Heavenly Home: Where is your Treasure?

My voice trembled and my eyes began to water. I was giving my dad's eulogy. "So, dad, thanks for all the memories. Also, thank you for showing us the love of Jesus through your simple acts of kindness and a lifetime of serving family, friends and community with all of your heart. I would like to leave you with this verse: Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” My dad was the richest man that I know.

Funny thing happened. After I read the eulogy, my sister-in-law Sue told me that her son John German (Jack's grandson) tattooed the same verse onto his calf. What are the chances of that happening? Do you think that God was telling everyone that day that it's really important that the treasures in our heart should be heavenly ones! It’s not just a place in heaven. “Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” It all starts here on earth. Its called the Kingdom of God. A place where we find our true happiness! Its our home. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to start building your heavenly home.

Heavenly home

For me, when I think of going home, it takes me right back to my house on Wies Street. The people there helped shape my life as I grew up. Their kindness and love gave made it a wonderful place, and if heaven is anything like that, I can only imagine what Heaven will be like. My home there will be a mansion where Jesus has prepared a place for me. Just think heaven will be my home for eternity! It’s what I call my Happy Place!

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you" John 14:1-2

Things Above

I once heard that our eternal perspective affects our earthly priorities. Colossians 3:2 tell us, “Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.” One of my greatest challenges is maintaining an eternal perspective. At age 63, I have realized that life goes by so quickly. And yet I get caught up in the day-to-day tasks and forget that I'm not promised tomorrow. James 4:14 refers to the human life as a vapor: it appears for a while and then vanishes. Perhaps if I remembered this truth, I would have an easier time understanding my purpose on Earth. Life isn’t about accumulating money, power, or fame. Or to prove to everyone that I'm always right. Life’s about a partnership with a Savior that has a purpose for our lives. A liberator who frees us by grace. A leader who serves by example. A Lord that governs with compassion. And Immanuel, a God who is always with us.

So with all my aches and pains over the years, I'm banking that my pain and suffering here on Earth is momentary. 2 Corinthians 4:17 tells us, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." In other words, the things I experience here on Earth are shaping me and preparing me for eternal life. Remember, you’re not taking your house, car nor clothes to heaven; you’re not taking your career to heaven. But you are taking your character. You’re taking you!

Created for Eternity

As Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “[God] has also put eternity in their hearts.” It’s hard to believe that I was born with eternity in my heart. My biggest challenge is to learn to live for eternal purposes. So, what is this eternal perspective? God’s way - His thoughts that are higher than ours? An eternal perspective affects our priorities and actions. As my life goes, God is making it easier for me to love others. Every soul is eternal, and each is in desperate need of knowing God and his mercy. When this is at the forefront of my mind, it helps me extend love and mercy to those around me. God commands me to not be fearful. People are afraid of many things - especially of death. But 1 John 4:18 tells us that there is no fear in love and that perfect love drives out fear. We have perfect love from our Savior. It was through his perfect act of love on the cross that sin, suffering, and death was defeated. 1 Cor. 15:55-57 He has made available to us eternal life through His son Jesus. This means we no longer have to be fearful of anything, not even death. God wants us to embrace and embody the love He has extended to us. At the end of the day, I really need to ask in what ways can I reflect on God’s eternal truths today? How will it change how I think and act? “Remember, though heaven and earth pass away, God’s truth will never disappear.” Matt. 24:35

God is Truth and Mercy

If I’m going to reflect Gods truth I will need to examine how I think and act, it's never an easy process. First I need to rely on Jesus through His Holy Spirit to talk to me through His daily word, that I know the truth not only in His word but with myself. I need to confess my own sin before I point out other peoples’ sin so that I can see things more clearly. I need to surrender my secrets to Him. To be transparent. As He said, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5 The second part of the examination process is to look at mercy. I need to understand how I can show it as I'm judging other people. There a tension between mercy and personal responsibility for me. But I have personally decided that if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on the side of being too gracious, too merciful, and too forgiving. I’d rather go overboard on mercy—just look at what Jesus did on the cross. So, how will I be merciful? How can I help anyone around me who is hurting. I need to be patient with people’s quirks. How can I practice patience with a difficult person this week giving people a second, third and even a fourth chance? How can I do good to those who hurt me? Also, I have to be kind to those who offend. I to be intentional about showing kindness to that person this week that totally annoys me by valuing relationships over rules just as Jesus did.

Treasures in Heaven

Just think someday I'll be living in a mansion with treasures beyond my wildest dreams and all I need to do is to store them up while I'm here on Earth. If I live here like I’m already in heaven. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I guess I might have to figure out what to store up. Instead of living for six digits, job status, houses, cars, vacations, comfort, security, power or fame, I should be living for the next level of giving - helping the poor, widows, orphans and sharing the story of Jesus as one of His devoted disciples! In other words, our priorities should be set on simplification for the kingdom of God, not accumulation for our own earthly kingdom! I just can't wait for the day to go home to see and to be with my Lord and Savior Jesus in all His glory!

Bema Seat?

We all are going to kneel at the Bema Seat of judgement someday, and it will be the most glorious day of our existence. We will see what we built here on earth and receive our rewards. "Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. MSG Wow, think about it! Everything bad that we did will be burned away, and what we built will be revealed. Our rewards will be the heavenly crowns with jewels that we created here on earth. What we do in heaven for eternity will be based on what we did here. How cool is that! How we show our love for God and others - especially our enemies - is what we will be judged on. “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:27-31

Imagine that when you get to heaven, there are a hundred people standing at the entrance clapping and cheering and saying, “We’ve been waiting for you! We’re here because you spent some time and money to tell us the Good News. We’re your friends for eternity because we’re in debt to you. If it weren’t for the way you used your time and money, we wouldn’t have heard how to get to heaven.” I believe that the people that were the most difficult in my life are going to be some of the hundred people standing at the gates of heaven celebrating with me.

P.S.

If we’re going to get to heaven, we have to figure how to get there. If you’re building a car, you’re going to need not only a vision, but you also have to have written plans with specific objectives and a team of professionals to guide you to get where you want to go. That’s were building a vision board comes in. God said that “ without vision, people will perish.” My vision board of Heaven is my painting. Here is my vision of all the things on my painting.

I think it’s time to make a vision board.

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Song - Home by Chris Tomlin - Listen to song

Verse - “ Don’t store up treasures on earth! Moths and rust can destroy them, and thieves can break in and steal them. Instead, store up your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy them, and thieves cannot break in and steal them. Your heart will always be where your treasure is." Matthew 6:19-21

Video - Sermon On The Mount - Treasures In Heaven - Watch video

Paul’s website Fortuna Gift Chest -See website