Friday 30 August 2013

Background

Imagine life without gas or electricity bills. Imagine a citywith no temples, mosques, synagogues or churches. Imagine a citywith no need for security, no barriers, entry gates, or walls todivide or separate.

In this city all the riches, all artwork, music, literature,architecture and technology would be of superb quality. The leadersof nations walk with ordinary people and no wrong will ever be doneby anybody.

Unrealistic? It seems so. Where would you ever find a city likethat? Only in the Book of Revelation, it seems. Or will it reallywill be like that in heaven? Who knows? We certainly don't.

So, why would there be no fuel bills and no need of churches?The lack of buildings for worship is easily explained. If God is atthe centre of the city, there would be no need for special worshipareas. Neither is there a need for illumination for God's gloryshines over everything and Christ, the Lamb, is also known as thelight of the world (John 8:12).

But there is one tiny snag written into this ideal picture; thepeople who enter this city will only do so if their names arewritten in the Lamb's book of life. Now I learned the basic plotsof the Bard's plays by reading Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare inchildhood, but the Lamb's book of life is very different.

The Lamb, Christ himself, is depicted as having recorded thenames of all those who have been transformed by their encounterwith God and have lived according to God's laws of love, mercy andforgiveness. Is this book real, or just another image? Who knows?What we do believe is that God is a compassionate and fair judge ofour behaviour, because we know that Jesus was perceptive in hisanalysis of people and could always tell the genuine from thehypocritical.

And if we can't trust God to get the judgement right, who can wetrust?

To Ponder

• Each of us has our own picture of what heaven will be like.What is yours?

• Given that no one is perfect, what area of your life makes youparticularly uneasy about your behaviour? With God's help, howmight you change it?