Our blessed hope, harps optional

Once upon a time, my maternal grandmother, an ordained A.G. minister, pointed out something to me. She pointed out that our faith teaches us that there's more to the afterlife than just heaven. Pointing out, among other things, Revelation 21:1, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." To a teen who grew up in church, hearing the usual preaching about our hope of heaven after we die, that blew my mind.

Fast forward to a few years ago, when the pastor at my church started following an older line of faith, emphasizing that we live a life on this earth, that God gave us physical bodies, that Jesus walked among us in a body. Our pastor basically picked up an old fight against gnosticism - a heresy fought by such folks as the Apostles Paul and John. And I ended up posting this on Facebook a few years ago.

Easter is misunderstood. We 'celebrate' the physical resurrection of Jesus, while we merely expect to be heaven-dwelling ghosts after death. Because Jesus beat death, we can look fwd to not only eternity with God, but life after 'life after death'. But that doesn't excite us. Why?

 A few weeks ago, I was asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident that you'll go to heaven when you die?"  I put down the only honest answer I could.  "10*".  My wife laughed when I wrote that down...ask her about "2 3 4" sometime.

I am fully persuaded that my Creator will resurrect me at the right time on His calendar.  I just understand that at the end, there is a new heaven, new earth, and a new body.  Harp optional.