disease, decay or infirmities of any kind in Heaven.  There are children in Heaven who play with Jesus and with animals, and are schooled by angels in the ways of God.  We eat fruit from the Tree of Life to renew our energies.  If we drip the juice on our robe, there is no stain.  Nice! When we leave earth through death, we are escorted to Heaven by an angel and immediately taken to the River of Life where the ways of earth are washed away from us and our bodies begin their transformation.  When we step out of the water, we are dry. We wear gleaming white robes which magnify the beautiful colors of nature – colors human eyes can’t see.  We will see friends and family and people from other eras and times that we have only heard about – Abraham, Jonah, Mother Theresa.

WHAT WILL THE SURROUNDINGS BE:  There will be flowers of kinds and colors we’ve never seen – technicolor.  There will be no wilted ones as there is no death.  If they are stepped on, they will pop back up.  Fruit trees are no different.  They will be full of fruit with none on the ground underneath.   All things have been resurrected including nature and time.  Animals and birds are everywhere and play with the children. The streets really are made of gold – shiny gold like a gold bar – and the curbs are gold as well.  The gates of heaven are made of ONE big pearl with a door carved into it.  Our mansions are made of marble, stone, jewels, and inlaid wood with wide verandas and personalized touches.  God’s resources are unlimited and beyond our imaginings.  He knows the longings of our heart and provides them for us in Heaven.

WHAT WILL WE SPEND OUR TIME DOING: There will books in heaven, and all forms of the arts, music, singing, dancing, celestial skills and tools with unlimited resources, and we will train others in the ways of Heaven, visit friends, and, of course, praise and worship God along with the angels and even plants swaying in praise.

REWARDS INTENDED FOR US WHILE WE WERE ON EARTH ARE STORED IN STOREHOUSES  - AND THEY ARE FULL:  body parts, blessings and riches of all kinds  - GOD WANTS THEM EMPTY...He wants to give them all to us!

ANGELS:  God’s helpers.  There are numerous and varied.  Some are messengers, some keep the record books, some are warriors.  They all sing and praise God along with us and on their own.   Angels are never humans, humans are never angels.

BABIES:  God tends the babies personally, including the aborted ones.

JESUS LOVES US:  Foremost, Jesus wants us to know how much He loves us.  He died for us, and His blood washes away our sins….literally.   One depiction showed that when a person accepts Christ as their savior, an angel goes to a record room and takes down the Life Book for that person, he then dips a cloth in Christ’s blood, and wipes clean each page of sins, erasing each page with the blood until the book is completely blank.  Our sins are literally washed away by the blood of Christ!  Christ grieves that His worst day has not yet happened.  It wasn’t leaving His Father to come to earth.  It wasn’t dying on the cross or the 3 days before he arose.  His worst day will be the day when He can wait no longer, when He cannot give us any more time, when the lost will forever remain lost  – THAT will be His worst day.  The door will be locked!

 Heaven is wonderful place!  Look forward to it.  It will be more exciting and more full of adventures than anything on earth.  Don't miss out!  Ask Christ to come into your heart today.