Tag: eternity

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A Better Idea

Daily Reading

Ecclesiastes 1-4

Daily Thought

Remember the 1960’s jingle, “Ford has a better idea”? Actually, we all have a better idea–at least we think so–and that is the point of Ecclesiastes. We all want to eat, drink, and be merry (Ecclesiastes 2:24, sort of), and we think we know how; and, in a way, we do know how, and therein is the problem. We eat and drink and work and play to fill a void and find meaning, and if that is all we do, it is a poor substitute for what God has in store for us. What we do turns out to be empty, meaninglessness, vanity, “vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Our better ideas bring instant, but not enduring, gratification–no wonder or beauty, which is what God has in mind for us.

We live for the moment, for the immediate, life “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:3), life without regard to God; yet God has put eternity in our heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and so we miss him in the moment. God has established a time for everything; a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, build up, weep, laugh, mourn, dance, cast away stones and gather them again; a time to embrace and refrain, seek and lose, keep and cast away; to tear, to sew, to keep silence, to speak, to love, to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3:2-8).

Perhaps the most difficult, but the most vital of all of God’s commands is “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7), for “he has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11), not ours. God has a better idea.

Daily Prayer

My God, I desire to live a life not focused on pleasure, but on purpose; not for now, but for forever. God, thank You for placing eternity in my heart, for creating me in Your image with Your delights and Your desires. May I always live for You.

Teach me patience and endurance, to wait on Your plans, to endure hardship and suffering, and to discover Your joy and the beauty of Your ways.

Amen

Daily Question

What is the purpose of your life?

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And They Lived Happily Ever After

Daily Reading

Revelation 17-19

Daily Thought

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons.” ~Revelation 18:2

Babylon is the last battle and Satan’s last stand, and as God’s wrath finishes its destruction, all the people who had placed all their hope in this world watch the smoke rise, “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste” (Revelation 18:16-17). The great city was Babylon, representing the commerce and culture of this world, and the Bible calls her “the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality” (Revelation 19:2). She is rightly destroyed, for none is less welcome at a wedding than the prostitute, and it is time now for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready. ~Revelation 19:6-7

The Lamb is Jesus Christ and his bride is the church. She has purchased her gown, but rather than Babylonian purple and scarlet, her fine linen is heavenly, “bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:8). The world began with a wedding, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). God called it very good. Now, as one world ends, there is a new beginning and another wedding, and it is even better and forever.

“And they lived happily ever after” is no mere fairy tale ending, but the promise of God to those who enter his Story.

Daily Prayer

My God Eternal, You have given me a glimpse of the future and it fills me with anticipation–a world pure and good, filled with Your love and holiness. I live now in preparation for an everlasting Kingdom with Your Son on the throne reigning in righteousness.

May my life reflect now what is to come, displaying the goodness and godliness of eternity with You, and may it attract others to believe in You and enter Your story, full of grace and truth.

Amen

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Take the Deal

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 5-9

Daily Thought

Paul’s life is shaped by his awareness that this is but his first, his earthly life, and there is eternity to come, “for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2Corinthians 5:1). We are not long for this life is Paul’s point, so don’t settle in. I resonate with, now in my sixties more than when I was sixteen, these words of Paul, “for in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2Corinthians 5:2), and there is nothing wrong with that, but not too fast, there is work to be done.

“We are ambassadors for Christ,” says Paul, “God making his appeal through us on behalf of Christ’ (2Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador is a citizen of one kingdom living in another, representing his home country to a foreign land. Jesus is King and eternity is our home, but there are many who still make this world their home and do not know there is more yet to come.

There is good news and bad news, however. Bad news first. Between now and eternity stands judgment–“we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2Corinthians 5:10), and that is bad news, because none of us have been all that good, not good enough for a heavenly dwelling. Now, the good news, and as ambassadors, we bring it. For our sake God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Corinthians 5:21). Jesus gets your sin and gives you his righteousness. It is an incredible offer, profoundly unfair, and you win. Take the deal!

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are holy and good. Your Son has taken the penalty of death for my sin and given me the reward of life through his righteousness. Thank You so much!

May I rid myself of the desires, the thoughts, the habits of old. May I put them to death. Help me kill them. I don’t want to think and act the way I used to, but rather, to live the life You created me to live, a life of service and love, of goodness and peace, that gives You glory and pleasure. Make me one who gives those on earth a taste of heaven.

Amen

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Hungry Rats

Daily Reading

Hosea 8-14

Daily Thought

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). God recalls his love and care for Israel, rescuing them from slavery, feeding them in the wilderness, leading them to a land he specially prepared for them. And yet “when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart became proud; therefore they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6). They were fat and happy.

I was pre-med for a year, before I discovered my powerful dislike for biology. I did have fun with rats, though. I learned that if you want to teach a rat something, it better be hungry. It is the “90 percent rule.” Feed a rat, weigh it, then diet it down 10 percent. Hungry rats solve mazes faster, click pedals more often to get food and generally behave better than when they are satisfied. If they are not hungry, they are not that eager to learn.

Israel had much to learn. Perhaps when Mick Jagger wailed, “I can’t get no satisfaction,” that was a good thing, if we are looking only to the here and now, for the here and now cannot satisfy. We are made for so much more. “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). All of life is lived on the edge of eternity.

“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” ~Luke 6:21

Daily Prayer

Father God, May I be satisfied in Your love, and unsatisfied with anything less. You created me to live in a close relationship with You. May I hunger, starve even, when I neglect to nurture and feed that relationship. God, keep me forever eager to grow in the knowledge and love of You. May I live always in the light of eternity.

Amen

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The Door

Daily Reading

2Samuel 19-21

Daily Thought

David mourns the loss of his son, crying aloud, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2Samuel 18:33; 19:4). Who can fault a father his grief, but it lingers too long and too loud, and Joab are pointedly true, “You have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you, for today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased” (2Samuel 19:6).

Death is grievous, and should be. It is the last enemy (1Corinthians 15:26). But there is a particularly awful agony in the loss of a son you never really had, whose death was as pointless as his life. King David the father mourns the life and death of his rebellious, disobedient son, and in doing so, pours scorn on the faithful people who had well-served their king.

What a contrast to the death of another son of David, “who humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death–even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:8). God the Father celebrates the life and death of his righteous, obedient Son, who in dying provides salvation to the sinful people who crucified their King.

To a life lived for today, death closes the door, but to a life lived for Jesus, death is the door into eternity.

Daily Prayer

God, Your salvation is amazing. I, a sinner, was not looking to be saved, but rather, I was a self-seeking man, longing to be self-satisfied. I could not, however, find satisfaction, contentment, peace, love, purpose in my pursuits. I needed a Savior.

Your Son left His place by Your side and became like me to show me who You are. He  sought me, saved me, and showed me true love. He laid down His life to give me mine. No greater love.

Thank You