This article is provided by Noah Radtke, young adult in our church who desires to work with youth…

If you are not promised another second, what are you doing right now to live your life to its fullest?  The way the Holy Spirit has convicted me of it as of recently is by this question:

If God sat you down and told you that He was calling you Home in the next ten years, what would you be pursuing?

I think that this question honestly has the potential to reveal our passions, our callings, or more fearfully–what our gods are.  What are you putting your time into?

Robin Williams mentions in the movie, The Dead Poets Society, we are food for worms. Robin Williams takes his class to a photo of previous graduates who are long dead, and challenges them to make the most of today, proclaiming “Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)!” The one thing I found lacking in that scene is that it does not look to a Savior or eternity.

You see, we have an eternity, though being created beings, our time’s expiration on Earth does not conclude our expiration of existence.  Therefore, what we do in life on Earth affects our eternity.  In a presentation done by ACSI’s president, Dr. Dan Egeler, he challenged Christians to rather “Carpe Aeternitatem (Seize Eternity).”  So here’s the crux of my message:

The Gospel Does Not Just Secure Your Eternity…It Gives You True Life NOW!!!

Read what God has to say about Israel in Jeremiah 2:12-13…“Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

God did so many miraculous things for His people; saved them from Egypt, parted the Red Sea for them, guided them by pillars of fire and dust, provided for them in the desert wanderings.  Yet despite all of the things He poured into them, they still turned around and looked back to Egypt.  They still turned from God, and it broke His heart.

But you and I are not much different.  Here He has lavished His love on us, not that we first loved Him, but He loved us and sent His Son to die for us (I John 4:10). But what do we do? Where do we put our stock and time?  Relationships? Work?  Money? Provisions? Church? Media? We have tasted the feast, and yet more often than not, we look back to our Egypt.  We leave the feast in favor of the desert.  My friends, this cannot be our end.  So here’s my final question:

Is It For Here?  Or To Go?

Just like the cashier consistently asks us when we order our beloved fast food.  Is your life for here (Earth)?  Or is it to Go (Eternity).  It’s Carpe Aeternitatem!

What are you doing now to affect your eternity?

Matthew 6:19-24 lays it out pretty clearly, calling us to not lay up treasures here on Earth, and saying that we can only have one Master…one priority…one end.  I love Paul, and I love his passion for the Gospel in Philippians, and in chapter 3 he is challenged with his authority to teach (the boasting in the flesh).  He then goes on a long list of why he has reason to boast in his earthly authority, but then what is his conclusion?

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ…(vv. 7-9)”

That was the level of his resolve.  Anything deemed of high value on this Earth, he counted as rubbish compared to Christ.  And guess what, he wrote all of this while he was locked up in prison!  His mindset was eternity-bound, saying “for me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21).”  In other words, “I’m going to keep preaching the Gospel until my time here on Earth is done, and when I die, I win!  You’ve got nothing on me, world!”

Is that the mindset we have?  Are we so consumed with God and what Jesus has done, that EVERYTHING in this world seems small?  I’m not just talking about the problems in this world, but also the good things.  Is it for here?  Or to go?

We may not be perfect yet, but it doesn’t mean we can’t strive for perfection; in fact, we are called to pursue it!  But that righteousness is not our own; it comes from Jesus Christ.  Forget what is behind, and press on!  Keep Moving Forward! Live today as if you are preparing for eternity, and if you stumble, pick yourself up and PRESS ON!

Are You For Here?  Or To Go?

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