Eternity! Have you ever really thought about it? We’re here on earth for a brief 70 or 80 years and then we die. Is that it? No, my friend, for Christians, our journey is just beginning. What’s ahead for you and me is a wonderful future that God Himself has prepared for us. This future has no end and is spent with God our Father. It is a free gift that you and I have done nothing to earn, but comes to us through God’s grace and faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a future with no more tears, anxieties, fears, depression, heartburn, backaches or lapses of memory.
This is such an overwhelming thought that I can’t even wrap my mind around it. My earthly mind is only designed to comprehend earthly thoughts and dimensions — there is a beginning and an end to everything; time is the element I’m always fighting against. There is never enough of it. But, in Heaven time won’t matter, will it? Everything on this earth grows old, our bodies, the trees and plants around us, our pets and even the machines and buildings we build. But, in Heaven there will be no end to anything.
Now that you’re a Christian, what does eternity hold for you? You are no longer a stranger to God; your name is written down and known by the angels in Heaven. You are one of God’s chosen individuals who’s now a member of His very own family. You are now a citizen of Heaven and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian. (Ephesians 2:19)
We’ll have a whole new way of thinking and living. A life where our thoughts will be Heavenly focused on our love for our Father and His love for us. Our brand new bodies will never age or start to fail us, and for some your hair will never fall out again. Our earthly sinful thoughts with all of their limits and satanic controls will be gone. We’ll finally have a mind that is only filled with glory, praise and love for our Heavenly Father.
Haven’t you realized yet that you don’t have to wait for Heaven to fill your mind with glory, praise and love for your Heavenly Father? The moment you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior you were given the mind of Christ to understand His thoughts (1 Corinthians 2:16), and if you let God, He’ll transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind, (the mind of Christ). Then you will be able to know the will of God—you’ll understand what is good and pleasing to him. (Romans 2:12)
God’s Holy Word exhorts you to begin your journey to eternity now. You are no longer to live your life bound to Satan’s rules and regulations that run this world. God’s Word tells us what we need to do now in order to prepare for eternity (1 John 2:15), so that on that glorious judgment day when you stand before our Lord, He will say to you well done, my good and faithful servant. You have fought a good fight, the good fight for the true faith. You’ve held tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12)
Through this series I want to look at the road blocks, the detours and the wrong turns we take that impact our journey. I’ll discuss topics relevant to today and the future. We’ll overlay what our Father tells us from His Holy Word on top of what’s going on in this world. By analyzing these events we will shed light on truths that some of us really don’t want to hear, because we’re trying through our own efforts to change them.
This series “Your Journey to Eternity” now becomes personal for me. I will be sharing the journey to eternity with you. I will share the views of what God’s Holy Word is saying to me and how I should be living my life now in preparation for eternity.
From now on I will be referring to the Holy Trinity as “My Father,” “My Lord,” and “My Spirit” because that is whom they’ve become to me. I am learning and growing each day to eternalize My God in every aspect of my life.
All in—Heart, Mind and Soul
Let me begin to share where my journey is taking me. My Father’s Holy Word tells me that He wants me to become more like my Lord, His Son. The only way I know to accomplish His desire for my life is to focus on following my Father’s command that I spoke about in my last series entitled “All You Need is Love” given through my Lord in Matthew 22:37-40
“‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Keep in mind this is not natural for me or you to do. Remember, we are all hardwired to sin. Our thought process is truly hardwired to our Old Nature. Our sinful hearts and minds are only designed to think worldly things, evil desires—the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance—these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself. 1 John 2:16 (TLB). Never lose sight of who you are; like me, we’re nothing more than sinners saved by the grace of our Father.
So how is a sinner like me eternalizing what my Father commands me to do? I’m throwing off my old sinful nature and my former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, I’m letting the Spirit renew my thoughts and attitudes. Ephesians 4:22-23
Through my daily walk I’ve decided to make a conscious effort to let God transform me inwardly by a complete change of my mind, (the mind of Christ). I’m staying focused in my heart, my soul and my mind on my Father’s deep love for me. For me it is breaking the old habit of thinking about myself and worldly things and focusing on changing my thought process to think more and more about my Father’s love for me.
Isn’t this true with the one’s you love here on earth? The more you think of your loved ones, the more your heart yearns to see them and be with them. It is no different with your Father. The more you think about Him, the more your heart will yearn for Him. Simply let your Father do what He’s promised to do. By doing this I’m finding myself falling deeper and deeper in love with Him.
Let me ask, how often do you tell your Father that you love Him? For me every time my Spirit brings my Father or my Lord into my mind, I tell them I love them. I can’t tell you how many times a day I do it, but I can say that as each day passes it is becoming more of a norm for me. When my Spirit flashes verses through my mind of the wonderful things and promises my Father and my Lord have for me, I immediately respond with thank you and I love you. The last thing I do at night before falling asleep is to tell them each how much I love them.
I’m beginning to find that the more I focus on verses 37 and 38 and Love my Lord and my God with all my heart, soul and mind, the natural extension of verses 39 and 40 are becoming more achievable.
I have also found that as I let that focus begin to slide Satan is all too quick to rush in and tempt me to step off the cliff into deep sin. But I’m finding more and more, at the last moment through the power of my Spirit, my Father pulls me back. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about— that moment that would have damaged my relationship with my Father. I once again let the Spirit renew my thoughts and attitudes and I thank Him and tell Him how much I love Him for what He did.
Instead of dwelling on the thought that Satan planted in my mind, I simply let the Spirit renew my thoughts and attitudes. I simply turn Satan’s attacks into an opportunity to tell my Father how much I love Him.
However, I won’t lie. As much as I try to follow this process, I fail more times than I like to admit. I’ll discuss this in more depth shortly.
In the book of James, which I refer to as the Christian’s handbook for living, he sums it up nicely.
If your aim is to enjoy the evil pleasure of the unsaved world, you cannot also be a friend of God. Or what do you think the Scripture means when it says that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy? But he gives us more and more strength to stand against all such evil longings. As the Scripture says, God gives strength to the humble but sets himself against the proud and haughty. So give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and let your hearts be filled with God alone to make them pure and true to him. James 4:4-8
The goal is to resist the devil and draw closer and closer to my Father and I know if I do this He will draw closer and closer to me.
I’m learning more and more to love and trust my Father through the process He is using to sanctify me and turn me more and more into His Son, my Lord. I’m determined not to give up and neither should you. I will keep focusing my thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Thinking about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8
My friend, for me my journey to eternity means that right now I’m going to change the way I think. I’m using my Father’s method for decision making that He placed in each of us. I talked about this method in my first series “Who Am I Really”
“God clearly created our mind, emotions and will to work together and in the following sequence, we’re to;
- Gather the necessary information
- Analyze and process it
- Weigh the pros and cons
- Make a rational decision
Once we’ve made a rational decision our emotions kick in and we start getting excited about the prospect of our decision, and then our will begins to drive us to implement and achieve the decision we’ve made.”
I’ve read the Bible, analyzed it, weighed the pros and cons and made a rational decision. I’m excited and determined to do what it’s telling me to do, and now I’m letting my Father do the rest.
My focus is no longer on the things of this world that only cloud the way I think and act. Listen to what the apostle Paul said to the Colossians.
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.” Colossians 3:1-2 (NLT)
I really like the way The Message paraphrases these verses, it makes them really come alive.
“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.” (MSG)
An honest conversation about Sin
Just like you, I am nothing more than a sinner saved by the Grace of my Father through my belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of my Lord, the new Spirit that is inside of me. My Father’s Spirit is leading the way and teaching me to become more like my Lord each day.
However, I struggle continuously day in and day out with my Old Nature and the sin it produces in me. Just like the apostle Paul said of himself:
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
The answer, thank God (My Father), is that Jesus Christ (My Lord) can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. Romans 7:21-25 (MSG)
I know I sin, my Father knows I sin and my Lord knows I sin, so I’m not going to lie and tell you my life is nearly sin-free. For me, I have burned 1 John 1:9 into my heart and mind, unfortunately it has become the most needed and quoted verse in my Christians life.
“But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.” (TLB)
My friend, this series is going to be one of honesty with each other, between you and me. So if you tell me you really don’t struggle with sin now that you’re a Christian, let me simply add vs. 10 for you to come to terms with:
“If we claim we have not sinned, we are lying and calling God a liar, for he says we have sinned.”
However, I will say that the more I seek to become like my Lord the better prepared I am to resist sin’s temptations, but, it’s going to happen. So when it does ask your Lord’s forgiveness (1John 1:9) and to restore your relationship with Him and move on.
Remember, our Lord faced all of the same temptations you and I do, yet he did not sin, so He understands your weaknesses.
So we’re all living a life of contradictions which we have to deal with. For me, I will no longer let this slow down my journey to eternity with my Father. I no longer allow Satan to heap mounds of guilt and shame on me so that I spend days feeling ashamed and sorry for myself ultimately sidelining me and slowing down the work my Father has planned for me. It didn’t stop the apostle Paul or any of the other apostles, so I won’t let it slow me down and neither should you.
It’s simply a fact we all have to deal with until the day we are absent from this worldly body and present with our Lord. Quit letting Satan beat you up with guilt and shame.
So how’s your journey coming? Are you still listening to the world around you and allowing the wrong person to influence your mind? I’ve told you time and again that Satan isn’t just going to leave you alone now that you’re a Christian. He has to slow down your journey to become more like your Lord. If he doesn’t, he stands to lose more of the lost souls he plans to take with him to hell. Why? Because they’re becoming more attracted to your lifestyle as you become more like Christ.
Here’s my challenge to you. Over the next month tell your Father every chance you get how much you Love Him and worship Him. That’s it nothing more. In fact, close your eyes right now and tell Him you Love Him. I guarantee you the more you do it, the more you’ll think about Him and the more you’ll find yourself telling Him how much you Love Him.
Join me next month as I discuss “Making the Trinity Real in Your Life.” The key to understanding your salvation lies in the Trinity. Biblically, all three Persons of the Trinity have the same spirit and nature (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not forms of God, each of them is God), but each One has different roles or activities when it comes to how God relates to the world. I’ll show you the importance each plays in Your Journey to Eternity.
Until then, may His mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.
