But heaven isnt appealing

[jimmyjimmy]

Everyone tells me different things about my views and I don't know who to believe. My whole life I just wanted to be beautiful and have a privileged life. I am ugly and my life is a nightmare. If I can't have that, then I dont want anything at all. But the Bible says if you accept Jesus forgiveness for your sins you go to heaven. Heaven is boring and unappealing. I think its like being in church all the time, to be honest I don't really want to worship God, I'll do it but I am more concerned with enjoying my life and religion was a consolation prize that I never really wanted. I think the real life is here and now and its what I truly want. I couldn't have it so I settled for some religious paradise. I am technically a Christian but I don't have the same happy joy joy feelings that other Christians have. I don't know who or were to talk about how I feel because it is pretty strange. Would a person like me go to heaven or hell?

When I was fairly new to Christianity I had similar thoughts. I have learned a lot since then. I'll share a few things.

First, you have a serious case dualism going on. Many Christians do. They act like life here counts for nothing. This place is going to burn up, while we escape to Heaven. This is more a Platonic idea than it is Christian. It stems from the philosophy that the material world is "bad" and the spiritual world is "good"; however, God created the physical world and spiritual world. They are both good.

Second, our hope is in a bodily resurrection. We will not be disembodied spirits in the life to come, but have physical bodies as Jesus did/does, and, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, not just puffy clouds and harps.

Third, what we do in this life, here and now, counts for all of eternity. We are not here simply killing time until we "get to Heaven". We are given resources and talents to use for the advancement of God's Kingdom and for the good of our neighbor.

Fourth, the worship of Christ does not take from you, it gives life to you. We all worship. It's unavoidable. The worship of God is what we were made for, and it is what causes us to thrive; however, we have turned our hope, love, and affection toward created things rather than the creator, which is the essence of sin, and sin leads to disintegration, not wholeness. See Romans 1.

 

[paul becke]

Everyone tells me different things about my views and I don't know who to believe. My whole life I just wanted to be beautiful and have a privileged life. I am ugly and my life is a nightmare. If I can't have that, then I dont want anything at all. But the Bible says if you accept Jesus forgiveness for your sins you go to heaven. Heaven is boring and unappealing. I think its like being in church all the time, to be honest I don't really want to worship God, I'll do it but I am more concerned with enjoying my life and religion was a consolation prize that I never really wanted. I think the real life is here and now and its what I truly want. I couldn't have it so I settled for some religious paradise. I am technically a Christian but I don't have the same happy joy joy feelings that other Christians have. I don't know who or were to talk about how I feel because it is pretty strange. Would a person like me go to heaven or hell?

Lafemme, many, many people are able to gain a small foretaste of heaven, sufficient to utterly convince them that that heaven is more special than we can even imagine. Sometimes, one might feel it in a church or praying at home. Sometimes other people's prayer's give me a glimpse of heaven, when I feel them praying for me. I don't mean a heavenly feeling, metaphorically, but truly, that is to say, a feeling of supernatural love, which is very very pure, intense and special. Usually, prayers by the opposite sex, I find. All that is required is to focus on your 'interior life'. your life of prayer, undertake small acts of self-denial, try to put other people and their needs before yours, and accept the trials God sends you, in a spirit of holy resignation. It's a life-long, but intensely-satisfying project.

If you want to get a glimpse of how brilliant supernatural love can be, I have posted on a thread here on the subject, a number of links to NDEers, people who have had near-death experiences, registered on the hospital technology as clinically dead, yet coming back to life. They 'blow my socks off'.

It changed their whole attitude towards their life on this earth, sometimes quite dramatically, but what convinces me more than their words, is their body-language and emotions as they relate their story.

 

[paul becke]

Lafemme, many, many people are able to gain a small foretaste of heaven, sufficient to utterly convince them that that heaven is more special than we can even imagine. Sometimes, one might feel it in a church or praying at home. Sometimes other people's prayer's give me a glimpse of heaven, when I feel them praying for me. I don't mean a heavenly feeling, metaphorically, but truly, that is to say, a feeling of supernatural love, which is very very pure, intense and special. Usually, prayers by the opposite sex, I find. All that is required is to focus on your 'interior life'. your life of prayer, undertake small acts of self-denial, try to put other people and their needs before yours, and accept the trials God sends you, in a spirit of holy resignation. It's a life-long, but intensely-satisfying project.

If you want to get a glimpse of how brilliant supernatural love can be, I have posted on a thread here on the subject, a number of links to NDEers, people who have had near-death experiences, registered on the hospital technology as clinically dead, yet coming back to life. They 'blow my socks off'.

It changed their whole attitude towards their life on this earth, sometimes quite dramatically, but what convinces me more than their words, is their body-language and emotions as they relate their story.

Talking about supernatural love, above, I should have said it is sometimes felt as divinely pure and intense - so you're almost more aware of God than the person praying for you, but mostly there is a degree of human affection, and when it is from the opposite sex, it always has a special quality, even when it is an expression of simple compassion, because you've had a pretty minor accident.

However, what I was trying to convey to you is that, if you seek pleasure and happiness, it will elude you. Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all things will be added. When accepted for Christ's sake, trials and unhappiness are the other side of the coin of joy, which arrives in due course. But remember everything takes time. Just keep your head down and work at your prayer life and holy resignation, and you will in due course experience joy and a new level of contentment.

You seem to me to be suffering without knowing how to derive from your unhappiness the joys that should automatically accrue to you from them, through God's grace. Napoleon once said that an army marches on its stomach. And God knows that we need carrots as well as the stick.

 

[Neochristian]

It is not a religioud paradise. It is a regular paradise. You mentioned happiness. There is a reason it is called "The Rapture."

 

[SkyWriting]

Everyone tells me different things about my views and I don't know who to believe. My whole life I just wanted to be beautiful and have a privileged life. I am ugly and my life is a nightmare. If I can't have that, then I dont want anything at all. But the Bible says if you accept Jesus forgiveness for your sins you go to heaven. Heaven is boring and unappealing. I think its like being in church all the time, to be honest I don't really want to worship God, I'll do it but I am more concerned with enjoying my life and religion was a consolation prize that I never really wanted. I think the real life is here and now and its what I truly want. I couldn't have it so I settled for some religious paradise. I am technically a Christian but I don't have the same happy joy joy feelings that other Christians have. I don't know who or were to talk about how I feel because it is pretty strange. Would a person like me go to heaven or hell?

In heaven you'll be beautiful and have a privileged life. None of us deserve heaven
but while we were still ugly in God's eyes, God sent his Son to die and cover for our
ugliness in all respects.