The End

Part of the reason God gave us divine revelation about the next life is to motivate us in this one. Some have said Christians can be “so heavenly minded, they are no earthly good.” But as C.S. Lewis rightly pointed out, Christians are no earthly good until they are heavenly minded. Until we digest what God says about the end of this world and the beginning of the next, we will never truly embrace Christ’s values or live a Christ-like life. The New Testament repeatedly drives this point home, frequently exhorting us to “set our hearts on things above” (Col.3:1-2). Jesus calls us to punctuate our prayers with an ardent request for God’s “kingdom to come” (Mt.6:10). Because our decisions, our discussion and our disposition need that eternal perspective, may God empower us today to “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2Cor.4:18).

For more devotionals and sermons from Pastor Mike Fabarez visit the Focal Point website.

Perspective on the Unseen

To hold a biblical perspective on reality is to affirm that there is more to reality than what meets the eye. In fact, what you don’t see matters far more than what you do see. Paul writes, “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). It’s not that the present universe isn’t important, it’s just that we need to be repeatedly reminded that all of the current physical creation “will perish,” and that God “will change it like a robe,” but the Lord and his people “will have no end” (Psalm 102:25-28). It might be compared to your computer. There is a lot you can physically see, touch and analyze – you can test the power supply, touch the memory chips, and dissect the motherboard – but far more important, is the data which resides on and is expressed through the hardware. Those digital realities are what really matter to us. That is what we value. That is what we will carefully preserve and keep to transcend the limited lifespan of our aging and soon-to-be-outdated laptops. The Bible asserts that the physical world was created by our non-physical God, as a vehicle to embody and express the unseen spirits of men, women and children. As others have rightly said, “you do not have a spirit; you are a spirit, who has a body.” And because of the sentence of sin, the bodies we have will continue to age on this decaying planet while we and it “wait with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” to be “set free from bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org

Live for Christ Today

Peter motivates his readers to pursue godliness and holiness by reminding them that the world’s enticing temptations are a part of a value system that God has promised to destroy. He poignantly describes the complete decimation of the current order of things. “The day of the Lord will come” he writes, “like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved” (2 Peter 3:10). Because the present world is the source of endless distractions and sinful enticements that assault our devotion to Christ, Peter calls us to remember what endures. What we do for God will last. How we invest our hours in Christ’s agenda will have a transcendent worth. “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved,” Peter goes on to ask, “what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?” (2 Peter 3:11). Clearly it makes no sense to dabble in the world’s agenda and imbibe in the passing pleasures of sin. Every sinful impulse that is denied and every idolatrous path that is forsaken will yield eternal dividends and be pondered from the next world as a small sacrifice in such an advantageous investment. You can be sure that one day soon this world will be gone and “the time for rewarding God’s servants will come” (Revelation 11:18). So remember what lasts and live a godly life for Christ today.

For more sermons and devotionals on living for Christ daily, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website.