Who will be in heaven?
Isaiah 56:8 “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”
Please contemplate this question for a moment: “Whom does God want to be in heaven?”. The answer to that question is found in 1 Timothy 2:3-4 “God our Savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Think for a moment if you act, think and live like you want all people to be with you in heaven. Each one of us likely has to confess that there have been people we encountered in our life whom we have probably judged and said or thought “They’re going to be or belong in hell”. It is not up to us to judge or try to determine who belongs in heaven and who doesn’t. If you get right down to it, not one of us belongs in heaven due to our sinfulness. It is purely a gift of God’s grace that we have the gift of faith and are privileged to be called children of God!
God desperately wants every last human being whom he brought into existence to share the eternal joys of heaven. The hard part of this equation is that some people live and act in a way that God in his perfect justice has to exclude them from heaven because they refused his grace.
In spite of that, God will have the attitude of our verse for this week until the verse last second that this world ceases to be in existence: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”. The very same God of grace who gathered you and me into his family of believers is constantly working to gather the millions of people in our world who still live in the darkness of unbelief.
The question each of us needs to ponder is not the one at the beginning of the devotion, but rather this one: “What are you doing on your part to make sure that every single person you meet will be in heaven one day?”.
Think of the opportunities each of us has in the ministry of The Lutheran Home Association. 30% of senior citizens are living out the end of their lives not knowing about Jesus. 80% of individuals with special needs and their families are not at all connected to a Christian congregation because of the lack of love and concern which people show to them.
Add to those numbers the many people who live their lives with misplaced priorities and don’t have the peace and hope we have in Jesus and there is so much contained in our verse for this week.
Jesus does not need any of us to help gather more people to himself in heaven. What a privilege we have that Jesus uses us as his instruments to share the saving Gospel to those who don’t yet have it!
I’d ask you to again prayerfully consider this question: “What are you doing on your part to make sure that every single person you meet will be in heaven one day?” and then purposefully live your life in such a way that God can use you as his instrument to gather in many more people.