An Eternity of Glory
July 5th, 2017 by martinpuryear
This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. (1st John 2:25)
Eternal life … a promise made by One Who cannot lie to those who have been bought with the blood of the Lamb. We, the redeemed of God, will never stop living. Have you ever tried to grasp the scope of that word? When we are 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 “years old” (so to speak), our lives in the presence of Christ will have just begun. The zeros will just keep on accumulating.
The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1st John 2:17)
The Apostle Paul describes the eternal state as “the ages to come” (Ephesians 2:7). Not “the age (singular) to come” but “the ages (plural) to come.” For this word to be in the plural either means that (1) the one age in front of us is so long it will seem like many ages or that (2) the future will actually witness countless “ages.” Either way, the redeemed are promised a forever-life!
Are you able to wrap your mind around this Truth? I’m not. For me, it is like trying to stretch a two-inch piece of string around the planet Jupiter. I simply cannot fathom eternity. But should we expect otherwise? How can a finite mind comprehend the infinite? Eternal life is a promise that comes from the one, true God Who, Himself, is too big for any of us to comprehend.
But there is something we must grasp … and with full conviction: our time on this earth is very short. Indeed, compared to eternity, our sojourn here is a speck of sand. So, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,” what are we going to be really glad we did with the time we have on this earth?
- Surely, we will be glad for every minute invested in fellowship with the Father.
- We will be glad for every minute we used to worship Him in spirit and in Truth.
- We will be glad for every opportunity we used to faithfully trust and obey Him.
- And we will be glad for every opportunity we used to serve Him with our God-given abilities.
To do all of this, we have been wisely instructed:
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. (2nd Timothy 2:4)
So, what kind of “soldiers in active service” are we?
- Are we depending upon the Spirit of God to bring our character in alignment with the will of the Father?
- Are we using our God-given abilities to the fullest to strengthen His people?
- Is our purpose in life to exalt His Name … that He would be highly respected and feared and loved and honored?
Do we have this kind of perspective … one that is focused on eternity? The fact is, the only way to live wisely in this present life is to
LIVE WITH AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Let us all be faithful to God. Those who are have been promised to radiate – forever – the blazing glory of God.
And forever is a long, long time.
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(And now to the One) from Whom and through Whom and to Whom are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)