A Christian Meditation on Living Now As Someone Raised with Christ from Colossians 3:1-4

<p>The Bible’s contrast is never between Heaven and Hell. It’s between Heaven and Earth. That contrast began when Adam and Eve (Hebrew for Human and Life) were banned from Eden (Heaven on Earth meant the fill the Earth), and they were left outside in the thorns and thistles and dust and death of Heaven’s absence from the Earth.</p><p><br></p><p>Later in the OT, the tabernacle and later the Temple became little embassies of Heaven on Earth. Physical places of God’s presence on Earth. In the NT, God is said to have become flesh and <em>tabernacled</em> among us (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201%3A14&amp;version=NIV" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John 1:14</a>). Jesus was the very physical embodiment of Heaven on Earth. Later in the NT, the Holy Spirit indwells Jesus’s followers as they/their bodies become Temples of the Holy Spirit — embodied, physical places of Heaven on Earth. This is what YOU are — your body is — as a follower of Jesus!</p><p><br></p><p><em>Remember…</em></p><p><strong>1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV</strong></p><p>…Do you not know that your <strong>body</strong> <strong>is a temple </strong>of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? … So glorify God <strong>in your body</strong>.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)</strong></p><p>1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.</p><p><br></p><p><em>So…</em></p><p><strong>Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV)</strong></p><p>Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on <strong>earthly</strong> things.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Colossians 3:5 NIV</strong></p><p>Put to death, therefore, whatever be