Hope and eternity – 13 October 2006
When we’ve been there a thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we first begun.
The above words come from the well-known hymn Amazing Grace, although this final verse was not originally penned by John Newton. Yet the contrast between mortality and immortality is well defined here. There will be no sense of time running out, once we are in heaven. From the perspective of eternity, how do the following worldly situations look?:
- a period of 15 years in jail following persecution for being a Christian
- waiting for 10 years for a prayer to be answered
- losing a dearly loved friend or relative through illness or accident
There is no denying the sorrow and anguish which can be faced as a result of the above and other situations which can seem “hopeless” – but God’s perspective gives a different view. Death is not failure. Death is not the end, rather it is the beginning of our life in heaven. Earthly minds struggle to comprehend heavenly truths – but this is where our hope lies.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39 [NIV]
Amen.
Dave MacLellan | 