"Heaven is a divine reality on earth"

After weeks and months in Romans, having finally reached the long-awaited section on "hope", today's sermon (to be uploaded soon) wrapped it up beautifully.

I'm reminded of this song "There Is A Day" by PHATFISH, theme song for TSCF Mid-Year Conference 2007.

There is a day
That all creation's waiting for,
A day of freedom and liberation for the earth.
And on that day
The Lord will come to meet His bride,
And when we see Him
In an instant we'll be changed

The trumpet sounds
And the dead will then be raised
By His power,
Never to perish again.
Once only flesh,
Now clothed with immortality,
Death has now been
Swallowed up in victory

We will meet Him in the air
And then we will be like Him
For we will see Him, as He is
Oh yeah!
Then all hurt and pain will cease
And we'll be with Him forever
And in His glory we will live
Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

So lift your eyes
To the things as yet unseen,
That will remain now
For all eternity.
Though trouble's hard,
It's only momentary
And it's achieving
Our future glory.

This song had resonated deep within when I heard it in 2007 - yet for me it pointed to a fuzzy place in the future, something ahead to long for, to stretch out for and to wait patiently for.

Today's message drove home the point: "Heaven is a divine reality on earth" - confirmation of a truth I've been introduced to at KGK's Spring Camp in March 2008. Amidst the grief, pain, sorrows, injustice and frustrations of the world, God has built His Church - not that we can be cordially pleasant on the surface, but to experience deep joy in Him and also to groan with the world as the creation groans:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. "
-Romans 8:18-25

It's not so bad to be groaning after all.

"ただいま！"