Ecclesiastes 7:2 (NLT) states, “Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies, so the living should take this to heart.”
When was the last time you gave any thought to the fact that you are an eternal being? (Eccl. 3:11) The years God gives you on this earth are like a pebble on a beach compared to the eternity before you.
Despite this, very few people give any serious thought to the matter of eternity. Like one gentleman confessed, “I neither understood nor sought any information - but let myself tumble through time without a thought of eternity.”
Blaise Pascal, a 17th century Christian leader, looked at the people of his day and saw what he called, “a collective indifference; a shared insanity: Man’s sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest things.” He called them “marks of a strange disorder.” It seems little has changed.
We buy books on improving our personality; on getting ahead in our society; on finding happiness and prosperity but continue with an apathy toward eternity. We are part of Pascal’s “strange disorder” that focuses attention on “little things” while disregarding the “greatest things.”
The reality is that you and I live on a small rock in a vast universe. We know little of where we came from or where we are going. We struggle to understand ourselves. But a few matters are certain. One day we will die. And an eternity faces everyone. (Heb. 9:27) What then?
Some think it is simply a return to the dust of the ground. For others it is a form of reincarnation to a second life of some kind. For those who believe God’s plan and put credence in His Word, the “beyond” will be eternal in one of two places – heaven or hell. An eternal life with God, or an eternity without Him. God gives each of us the choice of where that will be. “Whoever believes in him (Jesus) is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18) “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household….” (Eph. 2:3, 19)
The wonderful “good news” is that Jesus came to pay the debt for our sin and pave the way for us to be restored in our relationship with God - forever. (John 3:16-17)
“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16 NLT)
Be blessed my friend.
Glen (Pitts)
The Barnabas Group / Loads of Love
Rev. 3:20; Psalm 14:1-2; Romans 8:28-39; II Tim. 1:8-10; John 14:1-6; Eccl. 3:1-14
