双语灵修（葛培理牧师）：10月23日 天堂在哪里？

10月23日

天堂在哪里？

我将国赐给你们，正如我父赐给我一样。

——路22:29

很多人问“天堂在哪里？”圣经并没有告诉我们天堂在哪。一些学生试图截取并且拼凑圣经经文说天堂在北方。他们引用诗篇“锡安山，大君王的城，在北面居高华美，为全地所喜悦”。磁针指向北方，或许天国就在北方。我们不知道。但是无论天堂在哪里，基督必会在哪里。

很多人问“你相信天堂是真实的地方吗？”是的，耶稣说过“我去为你们预备地方。”圣经教导我们以诺和以利亚以肉身上升到天堂，那里就像洛杉矶、伦敦和阿尔及尔一样真实。圣经也教导我们天堂是一个美丽的地方，圣经描述说“是神所造的”、“一座城市”、“一个美丽的国度”、“一份基业”、“一个极大的荣耀”。

圣经还表明，在天堂里我们可以完全理解和认知在地上从来不曾了解的事物。

今日祷告

永活的主耶稣，我知道你已经在天堂为我预备了地方，这使我的灵得到安慰和喜悦！奉主耶稣基督的圣名，阿们！

Where Is Heaven?

I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.
—Luke 22:29

Many people have asked, “Where is heaven?” We are not told in the Scripture where heaven is. Some students have tried to take some Scriptures and put them together and say that heaven is in the north. They quote Psalm 48:2, “The joy of the whole earth is . . . on the sides of the north . . . ” The magnetic needle points north. Perhaps the Celestial City is in the north. We do not know. But no matter where heaven is, it will be where Christ is.

Many people ask, “Do you believe that heaven is a literal place?” Yes! Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” The Bible teaches that Enoch and Elijah ascended in a literal body to a literal place that is just as real as Los Angeles, London, or Algiers! The Bible also teaches that heaven will be a place of beauty. It is described in the Bible as “a building of God”-“a city”-“a better country”-“an inheritance”-“a glory.”

The Bible also indicates that heaven will be a place of great understanding and knowledge of things that we never learned down here.

Prayer for the day
Living Lord Jesus, the knowledge that You have prepared a place for me in heaven brings comfort and delight to my soul!