Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Proverbs 20-21
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 12:24-27
Jesus: You can’t see the truth because you don’t know the Scriptures well and because you don’t really believe that God is powerful. The answer is this: when the dead rise, they won’t be married or given in marriage. They’ll be like the messengers in heaven, who are not united with one another in marriage. But how can you fail to see the truth of resurrection? Don’t you remember in the Book of Moses how God talked to Moses out of a burning bush and what God said to him then? “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” “I am,” God said. Not “I was.” So God is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are sadly mistaken.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
No marriage in heaven? This year my wife and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. That’s a pretty big deal in today’s society. In a current culture where 50% of church goers divorce, sadly, sticking around with the same marriage partner for 40 years is becoming a rarity. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’ve kind of gotten use to having her around. I’m not sure I could get use to not having her around. She’s pretty special to me. So when I get to statements like this from Jesus, my eyebrows turn up a little.
Does that mean Carole and I will be separated in heaven? Does that mean we won’t know each other or spend eternity together? Does that mean our marriage will be null and void when we both walk through the pearly gates? No. No. And sort of.
We won’t be husband and wife in heaven. Marital relationships will not mean anything after the resurrection. Why? There is really a simple reason. We, the church, believers, followers of Christ, are referred to as the bride of Christ. We will be collectively and individually in an intimate relationship with Christ. Notice I didn’t say sexual relationship. I said an intimate relationship. John says when we see Him we will know Him and be like Him and see Him like He really is.
I think there will be an intimacy in the relationships we all share in heaven that does not compare with our relationships here on earth. The closest approximation is that of a marriage between a husband and wife as the two become one through years of love and toil and struggle and joy and sorrow and happiness. Those years of getting to know each other better than we know ourselves sometimes. I think that’s the closest we can get with the limitations we have in our current physical frames. But when we get to heaven, when we lose the constraints of these bodies of clay and are resurrected into our new bodies, I think we will enjoy new sight, new thought, new communication skills, new realms of intimacy with God and with each other that we cannot begin to imagine here.
We will know each other. Not just our current spouses, but we will have that intimacy with every one of God’s redeemed. We will have that intimacy with Jesus. We will have that intimacy with God, the Father and God, the Spirit. We will know each other the same way He knows us now we when shed these temporal vessels that house our immortal spirit.
I’ll recognize Carole, not as my wife, but as a fellow saint as we worship together at the feet of Jesus. And I recognize Gery and Ruth and August and Charlene and Nick and… just begin to make your list. I’ll recognize all of those who have gone before and will come after me in the same way I recognize Carole. We will all rejoice at worship at the feet of Jesus. The Bride of Christ. His church. There won’t be any jealousy if I talk to someone else or if she talks to someone else. We have eternity to learn about everyone there. We can hear first hand the stories of Peter and Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Phoebe. We will know each other and relish the time we can spend with each other, but mostly the time we can spend in the presence of God.
Satan jumps on my back every once in a while when I read verses like these. He says, “What kind of place is heaven, if your wife won’t be your wife anymore.” But Satan is the father of lies. You see, relationships in heaven will be perfect. No missed cues between anyone. No misspoken words or misinterpreted phrases. No actions that hurt someone or whose actions hurt me. No failures in understanding non-verbal cues or missing the meaning of an important communique. My relationships with everyone will be perfect in heaven.
And best of all, we will see Jesus! He will be the center of attention for all who go there. The rooms are finished. The furniture is in place, curtains are hung, and pictures are on the walls. He’s just waiting for the Father to say, “Son, go get your bride, your church.” Whichever one of us departs this life first, the other will be sad for a while, lonely for the comfort and companionship and love we enjoy right now. But not long after that, we will be reunited with everyone else who sings the song of the redeemed to be forever together with our Lord.
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