Making the Right Choices for Eternity

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of GOD is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23 (NASB)

Webster's Dictionary defines Eternity as: the quality or state of being eternal: infinite time lasting throughout eternity: a seemingly endless or immeasurable time an eternity of delays. People like to try to understand numbers and passage of time by putting it into terms they understand. For example, the average lifetime is close to eighty years. That is a solid number, and eighty years has both a beginning and an end. In the vastness of space, however, numbers and distances can grow so huge as to lose meaning as a reference point. We can see stars about 25 billion light years away. This takes us to the edge of the known universe. A light year is the distance covered by light in one year. Light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per SECOND. Even if we could travel at that sustained speed, it would take 25 billion years to reach the edge of what we can see.

Although time and space encompass huge distances and extremely long periods of time, they are still a measurable distance, with a beginning and possibly an end. But Eternity has neither a beginning nor an end. It has always been so, and shall always be so. Likewise, God has no beginning and no end on the time He reigns. There was no time before God, and there shall never be a time after God.

We shall each have an eternal destiny. Some will find themselves in Hell for all eternity, and they shall never leave this place set aside for the wicked. They will serve eternal, or unending, punishment for not accepting the free gift of Salvation. But one day, those who follow Jesus will rise up, meet him in the air, and follow him back to the places that he has prepared for us there. Then Heaven will become our home, and we will exist for the rest of Eternity bathed in the warm glow of the Father's love for us. Either way you look at it, eternity is forever. The Word shows us how we can spend eternity with Christ. Now, that's a forever to look forward to!