Post by Zac Loh on Oct 6, 2007 20:32:26 GMT -5
Our security is Christ: He is the same yesterday, today and 'forever' (Hebrews 13:8; inverted commas mine). Why `forever’, and why not `tomorrow’? Because there exists an eternity.
Hebrews chapter 11 contains the list of people with great faith. What type of faith was it about? Was it a temporal-earthly-centered faith? No …it was a faith pointing towards heaven!
These heroes were not just heroes of faith; they were the heroes of hope.
These heroes of faith and hope `waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God,’ `confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,’ `desire a better country, that is, a heavenly country’ (Hebrews chapter 11 verses 10, 13-16, 26, 37-40).
Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3)
Can two people walk together if they’re heading towards different directions, having different perspectives? Eternity is the perspective that God wants us to have. Heaven is the direction that God wants us to take.
Perspective Influencing Perception
How you view and value people, situation and things will depend on the perspective that you’re having inside of you. By definition, ‘having perspective’ means `being able to view things in terms of their relative importance or connections to one another’. We have no perspective, for instance, when we can’t see the forest for the trees. In the ultimate, our perspective affects our perception, which decides our action.
I read a story in the Reader’s Digest about the efforts, sacrifices and commitment of a people known as `the falashas’, the lost tribe of Solomon, the black Jews of Ethiopia. Their living, beliefs and customs typified the ancient Jews. According to the Ethiopian tradition, the falashas were descended from the Jews brought to their country from Jerusalem by King Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Early in 1984, the call to return to their origin Jerusalem was spread throughout. From the news of the call to the actual exodus to Jerusalem, were miraculous in nature, in view of the numerous geographical and political impossibilities.
It was told in this story of the struggle, pain and trauma of a sixty year old grandmother named Malka who was in her journey out of Ethiopia and looking to finally be in Jerusalem.
When the flight of Malka’s group landed in Israel, as they walked from the plane, many of them knelt to kiss the ground. Malka knelt too. “Come,” she told her little granddaughter Tzion, “taste the Promised Land. Is it not sweet?”
As I read this, an imaginary question posed itself in my mind: “what would this dirty, dusty tar road actually taste like?” But then again, it was really Malka’s perspective that determined her own perception.
Eternal Perspective
During my childhood years, I would read about the great people of the past. After pondering these figures of history one-by-one, I realized something ...all these people are gone!
They earlier seemed so real and `now’ in my mind. By making a calculation, I am confronted with the fact that these textbook heroes had died longer than the duration of time that they had lived. I was hit by two poignant questions: where are they now? How are they now?’
Let’s do a simple exercise to bring home the point. An average human lifespan is seventy years.
Take a pen/pencil and draw a horizontal line. On the extreme left, indicate 0 year. And on the extreme right, indicate 100 years. Scratch on a point at the horizontal line to mark your desired lifespan.
Next, repeat the exercise by drawing the same length of a horizontal line right below the first horizontal line drawn earlier. But this time indicate the scale from 0 year to 1,000 years. Then, mark your desired lifespan (the same number of years as you marked earlier).
Next, repeat the exercise, but indicate the scale from 0 year to 10,000 years.
Again, do the same exercise using the scale 0 year to 100,000 years.
And finally, mark your desired lifespan at the scale from 0 year to infinity years.
Can you fathom how short your life is - compared to an eternity?
Today billions of dollars are invested in the life insurance industry. Great importance is placed in future planning and financial protection. There is nothing wrong with them. But God wants us to base our life on the plain truth that we cannot live here forever. We're about an eternal life insurance.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable (1 Corinthians 15:19).
People are constantly thinking of how-to-get-ahead in life. All the time you hear, watch and read about initiatives to cure this world by using political platforms, religious institutions and social movements.
Our minds are bombarded with information about on-going creative inventions to technologically improve life on Planet Earth. Environmentalists and scientists band together in attempts to preserve our eco system.
Astrophysicists study the universe. NASA ventures into the outer space.
But we cannot take anything with us when we sign-off, can we? Neither can we take our possessions, nor our attainments, nor our accomplishments. The funny thing is, neither will our children when they sign-off. And it goes on-and-on.
How many of our ancestral generations have passed this way before us? Can we count? Our forefathers, by their death, are a testament to the fact that we die. Houdini himself, with all his `magical powers’ could not escape death. Do we now grasp the reality of eternity?
Jesus came, not only to give us abundant life, but eternal life.
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that we can enjoy eternity!
There was one humanistic philosophy that once went around saying, “don’t be too heavenly minded, and be of no earthly use.” This is a lie of the devil. The truth is, the more heavenly minded you are, the more God can use you!
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame - who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:18-20)
The Power Of An Eternal Perspective
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
I am reminded of the true story told by Dr. Yonggi Cho. He related an incident of how the North Korean army invaded a certain village in the South during the Peninsular War in the 1950s. Every religious item in that village was destroyed. And every person who proclaimed faith in any religion was required to renounce it.
There was this Christian family, a young couple with two children. This young family had refused to give-up their faith. An ultimatum was set by the commander-in-charge. An extra day was given to them. They were told that the whole family would be buried alive in the middle of the village if they would not comply.
A big hole was dug.
When the time was up, this young family yet refused. So, all the villagers were gathered to witness the burial. As the soldiers were closing-up the hole, the commander-in-charge gave this young family one last chance.
The young husband was visibly shaken, by now. His wife elbowed him, and sang the hymn `The Sweet By And By’. Thus, the whole family joined-in.
One of those standing there, and watching, was Mr. Kim. He later became an elder of the third largest congregation in South Korea. That incident, long time ago, had undoubtedly left a deep and indelible imprint in his heart.
The Cycle Of Hope
In the original Greek, `hope’ means `to anticipate, usually with pleasure; expectation or confidence.’
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:3-4; underline mine)
By committing ourselves to God’s future for us, this hoping phase will mature until we’re full of eagerness and expectation by the supernatural hope which God imparts into us.
Hebrews chapter 11 contains the list of people with great faith. What type of faith was it about? Was it a temporal-earthly-centered faith? No …it was a faith pointing towards heaven!
These heroes were not just heroes of faith; they were the heroes of hope.
These heroes of faith and hope `waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God,’ `confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,’ `desire a better country, that is, a heavenly country’ (Hebrews chapter 11 verses 10, 13-16, 26, 37-40).
Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3)
Can two people walk together if they’re heading towards different directions, having different perspectives? Eternity is the perspective that God wants us to have. Heaven is the direction that God wants us to take.
Perspective Influencing Perception
How you view and value people, situation and things will depend on the perspective that you’re having inside of you. By definition, ‘having perspective’ means `being able to view things in terms of their relative importance or connections to one another’. We have no perspective, for instance, when we can’t see the forest for the trees. In the ultimate, our perspective affects our perception, which decides our action.
I read a story in the Reader’s Digest about the efforts, sacrifices and commitment of a people known as `the falashas’, the lost tribe of Solomon, the black Jews of Ethiopia. Their living, beliefs and customs typified the ancient Jews. According to the Ethiopian tradition, the falashas were descended from the Jews brought to their country from Jerusalem by King Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Early in 1984, the call to return to their origin Jerusalem was spread throughout. From the news of the call to the actual exodus to Jerusalem, were miraculous in nature, in view of the numerous geographical and political impossibilities.
It was told in this story of the struggle, pain and trauma of a sixty year old grandmother named Malka who was in her journey out of Ethiopia and looking to finally be in Jerusalem.
When the flight of Malka’s group landed in Israel, as they walked from the plane, many of them knelt to kiss the ground. Malka knelt too. “Come,” she told her little granddaughter Tzion, “taste the Promised Land. Is it not sweet?”
As I read this, an imaginary question posed itself in my mind: “what would this dirty, dusty tar road actually taste like?” But then again, it was really Malka’s perspective that determined her own perception.
Eternal Perspective
During my childhood years, I would read about the great people of the past. After pondering these figures of history one-by-one, I realized something ...all these people are gone!
They earlier seemed so real and `now’ in my mind. By making a calculation, I am confronted with the fact that these textbook heroes had died longer than the duration of time that they had lived. I was hit by two poignant questions: where are they now? How are they now?’
Let’s do a simple exercise to bring home the point. An average human lifespan is seventy years.
Take a pen/pencil and draw a horizontal line. On the extreme left, indicate 0 year. And on the extreme right, indicate 100 years. Scratch on a point at the horizontal line to mark your desired lifespan.
Next, repeat the exercise by drawing the same length of a horizontal line right below the first horizontal line drawn earlier. But this time indicate the scale from 0 year to 1,000 years. Then, mark your desired lifespan (the same number of years as you marked earlier).
Next, repeat the exercise, but indicate the scale from 0 year to 10,000 years.
Again, do the same exercise using the scale 0 year to 100,000 years.
And finally, mark your desired lifespan at the scale from 0 year to infinity years.
Can you fathom how short your life is - compared to an eternity?
Today billions of dollars are invested in the life insurance industry. Great importance is placed in future planning and financial protection. There is nothing wrong with them. But God wants us to base our life on the plain truth that we cannot live here forever. We're about an eternal life insurance.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable (1 Corinthians 15:19).
People are constantly thinking of how-to-get-ahead in life. All the time you hear, watch and read about initiatives to cure this world by using political platforms, religious institutions and social movements.
Our minds are bombarded with information about on-going creative inventions to technologically improve life on Planet Earth. Environmentalists and scientists band together in attempts to preserve our eco system.
Astrophysicists study the universe. NASA ventures into the outer space.
But we cannot take anything with us when we sign-off, can we? Neither can we take our possessions, nor our attainments, nor our accomplishments. The funny thing is, neither will our children when they sign-off. And it goes on-and-on.
How many of our ancestral generations have passed this way before us? Can we count? Our forefathers, by their death, are a testament to the fact that we die. Houdini himself, with all his `magical powers’ could not escape death. Do we now grasp the reality of eternity?
Jesus came, not only to give us abundant life, but eternal life.
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that we can enjoy eternity!
There was one humanistic philosophy that once went around saying, “don’t be too heavenly minded, and be of no earthly use.” This is a lie of the devil. The truth is, the more heavenly minded you are, the more God can use you!
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame - who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:18-20)
The Power Of An Eternal Perspective
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
I am reminded of the true story told by Dr. Yonggi Cho. He related an incident of how the North Korean army invaded a certain village in the South during the Peninsular War in the 1950s. Every religious item in that village was destroyed. And every person who proclaimed faith in any religion was required to renounce it.
There was this Christian family, a young couple with two children. This young family had refused to give-up their faith. An ultimatum was set by the commander-in-charge. An extra day was given to them. They were told that the whole family would be buried alive in the middle of the village if they would not comply.
A big hole was dug.
When the time was up, this young family yet refused. So, all the villagers were gathered to witness the burial. As the soldiers were closing-up the hole, the commander-in-charge gave this young family one last chance.
The young husband was visibly shaken, by now. His wife elbowed him, and sang the hymn `The Sweet By And By’. Thus, the whole family joined-in.
One of those standing there, and watching, was Mr. Kim. He later became an elder of the third largest congregation in South Korea. That incident, long time ago, had undoubtedly left a deep and indelible imprint in his heart.
The Cycle Of Hope
In the original Greek, `hope’ means `to anticipate, usually with pleasure; expectation or confidence.’
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:3-4; underline mine)
By committing ourselves to God’s future for us, this hoping phase will mature until we’re full of eagerness and expectation by the supernatural hope which God imparts into us.