Heaven

Most of the blogs I read I have subscribed to through bloglines. One such blog, "Pure Church," I forget how I heard of it or how I subscribed, but I would occasionally read inside the bloglines window and rarely went to the actual site. Today I went to the site and to my surprise discovered that it is by the same guy who preached this Sunday at CLC. His name is Thabiti Anyabwile and he is a pastor at Mark Dever's church. He brought a very encouraging message on Ephesians 2 about our lost state and God's mercy. I would highly encourage anyone who hasn't heard it to go to the CLC website and listen to it.

Thabiti had on his blog today a post from Thomas Kempis that I absolutely loved that states: "I had rather be poor for Thy sake, than rich without Thee. I choose rather to be a pilgrim upon the earth with Thee than without Thee to possess heaven. Where Thou art, there is heaven; and where Thou are not, behold there death and hell." That reminds me of one of my favorite Jonathan Edwards sermons, "God, the best portion of the Christian." Something I have to fight for everyday is the unsurpassing greatness of the cross and how great it will be to see and know my Savior in Heaven. Everything else is loss compared to the hope of being with Him one day.

It's interesting, I used to have a countdown going to our wedding day. People would ask me when it was and I would tell them exactly how many days. Being the sinner that I am, I soon realized that I was placing my hope in that instead of the love of God that been poured out into my heart (Romans 5:5). My prayer is that the state that I desire most wouldn't be the institution of marriage, parenthood or financial freedom but that my desire I will live my life for the sake of Christ alone with the hope of praising Him in Heaven when my pilgrmage finally leads me home.

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee (Psalm 73:25).