Friday 4 April 2008

Day 4: YOU WERE MADE TO LAST FOREVER




God has…planted eternity in human heart.
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Surely God would not have created such a being
as man to exist only for a day!
No, no, man was made for immortality.
Abraham Lincoln


Moment of truth: One day we all will die...
This life is not all there is.
Life on earth is just the dress rehearsal before the real production. You will spend far more time on the other side of death-in eternity- then you will be here. Earth is the staging area, the preschool, the tryout for your life in eternity. It is the practice workout before the actual game; the warm-up lap before the race begins. The life is preparation for the next.
At most, you may live a hundred years on earth, but you will spend forever in eternity. Your time on earth is, as Sir Thomas Browne said, “but a small parenthesis in eternity”. You were made to last forever.
The only time most people think about eternity is at funerals. You have an inborn instinct that longs for immortality. This is because God designed you, in his image, to live for eternity. The bible says, “God has…planted human eternity in human heart.”
One day your heart will stop beating. That will be the end of your body and your time on earth, but it will not the end of you. The bible calls your earthly body a “tent,” but refers to your future body as a “house.” We need to think more about eternity. The bible says, when this tent we live in-our body here on earth-is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever.”
Death is not your termination, but your transition into eternity, so there are eternal consequences to everything you do or not do on earth. While live on earth offers many choices, eternity offers only two: heaven or hell. Your relationship to God on earth will determine your relationship to him in eternity. If you learn to love and trust God’s Son, Jesus, you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with him. On the other hand, if you reject his love, forgiveness, and salvation, you will spend eternity apart from God forever.

Whatever you chose here and now will determine and prepare you for eternity. Jus as the nine months you spent in your mother’s womb were not and end in themselves but preparation for life, so this life is preparation for the next. The deeds of this life are the destiny of the next. Think of today as the final day preparing for eternity.

Day 4
Thinking about my purpose
Point to ponder: There is more to life than just here and now.
Verse to remember: “This world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.” 1 John 2:17
Question to consider: Since I was made to last forever, what is the one thing I should stop doing and the one thing I should start doing today?

(Note: see also Day 1-3, as posted earlier.)

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