Paradise.

"Remember me when you come into your kingdom," said the thief to Jesus. Each hung on a cross in excrutiating pain. Jesus replied, "Today you will be with me in paradise."

The thief had lived a life full of sin, had never been baptized, but believed in the last hours of his life in the power of Jesus Christ to save him. God later that day received his spirit into paradise.

Paradise sounds good doesn't it? Paul speaks in the third person about himself in 2 Corinthians when he says: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven*. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things that man is not permitted to tell." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). Paul saw paradise, but was not permitted to "discuss the details." Ever wonder why Paul had the strength to live the life he did? He knew who he was going to be with (Jesus/Acts chapter 9), and he knew the inheritance he was to receive. About eternity Paul writes: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9). Anything we imagine is less than what God has planned! Think of the most awesome beautiful place on earth, and it is nothing in comparison to the eternal dwelling of those who allow Jesus to become Lord of their life.

*Third heaven: the first heaven is the sky, the second heaven is the stars and space, the third heaven is the spiritual realm.