Time: Its Gifts and Troubles

I am eighteen years old and I am just realizing how precious and how weird time is.

Currently, in the summer before I leave the college and begin to live on my own for the first time, all I can think about is cherishing the time that I get with my family and friends. I notice how precious few days I can get with them before I leave and only see them on weekends or holidays or special occasions. It tugs on my heart, and I now realize that time is fleeting, and time is so precious.

But to God, time is nothing. Time is something created for this earth. God doesn’t care about time. In His eyes, our lives, which we worry so much about and care so much about enjoying, are like a blink. Eighty years? Nothing. It’s nothing to Him. Which is why eternity seems so unreal to us.

Have you ever sat down and thought about what eternity will be like with Christ? It makes your head spin. To think about endless time, days and months and years not mattering to you…that’s what it’s like for God. But for now, we can’t comprehend it, or try to visualize it, no matter how hard we try.

And eternity is true for hell as well. Those who deny Jesus and His name will experience eternity in hell as well. Days and months and years not mattering…just an eternity of suffering. It’s real, and it’s true, and it’s reality. Again, we can’t imagine it. (Relevation 20:10).

When a time with family comes to an end, I start to get all panicky. I start to think maybe I should just spend forever with a specific person that I love and appreciate, but then I realize I have other people to see and other responsibilities to fulfill. And I wish that time was eternal.

But why would I want to live forever on this earth? This earth is full of sin and hatred towards God, and it cannot give us the joy that eternity with God can give us. Eternity with God will be, of course, endless, and it will be joyful and perfect. There will be no end to the time we will have with Him. I can’t wait. Can you?

Time can be eternal with your loved ones. All who believe in Jesus Christ, and that He died on the cross for the sins of the world, will spend eternity with Him, starting NOW. What wonderful news that is for all who believe.

Look to Eternity

As a junior in high school, I sometimes think about my future and cringe. I get really scared. Right now it all seems so impossible – getting into the college I want, going to college, getting good grades, and finding out what I want to do with my life. I get scared because I’ll be leaving the home I’ve lived in, my parents, and I’ll be completely independent.

Life is legitimately scary. No one told me how it would be. But God tells me what I can do to cope with the scariness of life. In Deuteronomy. 20:3-4, He tells me, “Do not be fainthearted or afraid, do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

I’ve been fainthearted, afraid and terrified before but I know that I don’t have to be. I’ve fought my own personal “enemies” before and I will likely face bigger, scarier enemies.

But the best part is knowing that God is right there with me through all of them. He’s going to bring me out stronger and smarter. Every situation is that way. He might have to tear me down, but He will always remember to bring me up.

If you’re scared about the future, don’t be. Guess what we have to look forward to? Endless life with Jesus in heaven. No tears, no pain, no more suffering. Instead of looking five or ten years ahead, look ahead to ETERNITY. It’s gonna be great.

Good Enough

I’m not good enough.

I will never be as good as them.

I can’t be good enough for you.

“Good enough”. What is up with that phrase? To be good enough…is impossible! We’re human beings. And if you’ve ever lived a single day on this earth, you know from all the sinning you do in one day that you can NEVER be good enough. We’re not truly “good” because we sin constantly! We’re humans and that’s what we do.

So, we can’t be good enough…then who can?

Jesus can. Jesus is perfect. Sinless. Clean. Never did a thing wrong in his life. Never has. Never will. He is God and has all the wisdom and power of God. So he is good enough.

However, some 2,000 years ago, he did something amazing. He took all of the things that YOU can’t do good enough and put them on himself. All of the times you’ve sinned. All of those things. He put them all on himself. He said, “I did these things.”

When you think about it, it feels like it’s ruining it all. It’s like, “Why, Jesus? Why are you ruining all of your goodness with all of my filthy sin?”

The answer is simple. BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU. So much. And He wanted to save you. He wanted to let you be forgiven. You see, if Jesus hadn’t have died for us, we would be walking up to God and saying, “Hey, I’m here. Ready to get to heaven.” But he would see all of our sin and give us the sentence we deserve – hell.

But instead Jesus became our connection to God. Now when we walk up to God, ALL HE WILL SEE WILL BE JESUS. He will see perfection. No sin whatsoever. Because all of that got wiped away on the cross. We are clean and fresh and new. Every day.

So think about that. The next time you think that you’re not good enough, remember that Jesus is. And that is all that we really need.

Just a Thought

Sometimes I stop and think about heaven. I think about how I can’t imagine a life where you don’t have to think about it all ending – there’s no getting old. You don’t fear any death. I can’t imagine thinking about forever.

That is, because, heaven is something none of us can imagine. It’s beyond our imaginations. There is no better place in the world than in heaven.

I think about living forever with Jesus and my brothers and sisters in Christ. Because when you get to heaven, your mom isn’t your mom and your grandpa isn’t your grandpa. Your mom is your sister and your grandpa is your brother – in Christ.

I get thinking…and I can’t wait. It’s not like I’m ready to die – because I have lots left to do here on earth, lots more people to share Christ with – but I’m not afraid of what comes after I die. I’m ready. I’m prepared. I’m excited to be with Jesus.

Handling Heaven

Read: Revelation 21:3-4

Heaven is a lot for some teenagers to handle. We’re all in it for the right here, right now. We all live in the moment. It seems impossible for us to think a month into the future, let alone eternity.

Thinking about heaven can be overwhelming. But sometimes the way we think about heaven is wrong. For some of us, heaven is that prize at the end of life. It’s a good place, with streets paved with gold or whatever. And when we think of that we think, “Oh, well my other option is hell. So I guess I’ll go to heaven.” But some of us don’t realize that getting into heaven means devoting your life to Jesus and believing he’s your Savior. We perceive sometimes that to get to heaven, we have to do good works and be what society thinks of as a ‘good person’. Go to church. Give to the poor. Help old ladies across the street.

Think of it this way: the game of LIFE. I’m talking about the board game (though it’s not much different from real life when you think about it.) You spend your whole life racking up Life cards, trying to get a better salary, and trying to raise tons and tons of that paper money. And then at the end there are the choices of retirement homes. There’s either Millionaire Estates or that Country Homes place. In the real world, Millionaire Estates represents heaven and Country Homes represents hell. It’s sad, but just go along with it. We think, “Well, Millionaire Estates sounds like a cool place, so I’d rather go there over Country Homes. Nobody wants to go to Country Homes.”

Think about this one now: If you were to go to heaven and it was perfect in a million ways except for one thing – Jesus wasn’t there – would you be okay with it? If it had all your favorite things and feelings but no Jesus, would that fly with you? It sure wouldn’t with me.

John tells us in this passage in Revelation that heaven is your wildest dreams times a million. We need to realize that the focus of our earthly life should be to glorify God and focus on our life in eternity with him.