Correct Perspective

 

The people in this car are probably not very excited about the surroundings where

they are at the moment, but would not worry too much about that because they have a lovely destination in mind in Sydney. They would appreciate that a lot of work went into constructing this highway to make their journey more pleasant. However, they also know that the road is not the “be all and end all” but is simply the way to get to their ultimate goal even though it has its challenges, such as, kangaroos, other traffic, driver fatigue, and the occasional pot hole, to name just a few.

Although our “road through life,” here on earth that God has planned for us,  is similar to that road above in many ways, God has given us an abundance of natural resources for us to use, and lovely things to see, and enjoy.  We must not look on it as the “be all and end all” though, but realise that it is merely the way God has planned for us to travel in order to reach our ultimate goal of eternal life in Heaven. Our “road” has its challenges too, which may be the equivalent of those kangaroos, other traffic, tiredness, and potholes, but this is all part of our journey to eternal life, and we must not become “side-tracked” by these distractions along the way to the extent that we forget, or lose interest in, our ultimate goal.

Recently, I wrote about what a very small part of our life is spent on earth compared with the length of time we will spend in eternity when we leave these bodies.

 To get some sort of perspective in all this I quoted a few statistics: The universe is immense: Light travels at 300,000 kilometres per second so in just one year it travels 9.5 Trillion kilometres (9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometres). But our nearest galaxy is seventy thousand times that far away. And our scientists can see no end to space it is “eternal,” in a sense. (in other words, it goes on for ever).

So what? Just this, our lives are Eternal too, and when we leave these bodies that we are in at present, our Souls (the real us) live on for ever. Which means that in 9.5 Trillion years from now (just to take a small part of eternity) you and I will still be enjoying life out there in Heaven. Or if we have chosen to ignore God’s offer of forgiveness for our sin, we will be out there in Hell’s darkness for the same length of time and then live, unhappily, ever after. It is up to us to make this simple choice that has either a wonderful, or dreadfully tragic outcome.

To not make the right choice though, is ludicrous: To muck around with booze, drugs, immoral behaviour, greedy wealth, or building mansions whilst others die of starvation, and so on is the equivalent of those motorists pictured above, messing about lighting fires or collecting dead animals etc. and getting side-tracked to the extent that they never arrive at their destination. Which would be ridiculous. Therefore, we need to ask God for forgiveness and invite Him to become an intimate and integral part of our life right now.

The scriptures assure us that “If anyone be in Christ they are new creatures, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new”. We then need to talk to God in prayer, fellowship with Christians at church, and read the New Testament (which is the instruction book for living the way we should). Thus if we “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not unto our own understanding, and in all our ways acknowledge Him, He shall direct our paths.” This is the way God wanted us to behave when He created us, so that we could all enjoy this wonderful world in His company. But through unbridled selfishness, greed, lust, and a desire to do our own thing whilst ignoring God’s directions, societies have been created where there is poverty, unhappiness, and want, but this is not God’s plan. Psalm 34 verse 9 expresses God’s desire when it says: “O fear the Lord you his people: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing”, and again in Philippians chapter 4 verse 19 Paul writes “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”, and Psalm 34 verse 8 says: “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man (person) that trusts in him”. Now to conclude let me quote the Prophet Isaiah chapter 55 verse 6: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon”. God has gone to great lengths to make the wonderful offers that I have quoted on this page, so to not take up these offers is to throw away our inheritance of a better life here and now, and eternal life in Heaven for ever. To do that, just, doesn’t, make, sense to me. I do hope you have claimed your inheritance. Regards, Tom.