Heaven is a freedom from all evil both of sin and suffering, so that a name in heaven entitles us to a blessed redemption from all evil. There is no sin there. Grace weakens sin, but it is glory that abolishes it. Old Adam shall there be put off, never be put on again. The Lord Christ will present His church in that day, "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). There is no affliction there. Sin and sorrow came in together, and they shall go out together.
The saints in heaven shall be like the angels in their alacrity, love, and constancy to serve God; and the damned, like the devils in sin as well as punishment.
You may go to heaven without health, without wealth, without honor, without pleasure, without friends, without learning, but you can never go to heaven without Christ.
Heaven is a state of perfect holiness and of a continual love and praise to God, and the wicked have no heart to this. The imperfect love and praise and holiness which are here to be attained they have no mind of, much less of that which is so much greater. The joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that the heart of the wicked cannot desire them.
Make God your choice and not your necessity, and labor to maintain such constant converse with Him that when you die, you may change your place only but not your company.
By chastisement man is made more attentive unto God. In prosperity the world makes such a noise in a man's ears that God cannot be heard. "He speaks indeed once and twice" again and again very often, "yet man perceives it not." He is so busy in the crowd of worldly affairs that God is not heeded.
O what a blessed day that will be when I shall . . . stand on the shore and look back on the raging seas I have safely passed; when I shall review my pains and sorrows, my fears and tears, and possess the glory which was the end of all!
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—
is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the
friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and
all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties
you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no
human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with
heaven, if Christ were not there?
Since in Heaven we'll finally experience life at its best, it would be more accurate to call our present existence the beforelife rather than to call what follows the afterlife.
Earth is a in-between world touched by both Heaven and Hell. Earth leads directly into Heaven or directly into Hell, affording a choice between the two. The best of life on Earth is a glimpse of Heaven; the worst of life is a glimpse of Hell.
For the Christian, death is not the end of adventure but a doorway from a wold where dreams and adventures shrink, to a world where dreams and adventures forever expand.
The most tragic strain in human existence lies in the fact that the pleasure which we find in the things of this life, however good that pleasure may be in itself, is always taken away from us. The things for which men strive hardly ever turn out to be as satisfying as they expected, and in the rare cases in which they do, sooner or later they are snatched away.... For the Christians, all those partial, broken and fleeting perfections which he glimpses in the world around him, which wither in his grasp and he snatches away from him even while the wither, are found again, perfect, complete and lasting in the absolute beauty of God.
Nothing is more often misdiagnosed than our homesickness for Heaven. We think that what we want is sex, drugs, alcohol, a new job, a raise, a doctorate, a spouse, a large-screen television, a new car, a cabin in the woods, a condo in Hawaii. What we really want is the person we were made for, Jesus, and the place we were made for, Heaven. Nothing less can satisfy us.
The best of life on Earth is a glimpse of Heaven; the worst of life is a glimpse of Hell. For Christians, this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to Heaven.
When I get to heaven, I shall see three wonders there; the first will be to see many people there that I did not expect to see; the second, to miss many that I did expect to see; and the third, and greatest wonder of all, will be to find myself there.
Prosise, Ron. Preaching Illustrations from Church History (Kindle Locations 1922-1924). Kindle Edition.