Is it possible to be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good? That is an old adage that people believe. I believe that we're not heavenly minded enough. I also believe that the more heavenly minded we are the more earthly good we accomplish. Richard Baxter is a good case in point.
Richard Baxter was a very effective pastor in England in the 1600's. His whole adult life was spent battling one sickness after the other. He was afflicted with a chronic cough, frequent nosebleeds, migraine headaches, digestive ailments, kidney stones and gallstones. He believed in divine healing and said that several times he was restored to fruitful labor because of God's intervention. He said that once a cancerous looking tumor in his throat vanished while he was in the pulpit testifying to God's mercies in his own life. Yet his bodily suffering was with him to the end, and he once said that from the age of 21 he was "seldom and hour free from pain." One of the effects of Pastor Baxter's suffering was to make him intensely aware of how temporary life is and how inevitable death is. Once, when he was 35, he was bed-bound by one of his diseases and thought he would probably not recover. He began to meditate on the joys of heaven and the age to come in preparation for leaving this world. He focused especially on the hope of glory and began to write down his thoughts. To his surprise, he recovered and his thoughts became a book entitled, "The Saints' Everlasting Rest". He took up the discipline of meditating on heaven a half hour each day because of the powerful impact it had on his life. He commends the same thing to his readers:
"If you would have light and heat, why are you not more in the sunshine? For want of this recourse to heaven, your soul is as a lamp not lighted, and you duty as a sacrifice without fire. Fetch one coal daily from this altar, and see if your offering will not burn. Keep close to this reviving fire, and see if your affections will not be warm."
I believe Richard Baxter discovered the more his mind stayed on heaven the more effective he became on earth.
In Colossians 1: 4-5 the Bible reads, "because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints - the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel..." Notice that these believers faith and love came from the springboard of hope in heaven. Their heavenly minds made them effective servants for Christ. Later in Colossians Paul writes, "Since 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 earthly things." (Col. 3:1-2). I think Paul is exhorting us to be heavenly minded for our earthly good and the good of others.
As we go through this series on Heaven may God grant us the discipline to be more heavenly minded. The person who knows that his destiny is glorious and certain will be free to live a radical life of love and sacrifice on earth.
If you want to read excerpts from Richard Baxter's "The Saints' Everlasting Rest", click the following link: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/baxter/saints_rest.html

Looking up and forward with you,
Pastor Tim