The Applause of Heaven - Max Lucado [47]
What would you give in exchange for a home like that? Would you really rather have a few possessions on earth than eternal possessions in heaven? Would you really choose a life of slavery to passion over a life of freedom? Would you honestly give up all of your heavenly mansions for a second-rate sleazy motel on earth?
"Great," Jesus said, "is your reward in heaven." He must have smiled when he said that line. His eyes must have danced, and his hand must have pointed skyward.
For he should know. It was his idea. It was his home.
I'll be home soon. My plane is nearing San Antonio. I can feel the nose of the jet dipping downward. I can see the flight attendants getting ready. Denalyn is somewhere in the parking lot, parking the car and hustling the girls toward the terminal.
I'll be home soon. The plane will land. I'll walk down that ramp and hear my name and see their faces. I'll be home soon.
You'll be home soon, too. You may not have noticed it, but you are closer to home than ever before. Each moment is a step taken. Each breath is a page turned. Each day is a mile marked, a mountain climbed. You are closer to home than you've ever been.
Before you know it, your appointed arrival time will come; you'll descend the ramp and enter the City.
You'll see faces that are waiting for you. You'll hear your name spoken by those who love you. And, maybe, just maybe -in the back, behind the crowds-the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and ... applaud.
NOTES
chapter I • sacred delight
1. I Timothy 1:11.
2. I Timothy 6:15.
chapter 2 • the summit
1. "How Americans Are Running out of Time," Time, 24 April 1989, 74-76.
2. Matthew 11:28.
3. Walter Burkhardt, Tell the Next Generation (Ramsey, NJ: Paulist, 1982), 80, quoted in Brennan Mannin, Lion and Lamb (Old Tappan, NJ: Chosen, Revell, 1986), 129.
chapter 3 • the affluent poor
1. His story is told in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18.
2. Luke 18:27.
3. Mark 10:23.
4. Matthew 7:22.
5. Matthew 7:23.
6. Romans 8:3.
7. Frederick Dale Bruner clarifies this as he interprets Matthew 5:3: "Blessed are those who feel their poverty ... and so cry out to heaven," The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987), 135.
8. The word Jesus used for "poor" is a word which, when used in its most basic sense, "would not indicate the pauper, one so poor that he must daily work for his living, but the beggar, one who is dependent upon others for support." William Hendricksen, Exposition of the Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1973), 269.
chapter 4 - the kingdom of the absurd
1. See Genesis 16-18, 21.
2. See Luke 5.
3. 2 Corinthians 12:9, lb.
4. Philippians 3:4-6, lb.
S. I Timothy I:I5.
6. Acts 22:16.
7. I Corinthians 1:23.
8. I Corinthians 1:23; Ephesians 2:8.
9. I Corinthians 5:14, neb.
chapter 5 • the prison of pride
1. I John 1:9, emphasis mine.
2. Bruner states it admirably: "God helps those who cannot help themselves and he helps those who try to help others, but he does not in any beatitude help those who think they can help themselves-an often ungodly and antisocial conception." The Christbook, 152.
3. Matthew 14:28.
chapter 6 • touches of tenderness
1. Matthew 6:28-33.
2. Matthew 7:11.
chapter 7 • the glory in the ordinary
1. See Exodus 4:1-4.
2. See I Samuel 17.
3. See John 9:1-6.
chapter 8 • the bandit of joy
1. Ian Grey, Stalin (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, I979), 457, and Alex De Jonge, Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union New York: William Morrow, I986), 450.
2. "The Secret Life of Howard Hughes," Time, 13 December 1976, 22-41.
3. "John Lennon: In the Hard Day's Light," People Weekly, 15 August 1989, 68-69.
4. "In Praise of Courage," Quest, November 1980, 23.
5. See Matthew 10:1-28.
6. Matthew 10:21-22.
7. Matthew 10:26-3I.
8. Matthew 10:26.
9. Hebrews 4:13, Daniel 2:22, Matthew 12:36, Psalm 90:8, I Corinthians 4:5.
10. Romans 8:1, 3:26, Acts 13:39, Hebrews 8:12, Colossians 3:3.
II. Hebrews 10:I9, 22, emphasis mine.