Others describe that place with a little more Scriptural accuracy: "The Kingdom of God," (or "The Kingdom of Heaven.")
We are conditioned to believe the world is a bad place. How many people have you heard moan about a new child being born, into this "awful world"? We have difficulty accepting what God said about Creation, that it is "good." But if God says it is good, we must accept it at face value. Wouldn't all of our relationships and lives be much better, if we could only believe God when He says that the world is "good"?
But we have concluded that the world is a bad place. This has driven our emphasis on there being a better place for us. We cannot take the world as it is - we do not see the beauty in it, so we build our lives around building nice places (homes) for our families. We put ourselves in different roles, and wear different disguises depending on what we are doing. So we go to work. We go to a store. We go to a park. And we dress and act the part. We really are not being ourselves.
And we have developed a religious system that mirrors this emphasis on place. We must have our church buildings, so we can go to church. And the process of going to Church aligns closely with the assumption that one day we will go to Heaven, or to the Kingdom of God.
God must be setting aside another day, namely the "today" he mentions . . .
But if you look closely, you will see that God is more interested in a time, or a state of being, than He is of a place. God is, after all, everywhere. We cannot ever go to where He is, for we are already there!
The temple of the Old Testament was stressed, due to our need to be able to go into a place to do various things. God segmented our lives, for we were but children. But in the New Testament, being made new in Christ, we are the Temple. The Church is everywhere, and we do not need to go anywhere to be in it!
God taught us a radical concept, one that no other world religion can comprehend: that the Kingdom of God is here. It's now. And we are it!
God uses the word "today" a lot. Think about all it's uses throughout Scripture: "Truly truly, I say into you today . . . " is a good starting point. God exists today. He's right here, right now. All the time.
This is the point - our reward is not necessarily in some far off place. Let's leave that for the other religions. God promises us constant, eternal now. Every day is today, and today never ends. This is why Christ told us not to worry about tomorrow. If you are enjoying the here and now, then you've got it.
I have observed that the older people get, the more they just focus on what they're doing right now. They learn to appreciate the company in front of them right now. They move more and more towards activities they enjoy. They know the magic of getting into a "zone", focusing on something they enjoy. They prefer activities in which time seems to stand still. They learn more and more to live for the moment.
Stop thinking about what will happen when you die, where you will go, etc. Isn't even the concept of "go to Heaven when you die," really the same as worrying about tomorrow?
Just enjoy this moment. Appreciate today. God has promised that, for those that believe and accept it, today will never end.
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