Made To Last Forever

 

 

 

What on Earth Am I Here For?

 

 

A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;

a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.

Proverbs 11:28

 

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord....

They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with

roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees

are not bothered by the heat or worried by long

months of drought. Their leaves stay green,

and they go right on producing delicious fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

 

Made to Last Forever

 

God has... planted eternity

in the human heart.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

 

Surely God would not have created such

a being as man to exist only for a day!

No, no, man was made for immortality.

Abraham Lincoln

 

This life is not all there is.

You will spend far more time on the other side of death—

in eternity—than you will here.

This life is preparation for the next.

Your time on earth is, as Sir Thomas Browne said,

"but a small parenthesis in eternity."

You were made to last forever.

 

"God has... planted eternity in the human heart."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Your earthly body is just a temporary residence for your spirit.

The Bible calls your earthly body a "tent,"

but refers to your future body as a "house."

"When this tent we live in—our body here on earth—is torn down,

God will have a house in heaven for us to live in,

a home he himself has made, which will last forever."

2 Corinthians 5:1

 

Your relationship to God on earth

will determine your relationship to him in eternity.

If you learn to love and trust God's Son, Jesus,

you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with him.

 

C. S. Lewis said,

"There are two kinds of people:

those who say to God "Thy will be done"

and those to whom God says, 'All right then, have it your way.'"

Tragically, many people will have to endure eternity without God

because they chose to live without him here on earth.

 

The closer you live to God,

the smaller everything else appears.

When you live in light of eternity, your values change.

Your priorities are reordered.

Paul said,

"I once thought all these things were so very important,

but now I consider them worthless

because of what Christ has done."

Philippians 3:7

Death is not your termination, but your transition into eternity,

so there are eternal consequences to everything you do on earth.

Every act of our lives strikes some chord that will vibrate in eternity.

 

The most damaging aspect of contemporary living is short-term thinking.

Today is the visible tip of the iceberg.

Eternity is all the rest you don't see underneath the surface.

"No mere man has ever seen, heard or even imagined

what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord."

1 Corinthians 2:9

However, God has given us glimpses of eternity in his Word.

One day Jesus will say,

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance,

the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."

Matthew 25:34

 

C. S. Lewis captured the concept of eternity

on the last page of the Chronicles of Narnia,

his seven-book children's fiction series:

"For us this is the end of all the stories...

but for them it was only the beginning of the real story.

All their life in this world...

had only been the cover and the title page:

now at last they were beginning Chapter one of the Great Story,

which every chapter is better than the one before."

 

God has a purpose for your life on earth,

but it doesn't end here.

It's more than "the opportunity of a lifetime";

God offers you an opportunity beyond your lifetime.

"[God] plans endure forever; his purposes last eternally."

Psalm 33:11

 

"This world is not our home;

we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven."

Hebrews 13:14

Measured against eternity,

our time on earth is just a blink of an eye,

but the consequences of it will last forever.

The deeds of this life are the destiny of the next.

We should be "realizing that

every moment we spend in these earthly bodies is

time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus."

2 Corinthians 5:6

 

Actually, it would be wiser to live each day

as if it were the last day of your life.

Matthew Henry said,

"It ought to be the business of every day

to prepare for our final day."

 

 

 

 

 

DAY FOUR

Thinking About My Purpose

 

Point to Ponder: There is more to life than just here and now.

Verse to Remember: "This world is fading away,

along with everything it craves.

But if you do the will of God,

you will live forever."

1 John 2:17

Question to Consider; Since I was made to last forever,

what is the one thing I should stop doing

and the one thing I should start doing today? 

 

p 36~40

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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