It’s been over a week now and there hasn’t been a mouse in my house. If the supply is endless, at least it is experiencing a lull at the moment. But it’s only a matter of time…
…which itself is not endless. God tells us over and over that time will eventually stop. Eternity will begin and never end, which is a lame definition, because by its very definition eternity neither begins nor ends, so how can you describe it by using words like “endless.” We will no longer say, “in a minute,” “before long,” or “after a while.” There will no longer be a “then.” Everything will be “now”—or will it? Will that word be irrelevant as well?
This is getting just a little too deep for me, and maybe that is something I needed. I have grown impatient with people who make such a big deal out of things that happen in this life, whining and complaining, “Why me?” seeming to forget that we are promised an eternity that will make even the longest ordeal here look less than minuscule. Even God made a point to remind us over and over about the relative unimportance of physical life compared to an eternal one. Over fifty times the scriptures use phrases like “eternal life,” “everlasting life,” “life evermore,” and “live forever.” So it must be easy in the midst of pain, and sorrow, and surrounded by death, to forget.
Use the help we have been given to remind yourself, especially when things are tough, that eternity is what matters, not what happens in the here and now. If I could find fifty passages, maybe you can find more—maybe they are nearly endless.
Just for the sake of having a way to describe it to us temporally bound souls, eternity is not the last “endless supply.” Another one awaits us, perhaps one even better. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, 1 Pet 1:3,4. “Fades not away” refers to the quality of that eternal life. Unlike this world we find ourselves in now, we will never wish it could end, for the joy of being with the Lord will never run out either.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Cor 15:53-58.
Dene Ward
…which itself is not endless. God tells us over and over that time will eventually stop. Eternity will begin and never end, which is a lame definition, because by its very definition eternity neither begins nor ends, so how can you describe it by using words like “endless.” We will no longer say, “in a minute,” “before long,” or “after a while.” There will no longer be a “then.” Everything will be “now”—or will it? Will that word be irrelevant as well?
This is getting just a little too deep for me, and maybe that is something I needed. I have grown impatient with people who make such a big deal out of things that happen in this life, whining and complaining, “Why me?” seeming to forget that we are promised an eternity that will make even the longest ordeal here look less than minuscule. Even God made a point to remind us over and over about the relative unimportance of physical life compared to an eternal one. Over fifty times the scriptures use phrases like “eternal life,” “everlasting life,” “life evermore,” and “live forever.” So it must be easy in the midst of pain, and sorrow, and surrounded by death, to forget.
Use the help we have been given to remind yourself, especially when things are tough, that eternity is what matters, not what happens in the here and now. If I could find fifty passages, maybe you can find more—maybe they are nearly endless.
Just for the sake of having a way to describe it to us temporally bound souls, eternity is not the last “endless supply.” Another one awaits us, perhaps one even better. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, 1 Pet 1:3,4. “Fades not away” refers to the quality of that eternal life. Unlike this world we find ourselves in now, we will never wish it could end, for the joy of being with the Lord will never run out either.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Cor 15:53-58.
Dene Ward
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