Will you be you in heaven?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Heaven”

Our Bible verse for today: “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself!” Luke 24:39 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Will you be you in heaven?”

Will you be you in heaven? Buddhism teaches that the ultimate goal in the afterlife is for our lifeforce to be absorbed into the energy field of the universe and we cease to exist as an individual at all. That is supposedly Nirvana, ceasing to exist at all. Hinduism teaches that you will be reincarnated into a new life, based upon how you lived in this one. That could be good or bad, depending on how you lived. You could end up as a famous billionaire in the next life, or as a tadpole in a mud puddle … it all depends.

But intuitively I think we all know that there is life after death and that there is a heaven and it is good. And not only that, but we will continue to exist in a form in which we are identifiable as the person we were in this life. The Bible confirms this for us. As we read in Luke 24:39, the resurrected Jesus was visibly identifiable as the person He had been in this life. Also, in Luke 16:19-31, Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar. They both died and went to their eternal destinies – the rich man to Hades and Lazarus to the intermediate heaven. Both were identifiable for who they had been in life, and Jesus even called Lazarus by name.

In Matthew 17:3, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the long-dead Moses and Elijah came back from the afterlife to make an appearance on earth to the human Jesus, and they were both clearly identifiable for who they had been in life. In 1 Samual 28:14, when the Old Testament King Saul consulted the witch of Endor and had her conjure up the spirit of Samuel so Saul could consult with him, Samuel too was identifiable for who he had been in life. And in 2 Samuel 12:23, when David was mourning the death of his infant son, he noted that although he would not see the baby again in this lifetime, he would see him one day in heaven (the implication was that he would know the baby for who he had been in this life.)

So, will you be you? Yes, you will be. You will be you and I will be me, and we will know each other. The other part of this good news is the fact which has already been considered in previous devotionals in this series, that by then we will all be perfected individuals, conformed to the image of Christ and transformed into the people God has always wanted us to be.

So, yes, you will be you and I will be me, and we will all know each other for who we were in this life.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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