This seems to last forever . . .

 

 

We are in a cold snap. This morning it is -23F or -31C with a wind that makes the air feel like -38. What is it about days like this that make summer sunshine feel so far away? Almost to the point of forgetting what it feels like? Winter gives a sense of eternal, even though I know better. While I use the words eternal or forever to describe things that only seem to go on and on and on, the Bible speaks more literally of the eternal.

The OT word actually means “ancient, forever, everlasting.” It can be used to describe days long past, or the future. When applied to God, it could mean “always” for our God is ETERNAL. In that sense, this OT word is about His faithfulness, trustworthiness, and goodness. It also means that He always is.

1 Chronicles 16:34. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

Psalm 90:2. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Isaiah 60:19. “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

There is more, but most interesting is Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” I know that eternity is a reality, yet I cannot quite figure it out. How can there be no beginning or end? How can God always exist? What is life like beyond the grave, outside of or without time?

The NT word for eternal is an adjective that defines the everlasting God and His realm; the blessings of salvation; and everlasting conditions that have neither beginning nor end. In more than half the times this word is used, it is linked with “life” creating more questions. How can I be given something that has no beginning? The NT has the answer.

This word is used to describe God, His glory and Spirit, and that He is immortal and the source of our eternal salvation and eternal life. He also delivers us from eternal judgment.

1 Timothy 6:14–16. “Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

Hebrews 5:9. “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”

This eternal life is a gift from God to all who believe in Jesus. It is His life that I am given.

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 5:11–12. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

1 Timothy 1:16. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

Receiving this gift through faith puts us in a different realm that has neither beginning nor end. Colossians 1:13–14. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

His kingdom is eternal and the life we are given is eternal. 2 Corinthians 5:1 says I “know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” yet while I know it, full understanding eludes me for I still walk in the realm of time with beginnings and endings. In that dual existence, God tells me to “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” I’m to look forward to that day when my “resurrected body will also be eternal, dwelling forever in heaven” because my eternal Savior has so “richly provided for me an entrance” into His eternal kingdom. I don’t understand it, but I can believe it — because my Eternal God said it!

 

Forever Thankful

 

 

Yesterday’s preparation for Thanksgiving dinner lasted for several hours yet it was not tiresome. The glazed turkey turned out so well that my daughter-in-law teased me that I’d snuck in the Iron Chef to do it. However, the clean-up, even though it took much less time, seemed to take ‘forever.’ I’m thankful that God, with the passing of time and because of all that He does, is never exhausted and can handle ‘forever’ much better than I can!

In the OT, FOREVER is about length, either space or times. “Length of days” refers to a long life on earth. One Hebrew word can mean eternity or is translated forever. Another word used more than four hundred times means “ancient, eternal, forever, everlasting.” Whatever the context, it is far longer than it takes to clear the table, take all the remaining meat off the turkey and put it and other leftovers in the frig, get those turkey bones in a crock pot for soup, fill the dishwasher, and wash everything else that will not fit.

Some OT examples of forever as it pertains to God include:

Exodus 3:15. God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

Exodus 15:18. “The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

Deuteronomy 32:40–41. For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me.

1 Chronicles 16:34. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 48:14. that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.

Psalm 111:3. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.

Ecclesiastes 3:14. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

Isaiah 40:8. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

In the NT, the Greek adjective aiōnios is used three ways. It refers to the eternity of God in the divine realm, the forever blessings of salvation, and specific conditions without beginning or end (eternal) that we often call God’s forever blessings. I’m blessed when thinking that there is no end to God therefore no end to His grace toward His people. These truths take me through down days and tough stuff.

John 14:16. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper (the Holy Spirit), to be with you forever.”

Galatians 1:3–5. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Hebrews 1:8. “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.’ ”

Hebrews 13:8. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The fatigue slides away when I think of how much I’ve been blessed. Peace fills my heart when God reminds me that He is a forever God who never changes and whose blessings last forever; there is no end to His goodness. One day, as Revelation 22:5 says, the dark and difficult will be gone because “night will be no more” and I will not need the light of lamp or sun because “the Lord God will be my light” and will be all that I will ever need; with Him I “will reign forever and ever.” Besides, that kind of forever also means never-ending joy!