Randy Alcorn
Randy Alcorn
Eternal Perspectives
We are often pressed with the reality of eternity only when a loved one dies. Or when we grow old and begin to realize that most of life has passed and we note with regret the little we have done for eternity, the little we will take with us there, and the short time left to do much of significance for heaven’s sake. Most of us live as though this world is where we are rewarded, and happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, and prosperity not only can be ours here and now but should be.
~ Joseph Stowell [Eternity]
Eternal Perspectives
If heaven had a daily newspaper, the headlines would read quite differently than our earthly tabloids.
HEAVEN’S HEADLINES:
Keeping You Informed about Significant Events on Earth
Kathy S.* Changes 10,000th Diaper
Rod K.* Mows Neighbor’s Grass
Tony P.* Gets Saved; Starts Tithing
Max M.* Delivers Brownies to Enemy
Dan B.* Changes Tire for Stranded Motorist
Gayle H.* Takes Meal to Sick Person
Unnamed Widow Puts Last Two Coins in Treasury Box
(*Last names are omitted until rewards are handed out in heaven.)
~ Kent Crockett, [Making Today Count for Eternity]
Eternal Perspectives
Sin is the rejection of authority. Man concentrates on himself, staggering feverishly round his own axis. It reaches its peak in self-deification. It rejects God’s leadership and makes an idol of man’s vital instincts while ignoring the true God. Hence it also ignores the fountain of life. This means that in its real essence it is denial of life, disintegration and destruction, spiritual and psychic “death.” No wonder that it leads to bodily death as well. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
The death of the body is thus not merely a natural event, but has to be understood ethically. The sinless man need not die. Death is judgment. It is both the essence of sin and its necessary consequence.
~ Erich Sauer, [The King of the Earth]
Eternal Perspectives
When Scripture tells us that “we shall be changed,” we must not imagine that we shall be changed into angels, or into some other nature different from the human. The change means a supernatural elevation and perfection of our whole nature, and not its destruction. The transition of change of the child into the man, neither changes nor destroys the faculties of his mind nor the senses of his body; neither does it create new powers or faculties which he had not before. His gradual growth into manhood only develops and perfects what the hand of God had placed in his nature on the day of His creation.
~ Father J. Boudreau, [The Happiness of Heaven]
