God has a different kind of
operation with us. He wants one-hundred percent of us to win His prize. That
prize is salvation and an eternal relationship with Him as we live this natural
life and pass on to a closer presence to Him. In John 5:24 we hear Jesus tell us, “Most assuredly, I say to
you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life,
and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
When in the Temple, Jesus addressed
the Jews that doubted His relationship to God. He told them of the children of
God and in John 10:28 He says, “And I give them eternal life and
they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
Peter refreshes our spirit in 1 Peter 1:6-9 saying, “ In this you
greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been
grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith,
being much more precious than
gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor,
and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not
seen, you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.”
As a struggling Christian growing
up, I had some notion of being with God after death in my natural life. I
remember things that my mother and other relatives would say about death when
we lost someone. When I was fourteen, I came home from school one day to hear
my younger brother tell me, as I got off of the school bus, that our dad had
died of a heart attack. He was thirty-nine years of age. With my dad and other
family members who have died, I have always had a sense of spiritual connection
with them. This was a beginning of knowing that any suffering that I might
endure would somehow be eased in a spiritual afterlife.
In my experience of a life
threatening brain tumor removal at age forty-nine, God revealed some wonderful
things to me. He allowed me to look into eternity with Him from my hospital
bed. I then realized that I was already on the fringe of His eternal kingdom.
His forgiveness of my sins, which I was already feeling, and my faith in Him
had opened His kingdom to me. I had the distinct feeling that no matter what the
outcome of my surgery, that I would be blessed. And in seeing this as my gift
from God, I could see the same gift for all of those I might leave behind.
I had a vision of Eternal Life as I
was experiencing God’s Love & Grace during my surgery. I envisioned Eternal
life to be like the ocean. The ocean waves moved toward the shore around the
jetties and onto the beach. The shallow water of the beach is where I saw
myself in this natural life, however; God’s Eternal Kingdom washed upon me at
the beach. It revealed to me that we are already at the edges of Eternal Life
and it washes over and around us. If we don’t realize that the surf on the
beach is God’s spirit washing over us, we are stuck on the beach and don’t
enjoy His Kingdom.
I will never be the same. I am sure
of what lies ahead for me, so the troubles of today are easy to bear. I want
all of my brothers and sisters in the Lord to be as happy as I am. In Mark 12:32-34, when Jesus responded to a
Scribe’s question as to what is the first commandment of all, the scribe said
to Him, “’Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is
one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with
all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love
one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and
sacrifices.’ Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He
said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” Now,
that’s not a close, but no cigar statement, but a close and keep on reaching
for God statement.
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