God Has Given Us Eternal Life

Today I got a taste of heaven and I long for more. Tony continued in his series from 1 John (today's sermon on 1 John 5:5-12), Will The Real Christian Please Stand Up, The Letters of John. My heart was greatly encouraged by this message. I would like to take the opportunity to comment on a few of the verses and a few facts about heaven. The verses are from 1 John 5:10-12 from the ESV.

10Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does
not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the
testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11And this is the testimony,
that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the
Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

God's testimony concerning Christ is two fold, to those who do not believe and those who do believe. To those who do not believe- verse10 states when one denies what the gospel and God says of Christ then he is a liar. Belief in anything other than what God has said attacks the character of God. Verse 12 says that if he have the Son then he does not have the life.

To those that believe, those who are resting upon Him, who believe unto Him, who trust Christ in all areas of life, we have been given eternal life. The testimony is internalized meaning we are continuously believing. Eternity with God has began now in this life but will be consummated later in time.

A few things that we pondered this morning were a life endless in duration, a life endless in quality, a life with God, a life of activity and responsibility and a life without evil or sin. Eternity will be forever, endless into the future. This is hard for me to comprehend because everything in this life has an ending point. I can not even begin to fathom what forever will be like. As believers living on through eternity, the quality of eternity will deepen. In heaven we will be with God. God is endless and our satisfaction will never end with Him. We will continually be filling up on His endless knowledge. In heaven there will be new activity and responsibility too. There will be new heavens and earth. We will be made like Him. There will be no more curse upon the earth. We will reign with Him. There will be no more sin, no more suffering, no pain, no mourning and there will be no more want.

Here are the words to a few songs we sang this morning. Both of these put in place living here until I one day am together with the Lord in heaven.

You Are My All in All, by Dennis Jernigan 1990 Shepherd's Heart Music

You are my strength when I am weak,
You are the treasure that I seek, You are my All in All.
Seeking You as a precious jewel,
Lord to give up I'd be a fool, You are my all in all.

Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is Your name
Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is Your name

Taking my sin, my cross, my shame,
Rising again I bless Your Name, You are my All in All.
When I fall down, You pick me up;
When I am dry, You fill my cup, You are my All in All!

Knowing You by Graham Kendrick 1993 Make Way Music

All I once held dear, built my life upon,
All this world reveres, and wars to own.
All I once thought gain I have counted loss,
Spent and worthless now, compared to this:

Knowing You, Jesus, Knowing You,
there is no greater thing.
You're my all, You're my rest,
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love You, Lord.

Now my heart's desire is to know You more,
To be found in You and known as Yours.
To possess by faith what I could not earn,
All-surpassing gift of righteousness.

Oh, to know the power of Your risen life
And to know You in Your sufferings;
To become like You in Your death, my Lord,
So with You to live and never die.