For What Are You Preparing Yourself? 5

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; (Psalms 24:1—NIV)

The evangelists have informed us there is absolutely nothing we have to do to prepare ourselves to go to Heaven, to enter our land of promise. Jesus did it all for us. All we have to do is accept the gift of salvation. How wonderful! It's like someone giving you a grand piano and also the ability to play Beethoven sonatas. What could be more exciting than that for a musically inclined individual who has only mastered chopsticks? And our hands may be large enough to stretch three octaves and never get tired. Now we can play the Appassionata as Beethoven meant it to sound.

There you have it—glory upon glory facing you, an any-moment "rapture" to look forward to and no painful preparation needed. This thought is especially pleasing to Americans who desire to be totally healthy with excellent muscle tone and yet eat all they please and never exercise.

As for going through a tribulation, forget it! God loves us too much to permit us to suffer. We are going to go to Heaven on flowery beds of ease in spite of the old hymn. The saints of old may have had to sail through bloody seas but ours is a new day. We can have our cake and eat it too.

Take the four steps of salvation, jump up and down next to your pew so you will have a head start and get there before the other believers. This way you can pick out a better mansion.

I heard a preacher explain that since the Lord made heaven and earth in six days we can only imagine the kind of mansion we will have now that God has been building them for six thousand years! Just think of it! Aren't you just dying to see what your new house will look like?

Now we will consider an almost totally different viewpoint concerning the land of promise of the Christian—that our inheritance is the earth, with Heaven being thrown in for good measure.

Whenever we teach that the earth is our land of promise people think we are members of Jehovah's Witnesses. We certainly have no bad feelings toward Jehovah's Witnesses but we do not happen to belong to this particular group.

There are at least two significant problems with the first viewpoint, from my own point of view. The first is, since I am an anxious, goal-driven, time-urgent, Type-A, busy individual I would find it difficult to do nothing but rest for eternity. If I ended up in the place described above I would wonder if I had missed God or got off on the wrong exit.

In fact, our family doctor said it was useless to talk to me about going on a vacation because it would present just another problem to me, something to worry about until it was concluded. We have had this particular doctor for many years and he is extremely insightful. He said I would have to learn how to rest while I am working. I am trying desperately to rest while I am working.

To be continued. For What Are You Preparing Yourself? 6