1 Heaven: Living with Eternity in Mind
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4 What are the goals for this class?To provide a class to celebrate and focus on our eternal home To supply an introductory non-technical overview of the Biblical view of Heaven To encourage and excite participants to further explore the Biblical teaching of Heaven To enjoy the freedom to ask questions about Heaven and to recognize the Biblical parameters of our answers To understand how Heaven speaks to the spiritual hunger of the unbeliever and the spiritual longing of the believer
5 What are the goals for this class?To emphasize how the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the centrality to our understanding of Heaven To comprehend how eternal rewards plays an important role in the life of the believer To value how a Biblical understanding of Heaven gives solid hope in our daily lives To give solid information about Heaven to comfort and encourage families, children and ourselves To help the believer develop a framework for an eternal perspective of life
6 What we are not covering
7 "It may be said with certainty that Christians who have lost their enthusiasm about the Savior’s promise of Heaven have also stopped being effective in their Christian life and witness in this world.” A.W. Tozer
8 Heaven: Living with Eternity in MindLesson #1 The Awe and Wonders of Heaven
9 Introductory QuestionsWhat comes to your mind when you think about heaven? How can a topic that is so important be ignored by so many Christians?
10 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Colossians 3:2
11 Why Should We Study Heaven?For combating our Eclipse of Heaven 2. For preparing for a Grand Adventure 3. For developing a life of awe and wonder
12 1. Combating our Eclipse of HeavenWhat are the causes of our heaven eclipse? Our distortions of the true nature of Heaven The lure and glitter of earth-side stuff The Philosophic and Cultural milieu
13 We are partly “Heaven-blind” because the worldview our culture has adopted has made it hard to see supernatural colors.” Daniel Brown
14 2. Preparing for a Grand AdventureTravel plans Mode of transportation Luggage Money Accommodations on the other end Tickets Departure Time Place of Scenery Place of New Changes Place of New Bodies Place of People Place of Activity Place of Rewards
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16 We were made for a person.That being God. We are made for a place. That being Heaven.
17 3. Developing a life of awe and wonderNow let me be clear: experiencing the wonder of God isn’t about landing a crazy story to tell our friends or experiencing pimply goose bumps. The wonder awakens us to dive even deeper in our relationship with God. That’s why I define the wonder of God as the following
18 3. Developing a life of awe and wonderThe Wonder of God: A moment of spiritual awakening that makes us curious to know God more. Reflecting on this definition, when was the last time you encountered the wonder of God?
19 A comment from a friend Today, in a universe billions of light years across, in one solar system among billions of solar systems, in one galaxy among billions of galaxies, there is a planet, whose slightly elliptical orbit around its star, and that planet's moon, whose slightly angled and elliptical orbit around that planet, happen to line up and match up this moon with the star as seen from a small part of the planet because the ratio of the sizes of the moon and the star very closely matches the ratio of the distances of the moon and the star from the planet, and this rather common and frequent coincidence of motion and mathematics will cast a small shadow on that small part of that planet for a short time. And that’s it, folks!
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21 Precision of Wonder What might be the odds of this just happening randomly? Almost all the planets in our solar system have no moons or many moons (Jupiter has 60) of incredibly varying sizes. So this sort of thing doesn’t happen anywhere else in our solar system. But our planet has just one moon that happens to be just the right size and just the right distance from Earth.
22 Precision of Wonder I found the precision necessary for all of this unbelievable. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that there was no way this could be a mere coincidence. It seemed almost planned. In fact, it seemed utterly planned, as all things of such precision must be.
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25 “Deep within every human heart throbs the undying hope that somebody or something will bring a way to retain the wonder.” Ravi Zacharias Recapture the Wonder
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27 Childlike Wonder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvpCmKUo1Aw
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29 Some Scripture to begin your Wonder QuestThe Wonder of God Some Scripture to begin your Wonder Quest
30 The Silencers That Often Keep Us From Thinking about Heaven1 Cor. 2:9-10 "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him…… but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.”
31 The Silencers That Often Keep Us From Thinking about HeavenDeut. 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God… but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.”
32 Glimpse now Grasp later
33 Seeing Mt. Hood
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39 Seeing Mt. Hood
40 2 Cor. 4: 16-18
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42 Our Questions About Heaven
43 What is the importance of asking questions?
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45 Respond to the following ideas you may have heard…“We should not ask questions…you should take ideas about Heaven by faith.” “We don’t need to understand hard questions about life (or Heaven); everything will be answered in Heaven.” “There is no purpose in seeking answers about these issues because faith and reason are contrary to each other.”
46 Questions are Welcomed Here!
47 Preliminary Questions
48 What questions do you remember that motivated you to grow?What are the provoking questions that helped you in your life? What questions do you remember that motivated you to grow?
49 The Believers Faith CircleI believe Growth and strength in faith Implications Problem or questions Resolution Struggle
50 about Heaven
51 Selected Scripture to begin your own inductive Bible Study
52 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynrSBD8t_dc
53 Recommended Reading Heaven by Randy AlcornWonder Struck by Margaret Feinberg The Wonder of Heaven by Ron Rhodes Recapture the Wonder by Ravi Zacharias The Eclipse of Heaven by A. J. Conyers
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55 Start an ongoing discussion about Heaven with your family and friends by doing the following....1. Ask a child, “What comes to your mind when you think about Heaven?” 2. What questions do you and your families have about Heaven? 3. Use the opening questions in this study to discuss the issue of afterlife with a friend. 4. Start an inductive Bible study of the Scripture on Heaven 5. Jot down some questions for our question box. 6. Start a prayer list of people concerning their eternal salvation.
56 What are some unbiblical “mythconceptions” of heaven?Where do people get their information? How do we get the “right scoop”?
57 Heaven: Living with Eternity in MindLesson #1 The Awe and Wonders of Heaven