magazine once published an extensive article entitled "Does heaven exist?" (Time, March 24, 1997). The writer documents three facts: preachers preach on heaven much less than in the past; while a large majority of people believe that it exists, most have no real idea what it is; and almost nobody thinks its existence changes the way we live here. Theologian David Wells is quoted as saying, "I don't think heaven is even a blip on the Christian screen, from one end of the denominational spectrum to the other."

How often did you think about heaven this week? Did its existence change anything you did? Why should it? For this simple reason: when we lose heaven we lose the transcendent. We lose our sense that there is something more than this world, and we who live in it. And that is always a bad decision, for several reasons.

First, if we don't live for heaven we will live for this world, for it is all there is. And that, the Bible says we must not do. Listen to 1 John 2:15-17: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

Paul says, "We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 5:18). He warns us: "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 earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:1-3). The apostle summarizes for us: "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20).

Why are we not to love this world? Because it is not enough. It is never enough. When an assistant asked a tycoon how much money is enough, he said: "Just a little more." Our new house seems wonderful, then they build others by us which are larger and better. Our new car is great, until the next model year arrives. Straight A's are super, but there's always the next semester. CEO is outstanding, but the more we succeed the more we must succeed to stay there.

If you don't live for heaven, you must live for earth. You trade eternity for something which could be gone today. And that's a mistake.

Second, if we don't live for heaven we must rely on ourselves, for God will not help us love this world. We are on our own.

Sociologist James Davison Hunter surveyed the titles released by the six largest evangelical publishers in America. He discovered that 87.5% of all books concerned self-help issues--pop psychology, how to's, self therapy. Only 12.5% dealt with God, theology, Scripture, or eternity. When we don't live for heaven, God cannot help us live on earth.

Third, if we don't live for heaven we lose any sense of direction, purpose or values. If this world is all there is, who is to say what's right and what's wrong? Everything becomes relative. And so it has.

93% of all Americans say they are their only moral determiner. We must tolerate all beliefs as if they were our own. No absolutes exist--we're absolutely sure of it. In 1907 P. T. Forsyth made a prophetic statement: "If within us we find nothing over us we succumb to what is around us."

Remember the time in Alice in Wonderland where Alice meets the Cheshire-Cat and anxiously asks, "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," says the Cat. "I don't much care where," says Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," says the Cat. And the serpent with him.

Last, when we don't live for heaven we have no real hope when hard times come. When there is no heaven, we have an intense need for everything to be right on earth. We can have no suffering, no pain, no distress here--we have an "inalienable right to happiness," we're told. But not by the Bible. Jesus said, "In this world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). So long as this life is only a trip to a destination, that's o.k. But when it's the destination, then all is lost.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago describes the terrors of a Soviet concentration camp. He begins with the day of the arrest and the inquisition which comes before the sentence. He describes the tortures experienced by the unlucky ones. Endless, brutal tortures that break down all kinds of men and women--except for the few who cannot be broken. Those few are ready to die. The torturers have no power over them. As much as they enjoy living, they believe there is something more important than life. They're right.