Eternity’s Victories
“Not only that,
but most of the Christians here have become far more sure of themselves in the
faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.” Philippians 1:14
(Message)
In Wayne’s
Cordeiro’s book, “Doing Church As A
Team,” he helps bring perspective on the fact that God is always up to
something in our lives. What was
God’s reason for saving you? Was it just
to get you to heaven? Was that the only
reason He sent His Son? Absolutely not!
If getting you to heaven
was God’s only reason in saving you, then the moment you would have received
Christ as Lord and Savior, God would have killed you on the spot! That’s
right. Now that you were saved, His job
would be complete, and He might as well get you on to heaven! There’d be no use for you hanging around here
any longer!
But that wasn’t the only reason He saved you. Instead of taking you immediately home, He
placed a message in your heart…a message of “Good News” about the eternal life
that God has prepared for anyone “who would call upon the Name of the
Lord!” Then He put you back on
this planet for a few more spins. But
now there’s a purpose to your life.
There’s a plan He has for you.
Soon, your life and mine will be over, but until He takes us home, we
have a message to deliver!
Someone once said, “We
will have all of eternity to boast about the victories won on the earth, but we
have only a few hours left in which to win them!” I agree.
When we get to
heaven, we will see many wonderful things, but let me tell you of one thing we
will never see again. We will never
see another person who is not a Christ-follower. We will never have another opportunity for
the rest of eternity to share the Good News with someone who desperately needs
the grace of God. The joy of heaven is
when people come to a saving faith in Christ.
These are the victories. Now what
in the world would we talk about for all of eternity if when we arrive, we’ve
not been “about our Father’s business?” We
must accomplish what God sent us onto this earth to accomplish.
Years ago, a Christian nurse attended to a very sick man confined to
the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital.
Although only in his early sixties, death seemed to loom closer with
each passing day. The nurse would share
the Lord with him and pray fervently for his salvation and healing. As the days slipped by, so did his chances
for recovery. One evening, his breathing
became so labored that the doctors feared he wouldn’t make it through the
night. His nurse spent extra hours that
evening by his bedside praying, for his healing.
The following morning, the nurse arrived back at work
expecting to find an empty bed. But to
her surprise, instead of an empty bed, she found her patient sitting up in
remarkable health, eating breakfast. She
was overjoyed!
“Praise the Lord,” she
exclaimed. “You’re healed.”
“Yup!” he cheerfully
replied. “I feel great. You and your prayers…you healed
me.”
“Oh no! I didn’t heal you,” she quickly replied. “God did.
And now, it is your responsibility to find out why!”
As has been famously
noted, the two most important days in your life are first, the day you were
born and secondly, the day you discover why. We belong to Him and we exist for His
purposes. As He fills our hearts with
His love and grace, it causes us to want others to know as well. You can’t find a bigger reason for being here
than that.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1)
What is your biggest focus in life today?
2)
Is there a person in your life that God
might be calling you to pray for and share His goodness with them?
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright 2014- Terry Risser
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