“That body you now have is literally gonna be beyond
comprehension then,” assures Jordan. “If you think you’re fearfully and
wonderfully made now, just wait ’til you see what’s coming—the systems of the
new body will be SO far in advance beyond!”
*****
In the Bible, the Old and New testaments are sprinkled with references to God’s own body features—His head with hair, His face, His eyes, His mouth, His lips, His voice, His nose and nostrils, His hands, His fingers and His feet.
The Apostle Paul tells us in II Corinthians 5 that “we know
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
“It’s a required part of your humanity and we’ll be a
required part of your glorification in order for you to function in the purpose
God has for you. It’s the vehicle of your inner man; the home for your soul and
it’s necessary to your soul’s full action and function.
“And that’s why in the intermediate state between death and
the resurrection you’re found naked. That is, you’re not ready to go to work
yet.”
*****
Paul tells us that what gave him a new perspective on what
life was to be in his current body was the knowledge that the Lord will “change
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”
He writes in II Corinthians 5, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
[4] For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
[5] Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
[6] Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
[7] (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
[8] We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
[9] Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
[10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
*****
Jordan explains, “Paul’s saying, ‘This hope I have out here,
it’s not making me have suicidal kinds of ideas; it’s not making me where
I’m discontent with down here and can’t stand to be here. I’ve got a new
perspective on what life here is all about. And my living here— I live with
eternity in view. I live with the perspective of what’s real, lasting and
never-ending.’
“If this body is what you lived in and thought was all there
was going to be, or that maybe after this body died you’d come back as a cow or
a roach or whatever—you know, the reincarnation routine—you wouldn’t have much
of a hope because even when you hope to do better . . . I mean, (believers in reincarnation) don’t
hope to get much higher on the ladder than what they are now and Paul’s talking
about sharing God’s glory.”
*****
A favorite story at my church about soul-winning efforts
has to do with an aunt who approached her niece while manning the checkout
counter at a grocery and said to her, in part, “We’re going to get new bodies
and we’re getting out of here!”
The spur-of-the-moment encounter happened shortly after the
1997 Heaven’s Gate suicide scandal (in which cult followers planned their
departure in conjunction with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp), and the niece,
who later got saved, admitted thinking to herself, “My aunt’s gone off her rocker!
What’s happened to her!”
*****
Similarly, Jordan tells the story of how when he was 19 and
doing handyman work with a friend at a lady’s home, the friend began witnessing
to her in the front yard about how he longed to go to heaven and be with the Lord.
“This friend of mine began to wax eloquent and, as I’ve told
you before, when you hear Christians talk about, ‘Boy, I just wish the Lord
would come today,’ that’s sort of a quasi-Christian suicide. They know you
shouldn’t take a .38 and blow your brains out, so the way to practice escapism
is, ‘Oh, Lord, please come today,’ and that’s the way this lady took it and she
pulled me aside and said, ‘How well do you know him? He needs some help; he’s
contemplating suicide.’
“She was just absolutely confident this guy was having
mental problems and I said, ‘No, no, no, no.” and she said, ‘Oh, yes he is! He’s
only 19 and talking about going NOW—that he hopes to be there today!’
“I got to thinking about that and I thought, ‘You know, lost
people could get that idea about you.’ Sometimes we can come across that way.”
*****
When Paul talks about being “absent from the Lord,” and then
about being “present with the Lord,” he’s making reference to eyesight absence
and eyesight presence.
“So there’s an issue of ‘walking by faith and not by sight.’
You’ve never seen God, never felt Him, never touched Him, and yet you believe
in Him. What kind of a kook is that? Well, you’re not kooky. You’ve got
evidence; you’ve got a Book and you believe Him and you bring into your experience
by faith the reality of His truth, His Word.
“But you still haven’t seen Him. Now, whatever it is you
thought you saw that was Him, wasn’t Him. I know how people are. They say, ‘Well,
if God just stood right here!' or, 'I had this vision last night,’ and everything is
based upon experience. Your faith is to be founded on what God says."
(New article tomorrow . . . )
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