What will it be like to be in presence of Almighty God? To see Him and to bask in His glory will, for sure, be joy unspeakable. I long to be able to bow before my Heavenly Father and worship Him with angels and saints of old. I will be able to sing praises to Him with a perfect voice. I so much look forward to being able to say to Him, "I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you." I know that glory of God will permeate all of Heaven. No matter where we will be in that Heavenly City, glory of God will be shinning all around. I want to be there and bask in that glory.

I have several loved ones who have gone on to be with God. My grandmother and grandfather were both true saints here on earth. It gives me joy to know that they are with God today, for Scriptures say, "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from body and to be present with Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8) I look forward to being able to be with them once again. I also have aunts and uncles who have gone on, as well as friends and loved ones in church. It will be a great reunion day indeed when we all get to Heaven.

Have you ever thought about how wonderful it would be to be able to set down and talk with saints of old? To be able to talk with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Timothy, Stephen, Silas, and all others will truly be a great and marvelous experience. I sometimes wonder if, when we get to Heaven, we will suddenly have complete knowledge of all history of God's people. I really don't know if we will. But I like to contemplate what it would be like to meet saints of old and ask them questions about their lives. I can just imagine sitting at feet of saints listening for days on end of stories they have to tell.

The Bible does not tell us a great deal about Heaven and what it will be like. It just gives us a glimpse of Heaven. Many of things we must contend with in this life, will be absent in Heaven. The Bible tells us, "They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for Lamb who is in midst of throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:16,17) We know that there will be no sorrow there, no pain, no bad memories, no evil, no emotional problems, no financial problems, no ill feelings between us, no strife, no jealously, no hurt feelings, and list could go on for ever. All things that trouble us here and sometimes make life difficult will be absent in Heaven.

There are those who dwell on reward we will have in Heaven. They like to talk about all magnificent "things" we will have in Heaven. What will reward or treasures be like? Will they be material (houses, gold, silver, etc.), or will they spiritual (love, joy, peace, etc.)? The Bible does speak of us having a reward or treasure in Heaven. Jesus said, "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. . ." (Matthew 5:12); and also "but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matthew 6:20) To me, reward and treasures I am looking forward to are not material. They are those things we have talked about in this article. I look forward to seeing Jesus and our Heavenly Father. I want to see loved ones who have gone on before. I want to visit saints of old and share with them victories of their lives here on earth. I want to experience love, peace, and joy that Heaven will offer by removing all bad things we have to contend with in this life. And I want to bask in glory of God forever!

What will Heaven be like? We can't say for sure with great detail. But we can say for sure that it will be wonderful because our Heavenly Father, His Son and Holy Spirit will be there.

All Scriptures quoted are from New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Stephen Kingery is an author, preacher, teacher and founder of The Home Bible Study Institute.

Visit our site at http://www.james1-22.org

If you were in that guild, your membership implied that you worshipped its god. You were expected to attend guild festivals and eat food offered to tutelary god and also to take part in immorality which always accompanied feast and worship service. Thus, if one refused, he was out of guild, which meant "out of work."

Also, Roman Catholic Church on occasions has denied that heretics be traded with. One such occasion came during reign of Pope Alexander III, when Waldenses and Albigenses were "under fire" by papacy.

If verse in question is taken symbolically, then one might see that only those "out of Christ" and "in Satan" might be ones who are to direct business affairs of world. More importantly, that they would even direct religious affairs of world. Thus, we can understand why some religions do not want their members to think for themselves, but to listen only to interpretations via their clergy.

The Number 666. In Revelation 13:18 number "666" has had so many interpretations, one looses count quickly, as he starts through history books which record them. Most of these have been made by adding numerical values of letters in name of Nero, Mohammed, Roman Catholic pope (papacy), Martin Luther, Napoleon, Trojan, and some of our generation have even seen Henry Kissinger fitting this number. Who or what is next?

Looking at verse and seeing it as a number of MAN, we can see that number six means "missing mark" or failure. Man was created on sixth day. Six is not seven, which is number of perfection, victory. Now, note number of beast is six hundred and sixty-six; that is failure upon failure. It is number of MAN, for beast glories in man. Hence, he must fail.

May each of us, as a serious Bible student, be slow to accept every teaching on Book of Revelation, or any Bible passage. Let us all study with an open mind and be constantly praying for God to enlighten us.

To obtain an enlightening adventure in Book of Revelation, see More Than Conquerors by William Hendricksen, published by Baker Book House.

Brother Hoyt W. Allen Jr. is a Restoration author, preacher and director of the KYOWVA Evangelistic Association in Ironton, Ohio. You may visit his website at www.kyowva.com.

Brother Allen's article is courtesy of the The Home Bible Study Institute - www.james1-22.org.