I had a wild but humbling thought recently when I was wondering in sheer amazement about God’s eternal being. I mean He always was and always will be. In simple terms, there was never a time when there was no God. There will never be a time when He won’t exist. Just to contemplate that is a challenge to one’s ability to comprehend as well as an impossible reach for the imagination. But I’ve come to appreciate imagining the awesome power of God. My point about being humbled in this respect is that in God’s infinite knowledge, I’m supposed to have been there. I mean God knew me before I knew me. Apparently, if I believe scripture (and I do), I am an integral part of God’s great plan. I have a role to play. Somehow then, I was there when Adam was created, if God fashioned me (and you) as a descendant of the original man. That means you’ve also been around in God’s mind forever.
Scripture teaches that if you believe in the Godliness of Christ, then our very existence in eternity is guaranteed. It’s incredibly humbling to think that the Almighty in His infinite being and power had and has room for you and me in His thought process. I still struggle with that. That means from the moment I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, I became aware of my immortality. So often as we grow older, we tend to accept our mortality (maybe even begrudgingly), when really we should be more aware and appreciative of our own immortality. The bible reaffirms this constantly throughout scripture. “And this is the (God’s) testimony: God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.” 1 John 5:11-12. Baptized believers understand the words of Christ. “I tell you the truth; whoever hears my words and believes Him who sent me has eternal life…” John 5:24. I am merely, in as humble a way as possible, accepting this truth. The reality of that truth is what boggles the mind. If I calculate time in human terms, I was born. I lived and I will die. By accepting Christ as my Lord and Savior, I must recalculate time as follows: I was born. I lived and I will die in this physical world. At that moment I will live again, forever.
One of the by products of this truth is also a fundamental belief in God’s Word because Jesus is the one telling us God’s intention. So therefore, faith here demands we’ve got to accept God’s Word first and above all else. Now I don’t know about you, but given an option of taking God’s Word or not, you pretty much can take what I’m going to do straight to the vault in heaven. I mean just think about it for a moment. From the instant God thought of you, you became eligible for immortality. That eligibility gets realized when you start an intimate relationship with Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, we confirm our relationship with Christ and our existence in eternity. All we have to do is choose. Listen up! Choose life or choose death. I’ve made my choice. I choose life, and you know what? I’m going to live forever. You know what? You are too. Imagine that.
May God bless and keep you always,James, jaws@dallasweekly.com