2005-02-08 - Eternity

Encore 2003-11-24

Editor's Note: Tim is still offline with telephone line problems. We hope he is back soon. Meanwhile, we trust God will use this encore to bless you.

Job 7:16 I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

I have been reading a book which is in print today. My copy is older, so I am not sure if the modern version retains what I have in my copy. But it is the book, "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices", by Thomas Brooks. In the margin of my copy, there is a quote that I found very interesting. Some of it makes no sense to me, but the end is what I would like to hit on. "When the golden bait is set forth to catch us, we must say as Demosthenes, the Orator did, of the beautiful Lais, when asked an excessive summon of money to behold her, 'I will not buy repentance so dear, I am not so ill a Merchant as to sell etnernal's for temporals.'" (sic)

I wonder how many of us sell eternals for temporals. That is really a profound comment. Eternals for temporals ... How we all do it. How also do we know when we do it. We all suffer regrets, but eternals for that what is temporal is one of the greatest regrets we can face. The grace of God is something that can overcome it, but in our hearts and lives, when we allow the things of earth to overcome those things that are eternal, well, it is hard for us to overcome. We need to live for eternity. As the verse quoted above says, "This life is but a breath." Do we understand this? Do we know that at any time, one breath is what hinders us from meeting God? If we really lived our lives this way, I think it would change the way we lived. We cannot sacrifice those things that are eternal for temporal pleasures or indulgences. This quote is profound, and I have no idea who Lais is, but it hits the nail on the head. We can never sacrifice eternals for temporals, and I have never seen it put so clearly or more profoundly.

A well-to-do lady spent the afternoon and evening in the company of friends. When she got home, she found her servant-maid reading a book of religion. She looked over her shoulder and said, "Poor melancholy soul! What pleasure canst thou find in poring so long over that book?" That night, she could not sleep. She lay sighing and weeping. Her servant-girl asked twice what was wrong. She eventually said, as she burst into tears, "Oh! It is one word I saw in your book that troubles me. There I saw that one word, 'eternity!' Oh! How happy should I be, if I were prepared for eternity!'" This led her to seek earnestly to be ready for the eternal world, and so it should for us also.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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