If Eternity exists, why would God force us to live here any longer than He already does?
Each individual has an eternity waiting for them to experience, so why would God make this life… all that there is? Look at it from God’s perspective… the test of one’s character is this life, and really the answer to the question what we would do with the opportunity of life in this world.
All this is set against the backdrop of lives that didn’t get the chances we did, or we didn’t get the opportunities that they did. Some get to live to 120 years old, but what did they do with all that? Some didn’t make it 12 years or 12 months… even 9 months.
Some in pain while others seemingly in nothing but pleasure… some face justice here, while others elude justice until the next world. If nothing else, this world forces us to ask a few tough questions! And the only one that can answer them is God.
Bible says God came in the flesh of Christ… answering the question what would God do… with His 33 years? We are still seeing the miraculous effect in millions of lives ever since! Sadly this world also witnesses the tragedy in lives of those who live without that touch, without that hope and without that saving grace and forgiveness.
I have lived a life of near-death experiences. As a baby I wasn’t supposed to make it. As a preschool child I got my arm stuck in a processing plant conveyor belt that should have torn me to shreds… yet survived without much more than a cast on my arm. Also before school age, I pulled a fire-place wall down on myself but only broke my femur (my first hospital stay).
By teen-age I survived phenomena, 2 (separate) accidental full on strikes to my head with a baseball bat. I also survived abuse and at 15 I left home. Before 30 I survived logging, construction and vehicle accidents, a near-miss with my motorcycle and survived my own suicide attempt.
By 50 I survived an Oilfield fracking near-miss with my co-workers, as we tried to bust loose a full pressured wellhead vent stack! But how many unseen, unnoticed and unappreciated near-misses and tragic outcomes did I survive? How about driving major highways for 12-14 hours after putting in a 16 hour shift? One time awake 30+ hours in storms and breakdowns!
One time only hours away from death with a ruptured small intestine internal bleeding and Sepsis (Septic) Peritonitis. Not to mention different occasions of a broken tailbone, a foot and ribs. I also broke a landscape cap brick with my fist… at the same time broke 2 bones in that same fist!
My favorite near-miss was hauling a tanker of liquid nitrogen on a icy service road meeting another big truck on a corner, only to have a passing pickup avoid a head-on with me and manage to wedge in between both big trucks by mere inches! I just held the wheel steady and surrendered a prayer for what seemed inevitable… then not.
There are many family and friends who have not made it this far… yet eventually we will all suffer the same inevitable fate. One would think that with all the evidence that we are going to be longer dead than we are alive… that we should be prepared for it. It would seem we are being prepared for it… sometimes quite unsuccessfully but not for the lack of God trying! Why would we choose to continue on so ignorantly?
Near the end of His life, Jesus said:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. They that love their life shall lose it; but they that hate their life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If anyone serves me, let them follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if anyone serves me, them will my Father honor.” John 12:24-26
There are many family and friends who have not made it this far… yet eventually we will all suffer the same inevitable fate.
Jesus also said…
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupts, and where thieves break in and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do not break in nor steal: Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is pure, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. So, if the light that is in you be darkness… how great is that darkness!
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and riches.
Therefore I say that you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on it. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than clothing? Watch the birds of the air: for they plant not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one measure to his stature? Then why take thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they labor not, neither do they spin: And yet I say to you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Why then, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today, but tomorrow is cast into the oven… shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
So take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Nations seek: but your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But rather seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; then all these things shall be added unto you.
Therefore take no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil of it.” Matthew 6:19-34
So if Eternity exists, why would God force us to live here any longer than He already does? Why would He keep us any longer than necessary, from our eternal purpose and reward? IF this is the question, then the answer must be mindblowingly amazing!
No one gave God permission to place us in this life… be sure He won’t need it for the next life! But what He has given us all in this life, is full autonomy of how we use the time He has given us. Also, where we would like to spend our lifetime, our destiny… our eternity… with Him or without.
“Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, before the years draw close, and when you will say… I have no pleasure in them.” Ecclesiastes 12:1
Looking for more of what life has to offer, and this FREE eBook… Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper is a good place to start…
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