The world we live in is radically different from heaven.  The world, although made perfectly by God, has been polluted by sin, and is now inhabited by morally corrupt human beings who naturally resist God’s authority and contribute to their own and the world’s ongoing corruption.  Heaven is the Bible’s word for God’s dwelling where everything is perfect and holy and pure and right (Psalm 123:1).

Jesus was about to go from earth to heaven, leaving His disciples behind to become the ‘heaven-sent’ apostles who would lead the church and evangelise the world.  It would be tough for them (John 15:18-25), but Jesus wanted them to be assured of the same hope that He had – that one day they too would be with the Father in heaven (John 14:3).  That hope was not only a motivation to continue announcing Jesus despite persecution, but a source of joy because they realised that nothing (not even death) could separate them from His love and from reaching His home (Romans 8:35-39).

The people who belong to earth and those who belong to heaven are identified now by whether or not they honour, and desire to obey, God’s Word.  Those who belong to heaven love God’s Word (John 14:23); but those who belong to the world, and whose destination is hell, hate what God says (John 14:24).  They also hate those who belong to heaven.  So, it is people’s reaction to the Word of God that separates those who belong to heaven and those who belong to the world.

We think of our ‘roots’ as the place we have come from.  But spiritually, once we have received Jesus, we belong to the place He has come from and where He is going to (John 3:13); and we know we are going there too (John 14:3).  Of course, being born into the world, we all naturally resist God’s Word; but as we hear it and learn to love Jesus, we change our real home for ever.  That is why God’s Word has eternal importance.  It is the key to eternity with God, revealing how to be made clean from all sin and become a child of God with an inheritance in heaven.  Let your friends and colleagues know the truth.  Perhaps watch www.crosscheck.org.uk with them and answer their questions.