FROM THE WORD
Living for Time or Eternity?
Jesus' greatest joy in life was in uplifting humanity and redeeming mankind back to God. Jesus valued mankind more than He valued Himself. No matter the amount of shame He would have to endure, He considered it worth the cost to save you and me.
He loves us so much that He endured the cross and separation from His Father so that you and I have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. This is an example of the most unselfish love the universe has ever known. And this is the spirit that you and I need to have to be true followers of Jesus and to live in His kingdom. If we really love Jesus, we will have self-sacrificing love for others. We will want them to be saved. We will take each opportunity we have to share Jesus with them, and they will know that we are true followers of Jesus by how we love and care for them.
Steps to Christ, p. 78, “The Savior’s life on earth was not a life of ease and devotion to Himself, but He toiled with persistent, earnest, untiring effort for the salvation of lost mankind. From the manger to Calvary He followed the path of self-denial and sought not to be released from arduous tasks, painful travels, and exhausting care and labor.”
“Then Jesus said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.’” (Luke 9:23-26)
If we truly want to receive the grace of Christ, to receive eternal life and live for eternity with our Creator, Redeemer, and Savior, we will make whatever sacrifice needed so that others may share in the blessings that we have received through Jesus and His sacrifice. We will do all that we can to make this world a better place by bringing Christ to the world through everything that we do and say. If we really have found that Jesus is our most precious friend, we will want to share Him with those around us.
We are not to live for this world by allowing the cares of this world or our own selfish desires to take up all of our time. The time that we have been given here upon this earth is vitally important. Every minute should be used wisely. We must ask ourselves, “Is this how Jesus wants me to spend my time today? Am I living for eternity? Am I getting ready to meet my Maker?”
This is the time to allow God to finish his work in us so we are transformed by the Holy Spirit. Our minds are renewed as we live for eternity by having Jesus be our best friend and being a blessing to others by sharing the greatest gift this world has ever known – gift of Jesus and His love. We must be born again and fall deeper in love with Jesus so that His love will fill our hearts.
The greatest joy that we can experience here on earth is working with the Holy Spirit and leading someone to Jesus; seeing them give their hearts and lives to Jesus and becoming disciples who go out and make more disciples! The blessing is in sharing Jesus!
Many Christians have decayed because they have not been willing to do the work of Jesus and have lost their first love and have wondered why the Christian life is not exciting and it is not exciting if you are just sitting on the sidelines. If you are just sitting in a pew each Sabbath, you must get involved; we must walk the walk and talk the talk and, even better, live the life! A Christian life is very exciting! If we are truly following after Jesus and walking and living in His footsteps our lives will be the most exciting lives of all those that walk the face of this earth. Why? Because we have Jesus!
We as God's church must be faithful to our mission that is to take the gospel to the world. That responsibility rests upon you and me. Because Jesus has revealed His love to us, we are debtors to all those that don't know His love. God gave us light to go light the world with His glory. We can light the world in our homes, in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our church, at our workplaces, and everywhere we take a step is a place that we can take, live, and share the love of Jesus! This is how to live for eternity.
JeAnn Davis, Bible Worker
