What is the purpose of Eternal life?  When does eternal life start?

I have started reading more resources from Andrew Wommack and am wonderfully challenged each time I read. 

On a little side note, Praise God for loving hubby’s who are willing to stay home and give Mom’s time to rest and catch up on some r and r (rest and reading in my books house).    

I have been asking God for some clarification on the “once saved always saved” issue. As I was speaking to a pastor here in town yesterday, he referred me to his teaching.

http://www.odcf.ca/index.cfm?i=11810&mid=18&g=44251

I found it to be very interesting, and will be looking up all the scriptures.. I found His discussion about the elders and the multitude in Revelations particularly interesting.

This starts in Revelation 4
“And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,

10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

And Revelations 7 talks about the multitude
“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

Signpost (Photo credit: Peter Nijenhuis)

Psalm 25:4-8 “Show me the right path, O Lord;  point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me,  for you are the God who saves me.  All day long I put my hope in you. Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past. Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth.  Remember me in the light of your unfailing love,  for you are merciful, O Lord.  The Lord is good and does what is right;  he shows the proper path to those who go astray.”

Today more of a rambling… hoping this makes sense.So i have this great visual in my head of this whole every command  of God actually being blessing.  The Word describes following God as walking on a path, neither veering to the left or the right.  I am finding that in life, there are these constant crossroads that we hit where a decision and a course of action must take place.

If you start by picturing a sign post at any intersection with 2 to x number of signs and arrows pointing in various directions, you might be picturing what I am seeing.  Here is the great part, wherever you are, if you look to the Word you will find the sign post lovingly and left specifically to guide you through the very moment you find yourself in.   On each sign, the various options laid out in those verses can be found.   There is always at least one that point clearly and decisively to God’s will, way and plan, by appearances, it may look like the least appealing, most difficult road to travel.  It reads, “to blessings/the Way”.  The remainder read “to curses” and of course there is always the third option, to leave all paths and forge your own, which always lands you of course, in the wilderness, deep forest etc…   When you zoom out of this and look at it from above, you will see the most wonderful and complex map.   Every point on that map has a signpost (a decision point) that can take you from wherever you are, back to being on “the way”.   But you can also clearly see that if you step off “the way” to the left or the right even a little, you would find yourself immediately off the path.

Signpost in the Yard of the Domeier Grocery Store, a Neighborhood Business, on South Minnesota Street in New Ulm Minnesota… (Photo credit: The U.S. National Archives)

Here is the point, I believe that God left us His Word as a love letter but also to give us clear directions how to stay on His path.   Pre-sin, the road was relatively clear to see, but by very definition, sin blinds us, snares us, lays pitfalls and snares at our feet endlessly and lures us off the right path onto other paths that look good but end in death.  As we can’t “see” this path with our senses, He has provided for us by leaving clear directions for every possible scenario we can find ourselves in.   Our human reasoning and temptation comes along regularly to try to lure us off the path.   How much harder it becomes to see the right path as each additional alternative path clouds are vision and tempts us to take another way.  Needless to say, the more complicated the situation, the more desperately we need to search God’s Word to find the right way.  It isn’t that the signposts aren’t there and easy enough to see and understand, it simply that we continually let our senses and reasonings convince us that another “way” would be better, more efficient, more successful etc.    Oh that we would completely trust the clearly laid out path the Lord has left for us.

“Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.”

This pride things seems to be at the core of so much.   That word only is so very very challenging.  Where there is contention, there is surely pride.   More repenting and needing help from God to be “cleansed from all wickedness”.

Somehow, the life a of a disciple to Christ Jesus should look so radically different, at least that’s a thought that has passed through my head several times. Today the immediate thought afterwards was, isn’t God’s mercy incredible. Because if we all faced immediate consequence as in the case of Annanias and Sephira, for lying about their offering to God, as in the case with Aaron’s sons, who were struck dead for using the wrong incense, or as in the case of Adam and Eve,who each were banished from the garden with a specific, ongoing generational consequence that we are still reeling from today… we would all be dead. The truth is that the same sin that brings consequence into unbelievers life, brings consequences into ours..

So here is yet observation for today. There is a very clear biblical cycle. I was reminded of this while watching the presidential inauguration prayer breakfast. It looks something like this. There is one relatively righteous generation that gets blessed abundantly, not because they are perfect, but because they get their hearts right with God, and I mean to the point of actually obeying His Word whole heartedly. Then this is followed by a series of unfaithful generations… and things get worse and worse and worse until they get so bad, that God takes radical action. So all the generations in between could falsely get the impression that God doesn’t care, that He isn’t keeping track, and that they will escape the consequences. I can only speak for me, but I can confess that I have looked to a person’s life before to gage if they are blessed or cursed. But the above being true, this is truly one of the easiest ways to be deceived into thinking just because the consequence isn’t visible, it isn’t surely coming. Oh Father, just get my eyes off of people altogether, In Jesus name.

I thank God for all friends who get me thinking about what the Word really says… In studying Genesis 1, those words spoken to Adam and Eve…. vs 22 “And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply…” are apparently the source of quite a theological debate. Theology is not however within my sphere of influence. I want the heart and core of it. And here is the new conclusion I am at.

Aren’t every single one of God’s commands a blessing for us?

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Each one is given as a gift to tell us the godly way to live, which is the only way to live in peace, joy, rest, love and with all the provision of God.

My thoughts for today anyways.