Quotes about Heavenly presence

(The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.)

Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”

Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them.

The hand of God is on me, the love of God is in me, and the heaven of God is before me.

Luther believed that the body and blood of Christ are really and locally present in the Eucharist. And when asked, How can the body of Christ which is in heaven be in many different places at the same time? He answered that the body of Christ is everywhere. And when asked, How can that be? His only answer was, That in virtue of the incarnation the attributes of the divine nature were communicated to the human, so that wherever the Logos is there the soul and body of Christ must be.

The entire cosmos is meant to serve as a sacrament: a material gift from God in and through which we enter into the joy of his heavenly presence.

Precisely because heaven is already present on earth, the moral lives of Christians on earth are to reflect their heavenly participation.

Heaven is here and God is here, because God and his spiritual agents act here and are constantly available here.

The damage done to our practical faith in Christ and in his government-at-hand by confusing heaven with a place in distant or outer space, or even beyond space, is incalculable. Of course God is there too. But instead of heaven and God also being always present with us, as Jesus shows them to be, we invariably take them to be located far away and, most likely, at a much later time—not here and not now. And we should then be surprised to feel ourselves alone?

I sometimes think that we have an idea that our song and presence in heaven will add something to God. Never! You cannot add to God. No tinge of brightness can you put upon the beauty of His character, no greater fullness of love can you give. How then can I glorify Him? God is glorified in the perfect realization on the part of His people of all the gracious purposes of His love for them.

There was something familiar about the angelic choir, their sacred songs wafting through the night in perfect harmony; he always felt close to heaven here.

With the Eucharist, therefore, heaven comes down to earth, the tomorrow of God descends into the present and it is as if time remains embraced by divine eternity.