This Month's Newsletter
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PREPARING FOR ETERNITY
BY PASTOR RETHA GARTEN
If a couple is planning to be married in a church and have a sizeable wedding, they get a marriage license, she asks certain friends to be in her wedding party, buys a dress, veil, shoes, etc., etc., and contacts the church to reserve a date for the wedding, among a multitude of other details. The future groom may (or may not) get his clothes ready . . . until the last minute and make plans for the honeymoon.
If you are advised you need major surgery, you will usually be told not to eat after midnight the evening before surgery. You might be given or told to buy a certain type of soap which you are to use with your shower the night before surgery. Often, you are to be at the hospital early . . . six a.m. or before.
After being hired for a new job, you are to show up at the appointed time you are told, work until your work-day is over, doing whatever you have been assigned, with the expectation at the end of their pay period, you will receive a paycheck.
In almost every situation in life we can name, we are expected to make preparations. What is my point with this article?
Pastor John Hagee wrote a book he titled Can America Survive? in which he outlined 10 prophetic signs he believes indicate that we are the ‘terminal generation.’
The question to be asked is, “What age of people living today is the so-called terminal generation?” Would that be 80, 65, 40, 20ish, teens? Let me answer that question with a question. When Jesus returns for His Church, do you believe there will be people of all these ages - and every age - living on this earth? Jesus could very well come any time, according to many Bible scholars’ belief that all Bible prophecies to be fulfilled before His coming, have been fulfilled.
My point is this: whether we are the terminal generation that sees the return of Jesus, or we individually go by way of the grave, what preparations are we making for eternity? Eternity! Forever! We are here for a very few short hours, compared to the forever of eternity.
Your answer might be, “Well, Retha, I’m saved through believing in Jesus’ precious blood and receiving Him into my life as Savior and Lord.” True, that’s how we all got into the wonderful Family of God. But, what have you done since you got into the Family, that counts for eternity?
How many people-treasures have you ‘laid up’ in Heaven? How much financial-treasure have you added to your heavenly bank account? How many prayers are stored in golden bowls in heaven?
More questions to answer. What is the ethics in your home? Your job? Do you round off the corners in your conduct when no one is looking? (Remember the little chorus, “There’s an All-Seeing Eye Watching You?”). Do you cut your family members slack, and allow your children to get away with things you know God is displeased with? How accepting are you with what your pastor, or a close, loving friend, might say to you that you don’t want to hear?
I don’t know if we are the terminal generation, but we seem to be the most-easily-offended generation. Ever notice how so many people tend to wear their feelings on their sleeve, as the saying goes? Even innocent words are absolutely blown up in some people’s mind, and when the words ‘come down,’ (read that, mulled over and thought about) feathers are ruffled and offenses stick on - sometimes for years - like Elmer’s glue.
The apostle James has some things to say about offenses. He writes, “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect (mature) man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” James goes on to say that he is talking about the tongue as the verbal offender. When we get a handle on keeping that organ in check, we have reached a high degree of maturity.
Moving along in spiritual maturity is the key. We should earnestly desire this maturity when we realize that we will stand before God and give an account of the deeds done in the flesh. Oh, I know that when we are born again through Jesus, our sins are forgiven. Thank God for that. But Jesus said, “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father, with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works” Matthew 16:27.
Some people are taken from this life suddenly and without any warning. There was such an account in our local paper of a very drunk young man south of us here in Florida. He drove through a red light at a high rate of speed, hit a car, and sent a father and his three sons into eternity instantly. His blood test showed an alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit in Florida. A wife, mother, perhaps the sons’ wives and children, within seconds, mourning the senseless and gut-wrenching sorrow and loss of their loved ones.
How are we being prepared for eternity? How are we allowing the Holy Spirit to prepare us, mold us, and make us ready to stand before the King of kings and Lord of lords of the universe for all eternity - time that shall never come to an end? Or, are you ‘running your own life?’ Do you feel you are ‘master of your own fate?’ I think not! If we call ourselves Christians, Ephesians 2:10 tells us why we are not to be in control:
GOD IS A PLANNER
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” The Amplified Bible does amplify the thoughts of this verse. “For we are God’s own handiwork, recreated in Christ Jesus...born anew...that we may do those good works which God predestined, planned beforehand...taking paths which He prepared ahead of time...prearranged and made ready for us to live.”
Isaiah 64:8, “...O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are all are the work of Thy hand.”
There is nothing more sure than the fact that everyone is headed for eternity - ready or not. We have only one place to prepare for eternity - here. Paul writes to the Roman Christians, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” 8:28-29.
As I’ve already said, preparations involve a huge chunk of our daily life. The book of Jeremiah has some interesting things to say about the plans of God and how He wants to prepare us.
Jeremiah was told by God to go to the potter’s house and He would cause Jeremiah to hear some things. As Jeremiah observed the potter working clay on the wheel, the word of the Lord came to him. As you read the text, the Lord is talking to him about ‘the house of Israel,’ but, as with much of God’s Word, it has a spiritual meaning as well. As Jeremiah observed the potter at work on the potter’s wheel, the Word came, “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” And this is the part that is applicable to us today, “...Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in Mine hand…”
Clay, in its original state, has no beauty or real value in and of itself. It can really do nothing for itself but be a lump. But it can be made into an object of beauty, worth and value because of the ability of the potter. The potter gives the clay worth, significance and shape.
Think in spiritual terms how we are like the clay - but different in one very important way. God has given us the wonderful privilege of making choices. We can resist the Potter’s hands, or we can yield to His molding on the Potter’s wheel whereby He can make something beautiful of our life.
As the earthly potter takes the unattractive lump of clay into his experienced hands, with steady pressure and skillful maneuvers, there comes a time when the potter calls the clay by name. From a colorless, unimportant, valueless glob, the potter turns it into a beautiful vase, a useful cup, an attractive plate - each piece different, with unique beauty and individual qualities and special usefulness. Now . . . compare this picture to the Master Potter, God through the Holy Spirit, who is molding, shaping, guiding and building each of us into the vessel He has designed us to be. I think of what He said to people in bondage and rebellion, and how much also the Scripture from Jeremiah 29:11 applies to us, “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the LORD, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace, and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.” He will prepare us as we yield to His all-wise, loving hands.