Skip to main content

Eternal

             Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:2)

It is beyond us to imagine well a being who is immaterial or eternal because we are material and very temporal. Between the two, however, I think we struggle more with the eternal part. After all, we converse with people we’ve never seen via telephones and computer. But even the stories we’ve heard about people who live hundreds of years had a beginning, and at least a means by which their lives can be ended. Eternal is either badly explored or it boggles the mind, or both. That’s precisely why we must dare to consider it.

Why does God’s eternality matter? One reason is that if He either came into existence or could be caused to cease to exist, something greater than God must exist to bring Him about. If He ceases to exist, He will be unable to fulfill His promises or carry out His plans. His goodness would be limited to His life. In short, He would be a useless and pathetic god.

But because He has always and will always exist, He is able to fulfill His promises in a way that is not only perfect but everlasting. He has also been “around the block a few times,” meaning that there’s nothing in our lives that He hasn’t seen and addressed many times. Contrary to our egos, we’re not special, different, or the exception to the rules. He has billions of case-studies over thousands of years. We can trust that He has a good idea for how to handle the situations we face.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more