FOR ETERNITY'S SAKE

NOTE: Another lengthy piece.

As honey and bread to and for the hungry soul, so is our God's mercies to us. As water for the thirsty one likewise is the Lord's word to the weary soul. Take away God's mercies and love from a man's life then he is worse than a dead dog. It is true that, "living dog is better than a dead lion." But this time around, the dog that was once thought to be alive lost its life to the cold hand of death by not suing for the loving favour of God. As it is written for us that, "...in His favour there is life..." What would then happen if for a second His favour is found wanting in us?

It is for our own good if we thank God and live in and with consciousness of His Praise and thanksgiving. Show a man a way of livelihood or making a living; if he be a wise person, he will stick to it as the veins and tissues are to the neck and head. So, as for us, the way to live is "the way of praise, the way of thanksgiving, worship..." We have no other way than this. To whom do we Praise? God and Him Crucified. There is no foundation that is laid apart from that which had been laid that's Jesus Christ. He is our peace, mediator who has broken down the middle wall of partition. And those things which were written contrary to us He had erased and cancelled by His own blood. What a love! It should be a rebellious act and stack pattern of disobedience if we at any time fail to stand to our feet just to bow again at His feet for we who had owed much He forgave much. And now even much more than the woman with a box of albaster oil, who brought it to the Lord Jesus anointing His feet alongside with tears; we are to come bowing down at His feet too with humility and perfecting holiness with the fear of God to show how much we owe Him. Give us eternity times eternity to pay Him back in gratitude, they still won't be enough or amount to a billionth part of what He had done for us. We are graced! We are loved! We are favoured! We are Christ's and Christ is God's! Hallelujah!

FOR I LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN, AND SAY, I LIVE FOR EVER - Deuteronomy 32:40

Canst thou live forever, O man? Would you do all these things and continue to be the same person you're in this same frame of yours forever? What are your days? Number them let's hear you. Lay your hands upon your lips. Let not your mouth utter foolish words and refrain your heart from issuing untamed imaginations. Isn't the number of your days like that of a flower that blossoms in the morning and by and by as even call tolls, its fragrance and tenderness, beauty and colourful appearance all withered off? Isn't the day of a man like a sun rising in its strength early in the morning throughout the course of the day and at evening its all gone to its circuit?

Ah, poor souls in a frail frame and weak containers of earthen vessel...what do you have to say concerning the One who lives forever. What is your life? Is it not a speck of dust in the whole universe and spacious orbits when compared to that of your Maker and your God? From antiquity, if you know the date thereof to eternity if only your heart and calculative mind could conceivably know what dates they were... God has been God. He's is God still and there is no end of or to His reign. These things, I say, are too wonderful for me. If I were given the whole of everyone's life on Earth (over seven billion lives) to use at once over and over again and without count to know what the word FOREVER, ETERNITY OR EVERLASTING means, I would still not be able to unveil it neither would I be able to lift its curtains. So heavy were they that even the mightiest of mighty mortals would not by strength move them. So immovable, unsearchable and they past finding out. Yet, one person who does not know the number of ants in his house or the count the number of his hairs would open his or her mouth to blaspheme the name of God. Can you tell the number of the stars or call each of them by name? Ha! Fear for your soul if you love it and let not your foolishness consume you.

AND THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE; AND THEY NEED NO CANDLE, NEITHER LIGHT OF THE SUN; FOR THE LORD GOD GIVETH THEM LIGHT: AND THEY SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER - Revelation 22:5

We use this moment to call the Believer to rememberance...Oh what a bliss and tranquility it gives the heart to know that even if our days are here on earth numbered, there is another place prepared for us eternal in heavens, the abode of the Father of light being joint-heirs with the Son and in Fellowship with the Holy Spirit where we shall forever be. Do we have good things to enjoy here, of a truth we have but they aren't forever. How about our families, friends and fellow believers? Yes, it's all good to have them around. Oh how sweet it is for us when we see, live and be together with them...that sister you love, that Brother you cherish, that mother you care for, that child you cuddle, that father you like, that friend you speak to often, your spouse with whom you share affection, the atmosphere around you in your home and office. Oh, how good and glorious! But yet, they aren't forever but for a moment.

O elects of God, purchased of God, born of the Spirit and washed in His blood... when our work and walk on earth is done, thereafter, we shall cross the border into the yonder place, transcending the reign and reach of mortals in all ramifications... Oh there we shall be forever. Having availed yourselves for God's use and when the roll is called up yonder, at the trumpet sound when the angels shall give a grand welcoming parade and shout to the conquerors and overcomers not just once, twice or seldomly but forever to the glory of God who is seated on the throne. Oh, how glorious the sight and event is! Seeing crowns given and stars on them. Hearing new songs which none of all the musicians, singers, minstrels, artistes combined which the earth has produced had or would ever sing... You're not going to hear them like a 4-minute track or 2-hour album but it shall be forever.

Not just those alone...what a powerful and exceeding dimension it shall be when you see the One whom you loved and your Lover. Not just the way some preachers described Him to be...you know people can be exaggerative but their exaggeration would never measure up to God's standard. Then and there, like the Queen of Shaba told Solomon we fancy we should utter the same words but in a higher level of celebration that, "Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard." We shall then see God the way He is in His grandeur, wonderful appearance, exceeding greatness, unapproachable brightness, wisdom and glory unmatched and indescribable - and that is FOREVER. We shall see Him forever. How delightful and desirable are the thoughts of FOREVER for the righteous and them that fear the Lord. O Beloved, for ETERNITY'S sake don't rubbish your soul. Don't joke with it. To what would you compare being with your Lord and God for ever? Nothing! We say nothing and nobody!!! And to round it up with you, O comrades. We are not just going to see Him as He is but we shall be like Him and that it will be forever! Hallelujah! "...Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see him as He is."

Do you have trials now, how about temptations, troubles, afflictions, health challenges and other disabilities for with much tribulation we shall receive the crown of life...O beloved fret not for you shall be like Him. Is the thought of a loved one who died by burning in a flaming inferno troubling you? Oh that man was handsome until his skin was ravished by that deforming disease... Don't panic, that man, that woman whether he or she died solemnly or in a ghastly accident at the last day having been Redeemed and saved by faith shall be and look like God forever. For eternity's sake, don't lose your crown and place, we plead with your Spirit.

AND THE SMOKE OF THEIR TORMENT ASCENDETH UP FOR EVER AND EVER: AND THEY HAVE NO REST DAY NOR NIGHT, WHO WORSHIP THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND WHOSOEVER RECEIVETH THE MARK OF HIS NAME - Revelation 14:11

I tremble and quake as if the terrors of hell and the lake of fire are hereby shown and revealed to me. The bones of my knees are not in agreement with one another. They beat against each other. The strength within fails to support my frame. Ah, sinners fear for your souls. I beg you with everything you love and beseech you with everything you hate, please don't earn yourselves a position in that bed of fire burning with fire and brimstone because it shall be forever. There is no repentance there. No second chance. No purging not to talk of purgatory. Ha! Creatures made in God's image and likeness, fear the word "FOREVER" for that would be the word so common in the world to come. Its syllables shall be heavily pronounced by sinners with pains though.

We are not talking to self-righteous people here. Away with you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. But to those who know that the present enjoyment, merriments and gains will only spell everlasting repercussions of doom and woes, please come and repent. How I wish I have the tongue of the learned to carry you along the timeline of eternity to see for yourselves whether by Providence you should repent. How I desire to speak with the tongues of angels to your poor minds. Ah, Lord touch your people, let them not choose the way of perdition because it is forever.

But to conclude. Methinks I see thee in some place in hell, tied to a rock, the vulture of remorse gnawing thy heart; and up there is Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. You lift up your eyes and you see who it is. “That is the poor man who lay on my dunghill, and the dogs licked his sores; there he is in heaven, while I am cast down. Lazarus—yes, it is Lazarus; and I who was rich in the world of time am here in hell. Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue.” But no! it cannot be; it cannot be. And whilst you lie there, if there be one thing in hell worse than another, it will be seeing the saints in heaven. Oh, to think of seeing my mother in heaven while I am cast out! Oh, sinner, only think, to see thy brother in heaven—he who was rocked in the selfsame cradle, and played beneath the same roof-tree—yet thou art cast out. And, husband, there is thy wife in heaven, and thou art amongst the damned. And seest thou, father! thy child is before the throne; and thou! accursed of God and accursed of man, art in hell. Oh, the hell of hells will be to see our friends in heaven, and ourselves lost. I beseech you, my hearers, by the death of Christ—by His agony and bloody sweat—by His cross and passion—by all that is holy—by all that is sacred in heaven and earth—by all that is solemn in time or ETERNITY—by all that is horrible in hell, or glorious in heaven—by that awful thought, “FOREVER,”—I beseech you lay these things to heart, and remember that if you are damned, it will be unbelief that damns you. If you are lost, it will be because ye believed not on Christ; and if you perish, this shall be the bitterest drop of gall - that ye did not trust in the Saviour.

May God grant you never may feel the torments of the lost. Only conceive that poor wretch in the flames who is saying, “O for one drop of water, to cool my parched tongue!” See how his tongue hangs from between his blistered lips! How it excoriates and burns thereof of his mouth, as if it were a firebrand. Behold him crying for a drop of water. I will not picture the scene. Suffice it for me to close up by saying, that the hell of hells will be to thee, poor sinner, the thought that it is to be forever. Thou wilt look up there on the throne of God, and it shall be written “forever!” When the damned jingle the burning irons of their torments, they shall say “forever!” When they howl, echo cries “forever!”

" 'Forever is written on their racks, ’Forever’ on their chains; ’Forever’ burneth in the fire, ’Forever’ ever reigns.”


Doleful thought! “If I could but get out, then I should be happy. If there were a hope of deliverance, then I might be peaceful; but I am here forever!” Sirs, if ye would escape eternal torments, if ye would be found amongst the numbers of the blessed, the road to heaven can only be found by prayer—by prayer to Jesus, by prayer for the Spirit, by supplication at his mercyseat. “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had rather that he should turn unto me and live.” “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” Let us go unto him and say, “He shall heal our backslidings, He shall love us freely and forgive us graciously, for His Son’s name’s sake.” Oh! If I may but win one soul to-day, I will go home contented. If I may but gain twenty, then I will rejoice. The more I have, the more crowns I shall wear. Wear! No, I will take them all at once, and cast them at Jesus’ feet, and say, “Not unto me, but unto thy name be all the glory, forever.”

ETERNITY GREETINGS TO YOU ALL

Remember Eternity this week