THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN
HEAVEN
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
NOVEMBER 15, 2009
I don’t
know how old I was at the time or whether or not the person was an adult or
a child, but I do remember my Mom telling me not to stare because I would
hurt his or her feelings. She explained the person couldn’t help being the
way they were. She also told me she didn’t she know why God would allow anyone
to be born in such a pitiful condition. My Mom just said, “All I know is that
God has a good reason and we just have to trust Him, Michael.” Over the years
I’ve seen a number of such folks, and I always feel awful for them. Today,
whenever one of them crosses my path, I never fail to lift up these kinds
of precious “special people” and their loved ones together with their caregivers
in fervent prayer. Before he or she is out of my sight or mind, I ask our
Sovereign God to have mercy on them, meet each and every one of their needs,
never allow their burdens to ever be more they can handle,
and to bless them greatly today and all their tomorrow’s and then throughout
eternity.
God has given me a passionate desire to search
the Sacred Scriptures looking for answers as to His purpose in allowing some
human beings to endure so much more suffering and heartbreaking experiences
than most others. The more I plumb the depths of them, the more I realize
how shallow my knowledge and understanding of God and His ways actually is.
But He has graciously revealed enough to me so that I am always comforted,
encouraged and have all sorts of hope, which He later allows me to share and
be used by Him to comfort others at every divinely ordained opportunity, (2Cor.
3:6).
God wants us to, “...always be prepared to make
a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us; 1 Peter 3:1. Are
you prepared to share the hope that is in you with the loved ones of a precious
“special person” such as I have been alluding to, a person who was born blind
and has been trapped in a tightly contracted body; a quadriplegic unable to do anything for themselves, a hurting
fellow human being who has been created in the image and likeness of God;
one whose head is always sagging to one side, and who, other than make noises
is unable to speak out of his or her drooling mouth? What are you going to
say to the persons loved ones which may be a source of much comfort, encouragement
and hope to them?
Do you remember how Charlie
and Martha’s teen-age son had been diligently searching the Scriptures in
hopes of finding something encouraging which he could share with his best
friend Rick who will have to spend the rest of his life being paralyzed from
the waist dawn? Although Rick’s condition pales in comparison to the quadriplegic
I mentioned a moment ago, the prospect
of his best friend having to remain is such a dreadful state for perhaps another
50 to 60 years, caused the boy to question the goodness and wisdom of God.
And then he found the following while surfing the Web which was exactly what
he had been hoping to discover. Little did the boy know, but it was tucked
into a Christmas story about an old man I had written a while ago. In comparing
the sufferings of “special people” with the horrific sufferings those persecuted
early Christians were enduring, I suggested that“...although
it was light years away from anyone even coming close to experiencing the
intensity of suffering Christ endured, their own suffering enabled them
to have an intense appreciation for the magnitude of His love for His people.
God had also eternally planned on using their suffering to prepare
them to experience what the Apostle Paul referred to as being “an eternal
weight of glory,” (2 Cor. 4:17). In other words, God was using the sufferings
of these early Christians and His other “special children” born since that
time to prepare and enable them to be capable of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus
forever, in a way the rest of His children can’t.”
“As for God’s other children;
the old man [in my story] now understood that they also were filled with incredible
joy to their fullest capacity. They simply didn’t know what they were
missing out on anymore than a person blind or deaf from birth can possibly
have an appreciation for a beautiful sunrise or Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. In other words, these Christians were also just as happy
as they could possibly be.
The promise in this verse was especially comforting
and provided all sorts of hope for the boy and his friend Rick. At the last
Bible study the boy announced that he had been wrestling with a very serious
issue. However, the study ended abruptly
and future ones were suspended for a while because of his father’s rapidly
progressing illness. He never got the chance to tell the others what it was
which was so disturbing. If he did, the boy would have explained that just
before that last study, he shared his wonderful hope with his uncle Claude,
but it didn’t sit right with the man. In fact, when Claude mentioned it to
his psychiatrist, Claude’s suspicion was confirmed. The psychiatrist strongly
suggested the boy seek professional mental health counseling before he got
any deeper in his twisted religious beliefs. Of course, he would be happy
to recommend one of his colleague’s. Compounding the boy’s dilemma, the Christian
parent of another friend challenged the boy to come up with the biblical justification
that the “amount of suffering we endure in this life will lead to a greater
appreciation of God and glory in Heaven. Where is the scriptural evidence
that there will be greater degrees of joy and happiness in Heaven, and the
resulting capacity to appreciate God more?
The following scriptures helped me to arrive
at my conclusion.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV) 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner
nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction
is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things
that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things
that are unseen are eternal.
“Viewed from an eternal perspective; in comparison
to the pain and anguish the Christian suffers through what Paul refers to
as being “slight and momentary affliction’s” which each of us must endure
with Christ-like patience, have all been designed by our Creator for His glory
and our ultimate good and are preparing us and making us capable of receiving
and enjoying “an eternal weight of glory” which is so wonderful it is beyond
our comprehension and wildest imagination. For instance, commenting on these
verses, Jonathan Edwards, famed American theologian and philosopher of the
18th century explains: (In the interest of clarity, I have taken
the liberty of modernizing his language).
“There are different degrees of happiness
and glory in heaven…The glory of the saints above in heaven will be in some
proportion to their growth in holiness and good works here on earth. Christ
will reward everyone according to their works. He that gained ten pounds
was made ruler over ten cities, and he that gained five pounds over five cities
17 "'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because
you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.'
18 "The
second came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned five more.' 19 "His master
answered, 'You take charge of five cities,” Luke 19:17-19 (NIV). Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows generously will also reap generously,” 2 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV). And the apostle Paul tells us that, [just] as one star differs from another
star in glory, so also shall it be in the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor.
15:41). Christ tells us that he who gives a cup of cold water to a disciple
in the name of a disciple, shall in no way loose his reward. But this couldn’t
be true, if a person wouldn’t have a greater reward for doing many good works
than if he did just a few.” Edwards could have included the following verses
concerning rewards as well.
3
And those
who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who
turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3 (ESV)
27
For the Son
of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he
will reward each person according to what he has done. Matthew 16:27 (NIV)
30
will fail
to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come,
eternal life." Luke 18:30 (NIV)
8
The man who
plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded
according to his own labor. 1 Corinthians 3:8 (NIV)
6
Remember this:
Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously
will also reap generously. 2 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV)
12
"Behold,
I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according
to what he has done,” Revelation 22:12 (NIV)
Now contrast these folks with the
self-centered Christian who, despite his or her many blessings, the only things
those people produce is thanklessness, discontentment, anger, bitterness and
self-pity, all of which they must get rid of before they can enter into Heaven.
For instance,
10
By the grace
God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else
is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay
any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds
on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
13 his work will be
shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed
with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If what he has
built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer
loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames,”
1 Corinthians
3:10-15 (NIV). Don’t forget that God never changes. He is the same yesterday,
today and tomorrow.
It’s truly very hard work, but if the suffering
child of God humbly asks for and then relies completely on Christ’s strength
working within him or her, they will be able to endure their suffering with
godly perseverance—and, it will bring them a GREAT REWARD! I hope I’m
not giving anyone the impression that the
only reason our loving Father subjects some of His Children to awful
suffering, and some of them for long periods of time, is because it’s through
the suffering they endure that He uses to prepare and make them capable of
receiving what the Apostle Paul described as being “an eternal weight of glory”
when they enter into His heaven, because nothing could be further from
the truth. And to think that back in eternity past God planned and ordained
everything that He would either cause or allow to take place in the course
of human history, and then through the act of speaking His world into existence,
some of His most precious children were thereby predestined to suffer in His
dreaded furnace [of affliction] only
because He intended to use their suffering as a means to bless them
in a very special way when He finally brought them home to Himself, simply
isn’t true.
One such example is that God also uses
His children’s suffering to draw them into a much closer relationship
with Him which will enable them to be used by Him later on as a means of blessing
some of His other children. Consider the following:
2 Corinthians
1:1-6 (NIV) 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth,
together with all the saints throughout Achaia: 2 Grace and peace to
you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in
all our troubles, so that we can
comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from
God. 5 For
just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through
Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation;
if we are comforted, it is for
your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same
sufferings we suffer.
But, what can we say to those folks about God
and the problem of evil and the suffering it produces? For starters I would
suggest considering the following insightful comments from Dr. Greg Bahsen:
“The problem which men have with God
when they come face to face with evil in the world is not a logical or philosophical
one, but more of a psychological one. We can find it emotionally very hard
to have faith in God and trust His goodness and power when we are not given the reason why bad
things happen to us and others. We instinctively think to ourselves, “why
did such a terrible thing occur?” Unbelievers internally cry out for an answer
to such a question also. But God does not always (indeed, rarely) provide
an explanation to human beings for the evil which they experience or observe.
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29). We might
not be able to understand God’s wise and mysterious ways, even if He told
us (cf. Isaiah 55:9). Nevertheless, the fact remains that He has not told
us why misery and suffering and injustice are part of His plan for history
and individual lives.”
“So then, the Bible calls upon us to trust that
God has a morally sufficient reason for the evil which can be found in this
world, but it does not tell us what that sufficient reason is. The believer
often struggles with this situation, walking by faith rather than by sight.
The unbeliever however, finds this situation intolerable for his pride, feelings
or rationality. He refuses to trust God. He will not believe that God has
a morally sufficient reason for the evil which exists, unless the unbeliever
is given the reason for his own examination and assessment. To put it briefly,
the unbeliever will not trust God unless God subordinates Himself to the intellectual
authority and moral evaluation of the unbeliever-unless God consents to trade
places with the sinner.”
Now let’s return to that precious quadriplegic
I spoke about earlier. She is not a figment of my imagination but rather a
beautiful woman named Susan. I don’t know if ultrasound technology was available when that “special
person” was still in her mother’s womb. If it was, I’m sure the medical advice
would have been to kill her before she was born. And unless the Christian
Church in our country wakes up and seriously engages our culture, I believe
the day will come, when, for humanitarian reasons, in cases like Susan’s,
abortion will become mandatory. If such a horror ever happens, think of the
many blessings from God we will be robbing ourselves of. I’m indebted to our
friend Guy for sending the following to me. It was read by Susan’s sister
Lisa, during her recent funeral service. It’s entitled:
“The Gift of Susan”
“At first glance many people might look at Susan, look at her body,
and be quick to judge her. They might be quick to determine that she would
not accomplish much in her life, that her body would limit her. Some
might even, out of complete ignorance, determine her life to be insignificant.
However, for anyone who took the time to look and really see Susan, for those
who took the time to know her, they quickly found that Susan’s body
and her handicaps only served to make the spirit, the person of Susan, shine
brighter. She touched more lives and taught more lessons in her 32 years than
most able bodied people could in a lifetime.
Without even one spoken word,
Susan taught lessons to those who came in contact with her and those who cared
for her. She taught lessons of patience, trust, forgiveness, perseverance,
joy amidst any circumstance and unshakeable peace. Without a doubt,
what was most special about Susan was her joy. It was a joy, or happiness,
that wasn’t just apparent on her face. It was a joy that so obviously came
from deep within her spirit and radiated out whenever she smiled. It was a
deep joy, a real joy, a complete joy. If you were blessed enough to
spend any time with Susan and see her smile, you know exactly what I am speaking
of. Her joy was not dependent on her circumstance. It was present
no matter the illness, no matter the surgery, no matter the pain. Yes,
there was something special about Susan and it was not her special needs.
Susan had a faith in God and she had the peace and comfort of His Holy Spirit
within her. You could play a variety of music for Susan, and the only
music that she would sing along with in her voice was the music that spoke
of her Lord. Susan was a young lady that only cried when in very, very
severe pain, but a hymn that spoke to her spirit could make her well up in
tears. When she used her computer, she would most often ask to attend
church. Those of you who were blessed enough to attend church with her have
heard her joy as she sang in that beautiful voice with no words.
As her family, we take great
joy in knowing that Susan is now in heaven with the Lord, singing praises
directly to Him, free from her body, free from pain, free from illness. Her
joy is complete now. Our sorrow is not for Susan. We have the peace
of knowing who is caring for her now. We know, without a doubt, that she was
given to us by God, just as she was, to teach us of Him. He blessed
us with her. For the rest of our lives we will wholeheartedly thank
Him for the blessing she was, as she spends eternity thanking Him for His
work in her life.”
And I might add, if those
Christians who had the privilege of being present at the exact moment this
precious “special” child of God died were to put on their eyes of faith, they would have been able to joyfully visualize an ecstatic Susan clothed
with a brand new immortal/invisible/spiritual body soaring with the angels
into the Lord’s presence, and join the company of the vast multitudes
of other “special” sufferer’s who were mostly unknown on this world’s
stage, but who are now “The Happiest
People In Heaven”—“AND”...
Lord willing, soon...