Heaven is not a cemetery where we go after we die,instead, heaven is here and right now, as in Matthew 4:17 says: From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
We are often taught that Heaven is far away. Is this promise about the future? What good is theoretical gospel?The Sermon on the Mount was delivered to bring hope and joy to a group of poverty stricken peasants who were taxed to death by the Romans and sneered at by their own rulers and scholars: the scribes, Pharisees and church leaders. His primary purpose in teaching was to convey the message that the Kingdom was here and now.
Where and what is Heaven? The Bible teaches that it is all around us?
Genesis 21:17-19[17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation." 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. ]
Exodus 31:21[ And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: ]
1 chronicles 21:26[And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. ]
John 12: 28-30[28: Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. 29: The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. 30: Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. ]
Jesus rebuked Nicodemus for not understanding the New Birth into His Kingdom which is to be joined with a divine reality into an entirely new pattern of life: the Kingdom Amongst Us.
Is the gate to heaven small? yes, [Go in by the narrow door; for wide is the door and open is the way which goes to destruction, and great numbers go in by it.]However the heaven road is not a deliberately hidden passage that requires special rites and secret procedures to join.Although the gate to heaven is small, it can be found by anyone who wants to look for it.yet, the Lord said[For narrow is the door and hard the road to life, and only a small number make discovery of it.] So why do so few pass through? The answer to that question lies in the definition of the gate. The 'gate' is an admission by each seeker that there is absolutely nothing that he can do to gain admittance. The reason that the way is described as "narrow" is because it is purposeful. A road with one direction and one goal, makes it a narrow way compare with wide roads without directions and going nowhere.
Biblical descriptions of the narrow way's alternative:
Proverbs 13:15[Good understanding produces favour,But the way of the treacherous is hard.]
Proverbs 14:12[There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.]
Isaiah 59:8[They do not know the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks; They have made their paths crooked, Whoever treads on them does not know peace.]
Proverbs2:15[Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways].
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