Chewing on Chinese Proverbs

The other day, our church convened for its six-weekly gathering. It was ethnic food and table decoration night. I won’t focus much on the food, thought that is something that I like to do on a regular basis. Rather, I will turn my attention to the table decorations—one in particular. Its theme was Chinese. Across it, was situated a row of 6×5 cards, each bearing two Chinese proverbs. The far right one caught my eye, and read as follows: “If you don’t want anyone to know about it, don’t do it.” Can you hear the Chinese zither twanging in the background?

This proverb got me thinking. When it comes to sin, how much does the possibility of other people knowing about it scare us? How much does the fact that God knows about it scare us? Unfortunately, many of us (definitely me) are more afraid of what people might think of us than of what God knows of us. Really, how many of us would directly disobey our parents, right in front of their eyes? Probably not that many. We are too afraid of what might happen. Yet, we daily disobey God, all the while, knowing that He is watching our every move. Why? Either we don’t truly believe He is watching, or we don’t really fear the consequences.

1 Peter 17 says:

“And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth . . .”  

There is judgment for believers, and we should fear it. It is true that all of our sins are forgiven. But that does not mean that God will not chastise. Did your parents ever spank you? Mine did. My parents would say that they forgave me, but they would still spank me. And there I would be—sniflingly trying to reconcile the forgiveness of my parents with the stinging of my posterior. It is the same with God. We are ultimately forgiven (“there is now no condemnation”), but there are still consequences for our actions.

Do you remember David. He was a “man after God’s own heart”, a mature Christian and a great man of God. Yet when he committed adultery and murder, the punishment was impartial (David was not excused because of maturity), and severe (the baby would die and evil would be raised up from his own household).

And then there is Moses. He was told to talk to the rock in order to get water for the Israelites. Instead, he struck it twice and, as a result, was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. These men had reason to fear the judgment of God, and so do we.  

So here’s my thesis: “If you don’t want anyone to know about it, don’t do it.” Very true. Anyone—especially God.          

Will We Play Baseball (or Soccer) in Heaven

Read this passage from Revelation 21:1-4.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: ‘Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.’”

I think heaven is more about the new earth than most people realize. Look at the passage. The residence of God (the new Jerusalem) descends from heaven to the new earth. But what is this new earth like? First of all, it is the place where God is. The presence of God will be the most awesome thing about heaven.  To truly and perfectly worship Him who accomplished our undeserved redemption is what heaven is all about, and whatever else I say is subordinate to this. Second, it is a place free of death. Where there is no sin, there is not death—or mourning, or crying, or pain, all of which are parts or affects of death. By the way, another affect of death is sin, and that we will have no longer. The constant battle will be finished—won and completed by Christ.

Yes, but what is this new earth really like? My belief is that it will be much like the world we live in now—just perfect and without any of the problems that came with the fall. We will have relationships, houses, cities, transportation, even sports. Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven, teaches that it is a place that we should look forward to with all of our hearts. But God does not expect us to look forward to something that we cannot imagine. If we cannot imagine it, we cannot await it with the eagerness that we should. That is why I think that much of the language we take as metaphorical, may not be. This new earth may truly be a new earth.      

The greatest part of heaven will be God. So, you ask, will we even want to play baseball or soccer? Well, the greatest part of earth now is God, right? And we worship, and serve God here, though not on the level that we will then. Yet we still want to play baseball and soccer. We still enjoy God’s creation. So why do we think we won’t then? I don’t think it will be wrong to enjoy God’s gifts then any more than now. We will just do it perfectly.

A lot of this is just speculation. I think it is logical and most of it can, to a certain extent, be backed by the Bible. In the end, I don’t really know. But regardless of what it is like or what we will do, I can tell you one thing for certain: it is going to be extremely cool.