Our great reward

A trend for some time now in modern churches has been the notion of a 'great reward' in Heaven. Many people visualize this as riches, gold, silver and the like. Streets lined with gold. Walls made of jewels, etc. Or they take what Jesus said 'In my father's house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you.' 'woo hoo! a mansion!' and the Christians go dancing off into the isles like the beverly hillbillies. All those notions make the mind wander into selfish greed rather than the awe inspiring presence of our God. Distorting the true picture, and getting our focus off the truth of our reward. For the record, that last verse is a commonly quoted but mistranslated verse. The word mansions is more accurately 'rooms'. So in our heavenly father's house (heaven) are many rooms. Jesus goes to prepare a place for those who believe in Him. For this reason many people want the get into heaven free card, the easy way out by believing in Jesus - without any concept of what that means. They see the escape of pain and death and hell, and the reward of gold and jewels and everything associated with heaven. But that idea of heaven is a worldly one. And we're not suppose to love worldly things, right? - "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (I John 2:15-16) So we are to "overcome the world" just as Jesus did...and all overcomers will receive ONE reward, the SAME reward, and that reward is CHRIST. We don't get to live forever because we believe in Christ, but it is because of Christ that we live forever with Him. Make sense?

Get your focus off the trivial rewards, perks, and prosperity teachings - and remember the true reason, the source of it all, our creator, our mediator, our redeemer - Jesus Christ. Nothing else matters.

Chris