From Here to Eternity
Theme of the Week: Unlocking the Secrets of the Afterlife
Friday, March 19, 2010
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Key Bible Verse: When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. (John 14:3) Bonus Reading: 2 Peter 3:11-14
My friend Ponder Gilliland is aptly described by his first name. He is ponderous. Brilliant but ponderous. He's a thinker.
What has impacted me most about him, though, isn't his mind but his view of God. One line echoes over and over in my spirit. He'd say, "My Father likes me. He likes to be with me. He wants to spend time with me."
This is precisely what God wants. And that is why he offers us eternity. He wants no one in hell. He wants you with him. In heaven. Forever.
If you've spent time in Sunday school, you've probably memorized John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (NIV).
That's what this whole discussion about the afterlife boils down to: God has prepared an unimaginable place for you to spend eternity, and he wants to enjoy it with you.
God's desire? For you to become comfortable with him. Here. Now. It will make the next life even more wonderful.
He likes you. He wants to be with you. Now.
—Jim Garlow with Keith Wall in Heaven and the Afterlife
My Response: What am I doing to enjoy God's presence right now that will prepare me for the best eternity ever?
Thought to Apply: No, it is not the jasper walls and the pearly gates that are going to make heaven attractive. It is the being with God.—D. L. Moody (evangelist)
Adapted from Heaven and the Afterlife (Bethany House, 2009) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.
Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Dear heavenly Father, help me to not only reflect on heaven and the afterlife but to also consider what eternity has to do with how I live in the here and now.
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