Bible Study: Hebrews 11:13-16 - A country in heaven or on earth

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. >Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. - (Hebr 11:13-16 NIV)

In these verses, the author of the Hebrews letter is teaching us about another destination. He called it a heavenly country. His statement is in line with Jesus teachings in Matt 6:19 where He said that we need to gather a treasure in heaven and not on earth.

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and >steal. - (Matt 6:19 NIV)

The Bible is constantly talking about this heavenly country in which we as Christians must put our hope as our final destination. We need to make ourselves loose from the earthly country and attached ourselves to the heavenly one - gather our treasure in heaven. But how do you do it?

At the moment this is a big question on my heart. Ruminating the concept of a heavenly country the thought that the golden attributes must be central in reaching it, always come back to me. In 1 Cor 13 Paul discusses the concept of love, and he ends the chapter pointing out that love does not stand alone but goes with faith and hope - the three golden attributes.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. - (1 Cor 13:13 NIV)

In Rom 5:1-5 Paul discuss the Faith, Hope and Love in more detail. He explains that we enter God's grace through faith, we boast in the hope of Gods glory and the Holy Spirit's outpouring of love in our hearts. Life for us as humans, therefore, centre around Faith, Hope and Love - discussed in a previous blog.. At this stage, it looks for me that these three golden attributes form the keys of the kingdom of heaven which Jesus gave Peter in Matt 16:19.

Except for having the key, we also need to cut the connection with the earthly country. The things that bind us to live in the 3rd dimension. In 2 Cor 12:9-10, Paul's teachings said that we need to become weak because Father's strength is illustrated to the world through our weakness. To understand the weakness my first question will be, what makes us strong? To answer that I will say that our strength is based on the resources we have to our disposal. A rich person feels stronger than a poor person. The same in skills and abilities. Does this mean that I may not be rich or have skills? I don't think sou, but what is important will be the value it has for me. Can I turn my back on these resources if Father requests it.... as Jesus requested it from the rich young man in Matthew 19:16–30?

All of this comes back to the choice between a treasure in heaven or one on earth. The Stoics have a negative imagination technique where they imagine what life will be without a resource or a certain comfort. Maybe it is something I as a Christian can use to cut the ropes which bind me to the earthly country.