When I was a child, we read the tales of fairies and genies, and talked about the things we would wish for if we had three wishes. It was not long before I realized that three would not be enough! Soon I learned to wish that all my wishes would come true, but, later, I added a special formula to avoid the “Midas Touch” dilemma. [I didn’t really want my sister to turn into a cockroach forever.]
Even adults spend some time wishing. I would wish to be able to hear music and for my wife to see well, for youth, for wisdom, for wealth, for perfect weather and for….you see, three would never be enough.
Then, wisdom strikes (rarely) – I am wishing for all the wrong things and all the things that matter have already been granted--I must just wait a little while with faith.
We will live forever in perfect health in bodies of a totally new kind that make these look like tents (2 Cor 5:1-4). There will be joy and peace and plenty so far beyond our understanding that it is described as the streets being paved with gold and rivers of waters of life flowing from the throne of God. No one will die or even get sick. Beauties beyond mortal vision will thrill us. A life super abundantly beyond all that we can think to wish for us awaits us (Eph 3:20). And, it never fades or diminishes in its delights for the soul as it does on earth where, once we receive them, we often tire of the things we had wished for. (1 Pet 1:4).
Can you believe it; many people think they can do better! They feel the cost of a life of righteousness is too high and seek their joy in the pleasures of sin.
Sin is for the young and healthy. Its pleasures are real but fleeting, and just as an addict must use more and more of his drug to achieve a high, so must sinners “wax worse and worse” to achieve their pleasure (2Tim 3:13). Sin inevitably hurts others and ruins the psyche of the sinner. Then you die and comes judgment.
A life of righteousness builds one’s inner man and his relationships. Joy and peace accompany the righteous in sickness and health and whatever circumstances life brings, for he looks for “a city whose builder and maker is God;” and “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” Heb 11:10, 1 Tim 4:8. Then you die and all your wishes do come true and beyond that, glories you never imagined to wish for.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, the tree of life, which bare twelve kinds of fruit, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the peoples.
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Selected from Rev 21 & 22).
Keith Ward
Even adults spend some time wishing. I would wish to be able to hear music and for my wife to see well, for youth, for wisdom, for wealth, for perfect weather and for….you see, three would never be enough.
Then, wisdom strikes (rarely) – I am wishing for all the wrong things and all the things that matter have already been granted--I must just wait a little while with faith.
We will live forever in perfect health in bodies of a totally new kind that make these look like tents (2 Cor 5:1-4). There will be joy and peace and plenty so far beyond our understanding that it is described as the streets being paved with gold and rivers of waters of life flowing from the throne of God. No one will die or even get sick. Beauties beyond mortal vision will thrill us. A life super abundantly beyond all that we can think to wish for us awaits us (Eph 3:20). And, it never fades or diminishes in its delights for the soul as it does on earth where, once we receive them, we often tire of the things we had wished for. (1 Pet 1:4).
Can you believe it; many people think they can do better! They feel the cost of a life of righteousness is too high and seek their joy in the pleasures of sin.
Sin is for the young and healthy. Its pleasures are real but fleeting, and just as an addict must use more and more of his drug to achieve a high, so must sinners “wax worse and worse” to achieve their pleasure (2Tim 3:13). Sin inevitably hurts others and ruins the psyche of the sinner. Then you die and comes judgment.
A life of righteousness builds one’s inner man and his relationships. Joy and peace accompany the righteous in sickness and health and whatever circumstances life brings, for he looks for “a city whose builder and maker is God;” and “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” Heb 11:10, 1 Tim 4:8. Then you die and all your wishes do come true and beyond that, glories you never imagined to wish for.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, the tree of life, which bare twelve kinds of fruit, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the peoples.
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Selected from Rev 21 & 22).
Keith Ward
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