Randy shares how conversations with Nanci in the time before her death have helped him look forward, with a biblically-grounded imagination, to the great reunion in Heaven. 

In this clip from his interview with Mike Linch, Randy addresses an idea that people commonly hold: that Hell will be a place of partying and fun, and Heaven will be boring and dreary. He reminds listeners that anything that has brought us joy comes from God and will be absent from Hell. 

In this clip from his interview with Mike Linch, Randy talks about sports and competition on the New Earth. Will we be able to compete without the sinful parts of a competitive nature?

I believe there’s one central explanation for why so many of God’s children have such a vague, negative, and uninspired view of Heaven: the work of Satan. Our enemy slanders three things: God’s person, God’s people, and God’s place—namely, Heaven.

I can’t speak for other believers, but as a fellow human on this sin-cursed planet and hosting a mind that’s been sin-tainted, I can say that putting “God in a box” is a very convenient way to exercise the control we like to pretend we have over our circumstances. 

On the one hand, the genetic abnormalities that people experience are a result of the Curse, which we know will be reversed forever on the New Earth, after the resurrection. On the other hand, it’s absolutely true that Down Syndrome people are precious and there is something that often shines through in them that is very special.

We tend to think of everlasting life as something that begins after the Resurrection or after we die when in reality it starts the day our lives are returned to us through Christ’s work of salvation. Likewise, we think of the bride of Christ in individual terms instead of as the Church.

I have often wished I could call up recordings of conversing with people I’ve met at churches, conventions, airports, and many more places. I suspect we will be able to recall conversations and “chance” meetings when we see those people again in Heaven.

A reader asked me if it’s possible he’ll visit his childhood hometown one day on the New Earth. Might this earth’s places that we loved and enjoyed be resurrected to the New Earth? In becoming new, will the old Earth retain much of what it once was?