We Can Only Imagine -- Seeing Jesus Face to Face!

This is the Reverend Dr. Glenn Wilson of the Burt and Woden Iowa Presbyterian Churches.  This week we are talking about that miracle awaiting every believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – the place we call heaven.  And we get to heaven by the grace of the Lord Jesus and having faith in Him.

One of our most beloved hymns, my ministry installation and ordination hymn, puts it this way:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

That says it all. If you want to go to heaven, you must base your hope on the solid rock of Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Are you standing on the Rock this morning? Are you wholly leaning on Jesus’ name?

No one goes to heaven by accident. Heaven is God’s prepared place for prepared people. We prepare for heaven and then God prepares heaven for us. I’ve already told you that most people believe in heaven and most people think they are going there. But are they on the right road? Are they building their lives on Jesus Christ-the solid rock? Too many, I fear, are standing on sinking sand and do not know it.

What is your hope for heaven? Mine is Jesus Christ. I’ve staked everything I have on him. If he can’t take me to heaven, then I’m not going there. What about you? When the dark night falls, the lights go out, and the waters of death swirl around you, what will happen to you then? If you know Jesus, you have nothing to fear. Put your trust in Jesus. Run to the Cross. Stand with your full weight on the Solid Rock of our salvation. May God help you to trust in Jesus Christ and him alone for your salvation. And may God grant that we will all meet one day in heaven.

What is heaven? It is our one true home. It is our eternal destiny in Christ. It is being in Christ. It is being like Christ. It is a destiny that our lives here and now are preparing us for.


A woman was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The doctors told her that she had three months to live. She called her pastor and said, 'Please come over. I want to put things in order.' He came over, and they sat down and they planned her funeral. She tidied up all of the loose ends. He promised her that he would make sure that all of her wishes were carried out.


Everything was now in order, and he got up to leave. She stopped him before he walked out the door and she said, "I forgot. Two more things that are very important. When I am buried, I want to be buried with my favorite Bible in the casket with me." The pastor said, "No problem."


And then she said, "The second thing, is also very important. I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand." The pastor was kind of stunned. He did not know what to say. And then she said, "All my life I have gone to so many church potluck suppers; and when the main course was over and they came to clear the table, inevitably someone would lean over and say to me, 'Keep your fork.' She said, "That was my favorite part of the meal. I knew there was something better coming. It might be a velvety chocolate cake, it might be a deep dish apple pie. I knew it would be wonderful, and that it would be of substance."


And she said, "I want to be laid out in my casket at the viewing with a fork in my right hand, because I want people to come by and look and wonder, 'What is with the fork?' And then pastor, you will have the opportunity to tell them, "Keep your fork because the best is yet to come."


And sure enough, she was laid out in the casket with her best dress, her favorite Bible, and a fork in her right hand. At the viewing people came by. The pastor overheard countless of them asking the question, 'What's with the fork?' And then at the funeral he was able to preach, 'Keep your fork. The best is yet to come.'


The next time you eat and you pick up that fork, may it be an oh so gentle reminder to you, that in Christ, with Christ, like Christ, the best is yet to come. That is what heaven is all about.


May the Lord give us a healthy appreciation of the beauty and wonder of this broken world, with its glimpses of the life to come. May we pour ourselves out, living for Jesus; binding up the wounds of those who are hurting, ministering to the poor. But also may we be so fueled by the reality that this is not the last word. This is not our true home. We are here to do what we can. But our destiny is eternal life with Jesus.  This has been Pastor Glenn Wilson of the Burt and Woden Presbyterian churches. Have a Jesus filled weekend!