Heaven.
--Sermon by Dr. Bob Benchoff, 4/14/2003
The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.
So where did Christ go when he rose?
Heaven is a glorious place of countless blessings and miraculous ongoing events with the holiness of God in your presence when you reach heaven. Heaven is a realm of glory, the Glory of God Jesus Christ shared with you. The Bible offers many comparisons of what a wondrous place heaven is, to show heaven's great value, such as being similar to a pearl of great value, or a treasure a person found in a field and then sold all they had to buy the field.
God does not force heaven on you. God lets you decide. God lets things of the body happen to nice people. Some things of the body seem good, some other things of the body might not appear so good initially, but all these things are for you, to help you choose the better portion.
Good things help you choose heaven for the namesake of that which you have learned is good through faith on the name of Jesus Christ. Those other things that don't seem to be so good (such as "Why did such an aweful thing happen to such a nice person?") help you choose heaven for the good works of that which you have experienced as good through faith in the works of Jesus Christ.
Believe on the works [the good miracles] for their sake, but blessed rather are they that have not seen [the good works] and yet have believed [on the name Jesus Christ]. Heaven is open unto you, inviting you.
You have much control when it comes to heaven. Let's look at some general comparisons as to how you might reach heaven through Christ.
If you are extremely thirsty, you might turn-on a faucet and get a heavenly cup of water. You could let the water run and get enough water for a bath. You could even visit the ocean and be immersed in the water and be baptized. So you would rise from blessings of works, to spiritual blessings.
If you are starving, you could eat a snack on roots and berries, and milk and honey. And/or you could banquet on manna from heaven; and/or you could feast on the buffet that is the word of God.
If you see victims enduring sin appearing in bodily form as sickness, you might study to become a medical doctor, and/or you might lay on of hands and pray for Christ to forgive you, and/or you might share the blessings of Christ as you never have before.
You can reach heaven within your body, and/or you can help others reach heaven together in good spirit. (Note: Reaching heaven is about helping others / doing God's will, but would not disqualify someone such as stranded on an island, although they might provide help for a future person there; or such as someone in a coma that can mentally work to persevere in loving God.)
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Heaven involves appreciation of greater and more complex blessings, without losing appreciation of simple matters, and the various levels of complexity in-between. For instance, behold the good value of our eyes if we can appreciate the beauty of a sunset, and the painting of the face of Mother Mary, and the canon law text of the Old Testament.
Good communication is important, yet God is of action and life. Behold the good value of a mother holding her baby, of a grandfather teaching a grandchild checkers, and of a group installing a power plant.
Christ did good works and said go and do likewise. Being a good example is important. Keeping dates, doing jobs as promised, and giving more than they paid-for are all important everyday things that help you toward heaven.
Appreciation can have complexity, work can have even more complexity. Going above and beyond the call of duty requires great faith and can have far more complexity necessitating the paying of close attention. Yet doing so for a Christian can often be far different than doing so for a non-Christian. Whereas a non-Christian might go above and beyond the call of duty for one cause or another.
Then after the cause passes, they might pursue another cause. From a non-Christian perspective these can be very noble pursuits. A Christian might find those pursuits noble, yet for Christian reasoning.
Within certain reasoning (the ascension along the straight and narrow path as though an asymptote toward Christ, the human being God, around which there is no room for another human to by-pass), a Christian is not as shifty as many non-Christians. Causes do not lead good Christians, so much. Good causes follow Christians as good Christians follow Christ.
Followers of Christ have their belief system reinforced as they progress toward heaven. So Christian [hope, learning, belief system, reasoning, and cause] all intermesh for Christ's greater purpose, yielding easier comprehension in total, relative to heaven. In other words the straight Christian path is more productive in terms of manhours, although cases will vary from person to person and talent to talent.
So while situations get more complex, Christian reasoning simplifies those complexities, as though buying time.
Jesus of Nazareth (of Bethlehem) was raised a Jew and followed those Godly teachings perfectly. In following God, Jesus went above and beyond what others had done, with principles (and/or life principles, and/or life) reaching beyond Abraham and Moses, beyond past and future human existence, to the outskirts of time.
From a human, cannon law, and/or Jewish (at least those who have followed Christ) perspective, Jesus was the first human to accomplish the works of Christ. This is above and beyond the call of duty to the heavenly extreme, not just for a cause, but for heaven within you.
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To better understand whether heaven is up there, and/or down here, let's look at what many would view as simpler times (although God is in the present). "In the beginning", or in the end time in more complex reverse logic (which can also serve as a mathematical type examination of our reasoning to check and see if this is logical: and when you have also done so as people continue to do, thusly we have shared that we have made proof of what was written in the Old and New Testaments, and in the Book of Mormon), we can see the start (or limit) of people, and so the start (or limit) of heaven within humans.
Complex, deeply profound understandings of God's plan are disclosed to us to help us in many ways inclusive of understanding heaven and ourselves and our role in the universe. Before heaven was in people, before there were people, "darkness was upon the face of the deep".
So heaven was not in people in the sense that heaven was not in the bodies of human beings: heaven was only in God according to God's creation of heaven and the delimitation of same.
God created earth, so it is of good origin and for good purpose, yet God raised creatures from earth with life-force, making them of greater value than earth, being more heavenly compared with earth. So we can find God and heaven in all, to the extent of those entities.
Being of action, God moves. "In the beginning", ... "the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters." The Spirit of God is heavenly, and brought baptism, lighting the way to heaven.
At the top, to rule the earth (and the universe) and it's creatures, God created mankind, under heaven. Yet being at the gates of heaven and/or the border of heaven, God created mankind to have a human spirit that could mingle with the Holy Spirit of God as no creature under mankind could; that is, not only of reaction and tactic, but able to become part of the great good as a minimum.
This is the defining line of agreed laws separating minimum human standards from unacceptable activities in human terms. For humans this is civil law, for Christians the restrictions are tighter, being canon law for delimiting heavenly activities.
Baptism into Christianity is the first step toward accepting heaven (meaning Christ) within oneself to live in focused pursuit of same. Non-Christians defer to civil law, Christians yield to Christ (heaven). Typically, canon law includes all civil law, although there are exceptions, as civil law is based on advocacy. Canon law works to overcome zeal for personal gain, and therefore works to overcome bias.
Standardization gained much empowerment through standardization of the church in the Word of God (with the word from above humans, the word of greater complexity, the word of God's heaven).
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Heaven was built for you. Humans were made with heaven built-in. Each human can choose if they want to go into heaven now (or stay in heaven now).
This does not mean humans can boss around God. God will move for you according to God's plan. Your acceptance of God is your recognition of God. Without you and your recognition, heaven could hardly help you in the greater sense.
If someone gave you a large rock too heavy to lift, you could complain that it's too heavy to toss into the dumpster, or you could consider why it was given to you, and investigate it's deeper meaning...and then you might find that it is the world's largest diamond in the rough and perhaps should be complexly and perfectly cut to reveal it's splendor and enormous value.
Do not give pearls to swine, lest they trample them under their feet. God gives generously to swine, and snakes, and birds. God gives them food. But if God gave them clothing, they wouldn't know what to do with it if they had it.
Humans are of far greater value than the non-human creatures they rule. Humans don't know what to do with heaven unless they accept Christ.
Make your reservation now because heaven is better than going on vacation, heaven is more complex. Heaven is about the hardest of workers, the conquerors. Heaven is about the glory of nations becoming the glory of God for the Bride, the Holy City Jerusalem.
In New Heaven there is no pain as God works to provide freely from "the fountain of the water of life" (Revelation 21.6), providing truth, love, and life more abundantly, forever!
Amen.
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The existence of God was mathematically proven by ICCDBB February 11, 2004, click here to see the formula and supportive information.
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Suggested readings: Revelation 21.3, 1 Corinthians 2.10, 1 Corinthians 4.20, John 1.17, Isaiah 10.17, Numbers 6.27, Philemon verse 14.
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