To Prepare a Room
Good Morning Friends,
Recently I had lunch with an executive in the medical field and he asked me how much I thought it costs to build a hospital room. His point was that someone has to pay for it. For enlightenment he shared that today it costs about one million two hundred thousand dollars To Prepare a Room.
Scripture: Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”
John 14:2 (KJV)
I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.
Philippians 1:23-24 (NRSV)
It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— I was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.
2 Corinthians 12:1-4 (NRSV)
Message: Hospital rooms can be for many the first place and the last place our senses record the data of this earthly life. Some have told stories of near death experience and for them, even if it is just in their heads, it does not make it any less real. But I doubt it is that simple. This place of timelessness, brilliant, vibrant, ecstatic, stunning beauty at the core of our being has to be prepared by Jesus. I believe the dimensions of the reality are more complex than we can imagine and even speak of. There is however a cost. Paul writes about his trip to heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 and was ready to return there to be with Christ except for the fact he had work to do for his friends. All these visions and revelations can be reconciled with scripture but unfortunately can also be secularized into some feel good spirituality that I believe missed the mark. It is a dilemma as Paul points out. Perhaps we get a glimpse of it at the crossroads at the narrow gateway where God knows all our prayers before we utter them and then still asks us to share the desires of our heart…the demand for purity and the offer of grace. Friends, the best proof of heaven is not the near death experience of men… interesting though they are. The proof of Christ’s love is this… he suffered as a man so that we could be with God in paradise forever. Friends, the Bible begins with a garden of delight and ends in a redeemed garden of light. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Friends, maybe, just maybe
Pray we have life after life. Pray Jesus is the centerpiece of our experience of heaven. Pray we see what God has prepared for those that love. Pray we realize why Jesus was willing to die. Pray we realize that he devil has also prepared a place. Pray we choose wisely. Pray that in the hour of our death we experience a living hope that indeed Jesus has prepared a place for us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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