With Eternity in View

 

                I am writing this sitting next to my mother, who is about to make her final transition in this life. Transition is something we are face in many places in our lives. During birth, we made a transition from the womb to life in the world. From a baby, we made the transition to childhood, then to adolescence, then to adulthood. As an adult, we transition from job to job, to parenthood, to retirement, to where we are now with my mother. But transitions are not only a part of age or life situation, we also make transitions within our faith and beliefs as well.

               Our beliefs are constantly being shaped by our experiences and the situations that are presented to us. For some of us, we had a belief system that was passed down to us from our parents and grandparents from a certain denomination viewpoint. For others, our belief system was developed by a hodge-podge of teachings and experiences from various perspectives and backgrounds. Some of us have been given sets of rules and regulations (often contrary or in addition to God’s Word) that we have just stuck with. Others have sought to explore different opinions in order to dig deeper into truth. But regardless of where we started out, the vast majority of us have transitioned from what was first given to us, to different stages and areas within our beliefs. I say all of that to say that, most of us (if not all) have had different experiences that have changed our faith. For some, the changes were good, drawing us deeper into Christ. For many others, those experiences challenged them in such ways that they either stopped looking for God or started believing the wrong voices.

               When you look at Scripture, I think it’s pretty clear that God purposely leads us into places where we are challenged to transition from where we are to a deeper place with Him. In 2 Corinthians, Paul reveals how the Spirit of God is leading us deeper into the fullness of God and His glory. Through Moses, God revealed His law, which the Israelites treasured. But what they failed to see was that the Law pointed to death, because they could never truly keep the Law. Through Christ, the Law has been fulfilled and the veil that once separated God from man has been removed! 2 Corinthians 3:18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (New Living Translation)

               In other words, through Christ, our lives are constantly being transformed day by day to reflect Christ more and more. It is the purpose of the Spirit to help the believer shed the old nature of the sin in our lives and take up the new nature of Christ, living more fully for Him. And as we follow the Spirit’s leading, we find revival taking place.

               Revival is something that only takes place in the heart of the believer. Non-believers cannot experience revival because the have not originally been “vived”, if you catch my meaning. Revival comes when we begin to see the areas of our lives that we have not yet surrendered to Jesus, and act on them. As the Spirit reveals our inadequacies we have the choice to either let Jesus transition us into a deeper relationship with Him, or to draw back from Him. The transition to allow revival to take place in our lives is a choice that we all must make. Sadly, when it comes down to it, most people will choose to ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit because they consider the price to be too great.

               My mother is living now, not with her past in focus, but her eternity in view. Because of her faith in Christ, she will live forever in His presence. In her final moments here, I’m praying that the Lord will make the most of them for His glory. One day, we will all be in her position. One day, there will be no laundry to do, no more games to watch on TV, no more things to get in order. On that day, we won’t be wishing for more days to work or more money to gain. On that day, we will be wishing we had done more for Jesus. But what if we lived today, like that day was here? What if we took every opportunity we had to proclaim the name of Jesus? What if we lived each moment with eternity in view? That, my friends, is what we call revival. I’m in, are you?