Thursday, November 6, 2008

Food for thought...

"A startling thing has happened among Western Christians.  Many of us habitually think and act as if there is no eternity - or as if what we do in this present life has no bearing on eternity... Being oblivious to eternity leaves us experts in the trivial, and novices in the significant.  We can name that tune, name that starting line-up, name that actor's movie debut, name that country's leading export, and detail the differences between computer models or types of four-wheel drives.  None of this is wrong, of course, but it is certainly revealing when we consider that most Christians, let alone the general public, do not even have an accurate picture of what the Bible says will happen to us after we die.  We major in the momentary and minor in the momentous."

Randy Alcorn


Where is our hope?

2 comments:

Ryan said...

I think the difficult thing is that the Bible is not clear at all about what heaven and eternity will be like so for most people we accept the cartoon version of angels in the clouds or we just keep focusing on the things that we know for sure.

For me, the hope of paradise restored where we can walk with God and have the fullness of His presence is amazing. Even more practical for me is the hope that today, in my current reality, the Spirit dwells with me and I can passionately follow Jesus where he leads. This to me is more clear than scripture's view of heaven.

Rachel said...

Love this quote! I agree with Ryan in the confusion of the different views of what Heaven will be like. It's hard to imagine it. And now that heaven/hell/eternity are subjects avoided by a lot of churches, it's being pushed further from our thoughts. We are all about the here and now-scary!

The book we are reading has really showed me the importance of being sound in what you believe and not easily swayed by persecuters. Obviously that doesn't come from knowing who is dating who in Hollywood, but knowing the word of God.