Devotionals

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'Chosen Favourites in heaven' is a phrase Spurgeon used for the believer in one of his devotions. That phrase reminds me that our names are written there.

We are known there just like every person in a small country town is known, especially by the person who runs the telephone exchange(when they were still around!).

When the angels turn on the six o'clock news on their big silver screens, they hear and see what we are doing here on earth.
We are the 'missionaries' here on earth in whose business they are very interested.

When we sin, it is there on their news. Just as it is on their news when we have a victory in an area of sin, do a good deed, or when someone comes to the saving faith.
We are their heros.

Darlene Szchech, a songwriter from my home city,in her song "Worthy is the Lamb',called Messiah Jesus the "Darling of Heaven'-'The Darling of Heaven crucified' she wrote.
This title adds such a beautiful dimension which we rarely appreciate, but which we can appropriate for ourselves when we realise that our heavenly worth is in Him. We are the 'darlings of heaven' in Him.

But this also adds further significance to our sins. When the believer sins, to use Spurgeon's phrase, 'he sins with emphasis'.
Our sins are not like the sins of others. The world sins naturally. We sin 'emphatically'.

Sin from a pure heart brings great grief to God.
No wonder David, in deep repentance and grief over his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband Uriah, calls out
Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight' (Psalm 51:4 ESV)

Are you getting a bit tired of the debates about 'once saved always saved'?
About whether justification by faith is enough, or that as well as being saved we must also have a transformed life?

Surely a heart that has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus is a new heart that sees sin differently. And God sees sin
differently in those who have a new heart.

Perhaps we need to look at all this from a new perspective. Our lives are no longer ordinary, but illuminated - in heaven.
Imagine what effect a sin broadcast in heaven has. Just like the sin of a mayor of a small country town has on its citizens.

Our lives have more impact there in heaven than here.
To sin deliberately is like the gold medalist in the Olympics being caught drinking a banned substance at the starting line. in full view of all the cameras. It brings horror and
disappointment. But unlike the athlete who may not have won without it, our sins are so unnecessary.

I do not believe in perfection, there will not be any here on earth- but it exists in heaven where our lives are hid.
We are loved and accepted in the Beloved and the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us.

I want to take hold of that phrase "chosen favourites in heaven' and see our lives as no longer ordinary, or worldly.

A name written in heaven is more than being 'born again', it changes our whole perspective.

Submitted respectfully to the chosen beloved favourites of our Lord. Shalom!

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