Tag: life purpose

How Do You Thank God for Eternal Life?

Thanksgiving in the United States, established by Lincoln, is a time for family gatherings and feasting, but often lacks true reflection. The author emphasizes gratefulness for life’s blessings and the importance of recognizing their impermanence due to sin. True thankfulness arises from understanding eternal life through Jesus, which motivates a life aligned with God’s commandments.

Next week in the United States we are celebrating Thanksgiving. For many people it is time to get together with family, eat too much, maybe go to a parade and then watch football. There isn’t much thankful reflection. But the national holiday was established by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 for thankful reflection.

Because God has reached me, I have a connection to Jesus. I know that I am saved by His life and death. I currently have eternal life. That is significantly different from eternal existence that every human has. I have a place with God. I haven’t experienced Heaven, being rid of my limited and sinful body, having a heavenly body, or a resurrected earthly body yet. But I will. My lack of experience does dampen my thankfulness, however.

Can I get past my lack of experience? Here is where reflection comes in. I want to be thankful for all the good things currently in my life. There are plenty of them. I also want to acknowledge that these things are temporary and not perfect. Everything and everyone is impacted by sin and the curse. My life would be utterly meaningless without something good coming after my death. Just read the book of Ecclesiastes and see how depressed Solomon, who is a very accomplished, wealthy and wise person, feels about his life without a knowledge of eternal life through Jesus. I have knowledge of eternal life through Jesus. I am aging, but my “glory days” are all ahead of me, and they are really a big deal. Reflect on that for a bit.

You can say or sing thanks. You can go to church. We at least have a worship service on Thanksgiving. But if you would ask Jesus, “How can I thank you, Lord?” He would tell you:

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

John 14:15 (ESV)

There are many motivations to do what God teaches us is good and right. Love of God and thankfulness rise to the top. Don’t limit this to Thanksgiving Day. It deserves better. Thank God with your life.

Do keep in mind, that keeping God’s commandments can no longer save you. You had to do it perfectly, and ship sailed for you long ago. Now you have a different motivation. Jesus did the heavy lifting that you could not do. You can respond thankfully.

We really don’t appreciate the scope of what has been done for us. We don’t grasp the difficulty of what Jesus did. We don’t understand the depth of horror that awaits those who go to Judgment Day without the forgiveness of their sins. We don’t understand how great eternal life without sinful nature, without the curse, in the vast creativeness and beauty of what God has prepared for us. And we don’t fully appreciate how enthralling it will be to see God face-to-face. Yet, for the little we can imagine, we have plenty of reason to be happy and thankful.

If you don’t know much about what comes next for those who belong to Christ, then explore the articles of this blog. Use the search bar and look for Heaven, the New Earth, and then look at other things in the topic column.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

The Necessity of Illness and Death

The author reflects on aging, acknowledging physical decline while emphasizing that illness and death are consequences of sin, not a lack of faith. They argue that healing is sometimes granted by God, and that life’s purpose is to serve until death, leading to eternal life with Christ. Acceptance of this reality brings hope.

I am getting older. The number of years that I have lived doesn’t really bother me. Age is just a number they say. I would also say that I look pretty good for my age. I wish I didn’t need the qualifier at the end of that sentence though. The real problem is that things don’t work like they used to. Parts of me are very much acting their age. That can be very discouraging.

There is a stream of thought among Christians, usually Evangelicals, that says God doesn’t want us to be ill. If you only have enough faith, you will be well. I must disagree. Jesus healed people out of mercy, but also as a sign. He did not eliminate illness in Palestine at His time. The word “healed” gets used in Scripture, but not exclusively about physical illness.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5 (ESV)

This is the most famous incidence and in context it is talking about healing from our sins, not getting rid of disease.

Illness and death are the products of sin and the curse. Even when you are forgiven of your sins through the death of Jesus, the “temporal” consequences of sin remain. Jesus spares us from the worst part, the eternal consequences of sin. The proof is in the pudding. Does not every Christian get old and die? That is not a lack of faith. It is the way it works under the curse.

God will on occasion respond to prayer and change the course of cause and effect in our lives. He can and does provide healing of disease either through “means” like medicine and the like, or miraculously (breaking the Laws of Physics). This is done with purpose. The benefactor has something they need to do.

It helps to understand, however, that one of the goals of our lives here is to physically break down far enough that we physically die. At that point, we can inherit a heavenly body and be with Christ. It is our job to be good stewards of the earthly body we possess and to serve the Lord here as long as He gives us. We should not “cut the corner” and purposely undermine our health. But understand where you are headed and why. It is unlikely that you will leave this Earth like Elijah in a fiery chariot.

Accepting this fact makes it easier to cope with aging and illness. This all stands on the forgiveness God gives us through Christ and the promise of eternal life as I have described in the articles of this blog. If we are not connected to Christ and headed for Sheol and ultimately Hell, then this is no comfort at all.

Confident in God’s grace to me, I can accept that at some point I will not be able to carry out the duties of being a pastor. I can retire and my purpose will change. I will still look to show love to people, share the Gospel when I can, encourage others in their faith. At some point, I may be restricted to a nursing facility (hopefully because of my body and not my brain). I will seek to care for and witness to the people there. If I become even more impaired, I will seek to pray and praise God. Hopefully, soon after that I can depart.

Is that morbid thinking? No! That is realistic and forward thinking that includes real hope. I have a plan. I am not living in denial. Denial is a lousy strategy.

Maybe I can remain high functioning until almost my departure date. That is my hope. I will do what I can to make that happen. But in the end you don’t get to choose. You can keep looking past death to the goal. God has provided for our best days to be the last. There is a brilliant eternity to look forward to thanks to Jesus!

Just One Life

About twenty years ago, I traveled to India. It was both a cultural experience and a place of many surprises. We landed in Hyderbad in the middle of the night. As our bus drove to the hotel, the streets were dark. I could vaguely make out the shadows of something on the sidewalk. I didn’t figure out until the next morning that it was all people who were homeless.

India is a nation that is primarily Hindu. A core belief of Hinduism is that this life’s situation is the just product of a previous life. Consequently, if you are homeless you deserved that fate.

You could even return as another living thing. The consequence was that roads would go around a tree. Still, this isn’t exactly a respect for nature. There was litter everywhere.

Another likely result of believing that you are on a journey through multiple lives was the extremely dangerous traffic situation. Overcrowding and poverty no doubt contributed to the situation, but it is easier to face death if you expect to be born again.

The Bible doesn’t take on the topic of reincarnation directly. It does speak of eternal existence for all, but it denies that this existence will be here–at least not immediately.

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:27-28(ESV)

We die once, not over and over. Death is the separation of body and soul. Something that would never happen except for sin. We don’t lapse into non-existence nor even unconscious existence, we consciously continue in either Heaven or Sheol.

In this article, I am interested in the implications of this fact for this brief life. Is this life a throw-away, because something better is beyond it? Is it a time to pursue hedonistic pleasures because something worse is next? Is it as the famous polka says, “In Heaven there is no beer, that’s why we drink it here.”? Certain pleasure are earthly pleasures, so pursue them now. Some embrace this philosophy because they feel that the truth about our fate after death is unknowable. I obviously disagree. To the skeptic, I would point out not only Scripture, but Near-Death Experiences. What happens at our death is only unknowable if you don’t try to know. For something as important as this, denial is a fool’s strategy.

Far from an approach that neglects this life, the set of promises that come with connection to Jesus Christ makes this life brief but valuable and life-after death the true prize. Jesus takes the pressure of saving ourselves off of our shoulders and places it on His. Forgiveness of our sins, our inability of fulfilling God’s Laws are all settled by His life. Heaven and beyond that a New Earth are ours for the taking. They are God’s gift.

This life becomes valuable because of what we can accomplish here with the presence of God within us. We can make an eternal difference in another person’s life. We can be a visible representative of God Himself. These things are worthy enduring the finite amount of grief that this life will throw at you.

So what are some of the consequences of knowing what God has given to us? First, I protect my life and try to be a good steward of my health and time, because I won’t get the same kind of opportunity to serve once I die. It isn’t beer that I have to get here, it is sharing God’s promises and His love in an environment that lacks knowledge of God. Besides that, they probably do have beer in Heaven.

Next, I value other people, even my enemies. They are potentially savable. They would be transformed by a connection to Jesus. They can be a reward to me. Life is cheap in many places, but it is not cheap to me.

The circumstances in which people live can be the product of many things: misfortune, bad parenting, limited natural abilities, poor education, poor government, injustice, bad decisions. The list goes on and on, but I can be a source of positive change. Their circumstances are not set by a previous life.

I will get older and closer to death every day. I am neither concerned about death nor a loss of purpose on the way. I know where I am going next and why. I am going to Heaven because of Jesus. My purpose may change as I lose abilities, but I will have a God-given purpose to the end.