Only the pure of heart will see God. How seriously do we take that truth? Are we lax in our dedication toward a pure heart because we don’t know the outcome for impurity?
Has anyone ever pointed out the following to you? “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practise magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practises falsehood”. (Rev. 22: 14, 15)
It doesn’t matter if you believe this or not: Those outside the city do not get to enter the Holy City of God, nor get to eat from the tree of life. Is that where you REALLY want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Where if a man dies before he is 1000, he will be considered to have been a sinner. None of those who are allowed to enter the gates of God’s City will ever again taste death! What we do here matters, friends. Who we worship matters. And who we allow Jesus to make us into matters.
By His Grace
Tag Archives: eternity
Compare and Decide
The Seal of the President of the United States, as was in use in 1894. This seal continued in use until 1945. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The entire world will love you if you settle into your life quietly and without complaint. While in that mode you’re allowed to steal a little. After all a man has to survive, doesn’t he?
The entire world will glorify you if you lie just enough to gain advantage over others. And if you’re a really good liar, they might even make you President of the United States of America.
But most of us are just plain folks. We settle into a job, raise a family, and die in some obscure condition. For the most part we will have lived out our lives in obscurity. Now this is a general truth. But there is a specific truth that walks right along side the general truth.
The world will hate you with a passion if you take a stand against lies. The world will confront you if you speak up. And if you make a case against their ways, they will look for a way to silence you.
It is wise to consider these things. For we all die having lived the life we did. Right after that comes the judgment. Look at this: We live for what, 50 – 90 years? What is that compared to eternity? When you have lived for 9 billion years, will you remember that short 90? Why not take a stand? You’re gonna die anyway. Why not speak up? What are you afraid of?
Speachless
The Biblical Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew Name for God the Father. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The name of Jesus is not possible to speak in full. He has been with the Father from eternity past. And He will be with the Father for eternity to come. All the things He has done are within His Holy name. All the Glories the Father has bestowed on Him are within His Holy name. And who is able to speak it?
Likewise, our name is beyond speaking. Each individual is the sum of what he has done, thought, desired, and failed to do. Who but God is able to speak our true name? Only God is able to speak it for He has been witness to it all. This is true of every man. Regardless his standing before the Most High God, each man has become a fullness of names. And God’s language is not restrained in His ability to call us as we are.
There is another whose name is complicated. He is the sum of everything which stands against the Lord of Life. And his name is known to the Father also. Speak something which stands against eternal life and you mention a portion of that one’s name. Those who do the things of that one are part of his family. Just as those who do the things of the Living God through Jesus are part of Jesus’ name.
A man is who he belongs to. And we belong according to what we do. It is folly to speak the name of Jesus as some kind of magic incantation. The Father’s will is what will appear to live forever. And only those who do His will by the strength of Jesus within them will enter eternity. All else will be stopped at the door and will not enter.
Believe!
Image via Wikipedia
Settle matters with death. Once a man has settled his mind to accept death as that inevitable doorway to eternity, he is free to live the rest of his days without fear of anything. Then what can be held against you? The world is caught up in living. God’s people are not to be that way. They live dead and do all they can to retain what they can’t keep; even their flesh. But God’s people have settled it in their mind that Jesus has taken away that fear of death which once held us as prisoners.
We have heard that Jesus will take His people into the peace of His Father. We have heard that He is even now preparing a beautiful place for those He incites to love Him. We see the marks within us of obedience to the Father’s Will. And we firmly believe the promises He has spoken. Then we believe, without the slightest hesitation, that God is true. What He has said He is able and willing to do.
How odd these things seemed to me as I first read them. But after watching His hand bless my life, belief is the only reasonable conclusion to retain. For now we don’t see Him with our senses. But there is a Spirit who confirms these things to our hearts. Don’t ever let anyone teach you anything other than what the Lord has said in the Bible. Believe, and you will live though you die.
When
When will we, as individuals, be ready to accept the will of the Lord in Jesus?
When will we, as individuals, believe to the point of walking in faith?
When will we, as individuals, step into the shoes of the Gospel of Peace?
When will we, as individuals, speak the truth in love?
When will we, as individuals, learn to be ready to serve Him in season and out of season?
When?
What are we, as individuals, waiting for?
What more can be said to us that He has not already said?
Fear nothing. Believe the words the Holy Lord of Life has spoken, both promise of good and promise of bad.
Stretch out your hand and take what is being offered this very minute.
The very second your eyes reach this WORD, eternity is upon you.
Eternity is not the past, though it was already there.
Eternity is not the future, though the Lord has already known and prepared what is to come.
Eternity is “the now”.
Are we, as individuals, waiting for heaven?
What will we, as individuals, say when we arrive before Him?
Shall we confess that we were waiting? Might He answer with a question?
“Waiting for what?”
Image via Wikipedia
One Thing Never Sleeps.
Image via Wikipedia
Leaves fall from trees, and they appear to sleep for a season. Roll a ball and there is a place where it stops rolling. Fill up your gas tank and it will eventually run dry. A baby is born, one day becomes an old person then dies. We sit down to a meal at a certain time. And there also comes a time when the meal is done.
Everything in this world has a beginning and an end. Well, this is true of almost everything. There is something that never stops or takes a break. Fill up an hour-glass with sand. And turn the full portion to the top. Watch the grains of sand drop. And marvel at their exact rate. Then consider that even if the hour-glass runs out time does not stop. Wind up a watch and the spring will unwind. But time doesn’t stop. Only our measurement of time runs out. But time does not sleep. It doesn’t take a vacation.
Time is the only indication we have of eternity. The physical manifestation of God’s existence. None of us can imagine the time of God. He always was and always will be. He never sleeps or takes a vacation. And nothing He does ever finds an end. What the Lord does only transforms from one thing to another.
There is death. And we could say that we cease to be at that moment. But we would only be speaking from our perspective. This is not so with God. For at the moment of death, time does not stop. And at that very moment we become the end result of our time here.
There is the Lord’s promise of good and bad in this situation. Many will taste the place where nothing is beautiful, sweet, peaceful, or pleasant. But some will taste eternity with an unspeakable joy. The key to our next experience with time after we die here depends on our relationship with the Most High God. He will never experience a place where He is not at peace. For He is God! But He has promised that if we do not learn to love Him here, we will certainly hate Him there. And He will not allow anything wicked to enter His presence.
He has allowed us the sacrifice of His Son Jesus that we might enter into that eternal relationship with Him. But this is the ONLY door to His presence. Nothing ungodly will enter eternity with joy. And only what He has built will stand the test of His Holy Fire. All else will find itself in a place He has created to receive the trash of creation. I encourage you to seek His peace now. For time does not stop. It is merciless as it travels through. There is no such thing as a “do over” in life. This is the day you have been given to accomplish the Holy Will of God. And how can you know what His perfect will is if you don’t accept His Holy Will borne through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus?
By His Grace.
Words From There 