Tag: Eternity

How Good is God? Devotional

Do we know just how good God is? Do we have any idea how good God is?

We should be dead in our trespasses. But God! But God is good, and He made a way, through the blood of Jesus Christ!

Saturday, I’m at home, my back is out, and I get on my knees, and I pray. I’m praying about how good God is in my life and I start weeping and I feel the Holy Spirit comes over me and I just be still, basking in it, praying about how good He is and that I have no idea how good He is.

Even when we don’t understand or when it hurts, God is still good. Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Bible Gateway ESV 2025)

James 1:2 “Count it all joy, my brothers,[b] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (Bible Gateway ESV 2025)

Where is Jesus right now? On the right hand of the Father (Col. 3:1). What is Jesus doing? He is interceding on our behalf. John 17:24, all good answers. Jesus is preparing a place for us in Heaven. John 14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”  (Bible Gateway ESV 2025) Jesus is preparing a place for us, in Heaven, isn’t that good!

I was texting Junior today about what we need to bring, is it going to be inside, do we need skewers for hotdogs and do we need to bring chairs and he wrote me back and said Amy offered to make pork loin, and pumpkin pie and tea and I was like, yes and thank you and I was about to start weeping again and I was thinking why am I about to cry over this and I realized just how good God is. We don’t have to look far to see God’s goodness, just look around you. We needed rain and it rained. We’ve got food and fellowship. There are so many reasons to be thankful. 

Let’s just be still and bask in God’s goodness in our lives. Let’s be quite for a minute or two and take in the beauty of God’s creation and His goodness.

It was put on my heart for this brotherhood; we could share some of our testimonies. Brother Zack said he feels like he doesn’t have a very exciting testimony. He didn’t hit rock bottom; he didn’t go to jail. He didn’t lose everything, you see God reveals himself differently to each person. He has revealed Himself differently to each one of us. Aaron’s testimony is going to differ from Zack’s, and we can reach different people with our own different testimony.

God revealed Himself through general revelation to some of us and God has revealed Himself through special revelation to others, through creation, or God’s Word, or through something extraordinary.

What If Brotherhood Devotion

Men, what’s going on?  And I don’t mean how’s it going.  What’s going on in the world right now?  The world is literally on fire, right now.  Between Isreal and the US bombing Iran and the storms that we have been having, tornadoes, floods, hurricane in North Carolina.  I still don’t think they have recovered from that one last year, riots in LA, No kings’ demonstrations.  They don’t want anything to do with a king and we worship our King Jesus.

And don’t think because we live in a small town, we are exempt from the darkness.  There was a murder in Mt. Ida not too long ago. 

Manuela got back from visiting some friends in Oklahoma on Wednesday and five minutes later there was a bad wreck right by the house in front of Crider’s.  And Saturday there was a wreck in front of Walmart.

What if …you didn’t know Jesus?  Think about that for a second.

What if…you never prayed to God?  Dwell on that for a second.

 What if…the only thing I had to look forward to was pleasing myself and my selfish desires in this life on earth?  How shallow would that be?  What kind of existence would that be?  How selfish would that be?

What if…you spent eternity separated from God in darkness?  The thought of that should make you have chills.   

I pray…that I have the wrong audience here.

Luke 16:19“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.[f] The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Bible Gateway ESV 2025)

He says you had your chance while you were alive to listen and believe and repent.  Now it’s too late! 

Why do you think the rich man is referred to as the rich man, why doesn’t he have a name?  Because you won’t find “Rich Man” in the Book of Life.  Lazarus has a name, and his name can be found in the Book of Life.  Lazarus is being comforted by Abraham.

Think about your name not being in the Book of Life.

Or Jesus saying, “I never knew you; depart from me you worker of iniquity.” Matthew 7:23 (Bible Gateway ESV 2025)

We want Jesus to say “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” Mathew 25:23 (Bible Gateway ESV 2025)   

There is going to come a time when there are no more do overs, or no more mulligans.  (That’s a golf reference.)  We are either going to die, or Jesus is coming back. whichever happens first and then it’s, Game Over!

And we are running out of time.  We need to have an urgency to ourselves.  I’m saying spend time with your loved ones, your kids, your grandkids, and tell people about Jesus every chance you get, live on Mission like Zack says.  We are on mission, and we are on a battlefield right here in Mena, Arkansas and people are dying right in front of us, without knowing Jesus.    

Does Someone Have to Die For Others to Live?

Does someone have to die for someone else to live?  Think of it this way; if you are an organ donor, then someone on the donor list can live from your death.  At first, I was afraid to be an organ donor.  The young and immature me thought, what if I am not really dead and they take my organs, but I realized that we all die, unless Jesus comes back first.  And the insecure me was afraid of dying, but the mature, older and more secure me is not afraid of dying.  We should look forward to being with Jesus in Heaven.  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:8 “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (Bible Gateway ESV 2025) And Ecclesiastes says 12:7 “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Bible Gateway ESV 2025)

Therefore, I would say yes, many times someone does have to die for others to live.  Think about Jesus, He willingly gave his own blood on the cross for us to live, and we will live forever in Heaven with Him, if we believe in Jesus and repent of our sins.  And when I say believe, I mean have a relationship with Him, even Satan knows of Jesus.  I’m talking about making Jesus the Lord of our lives and submitting to Him.

What if you are an organ donor and your life-saving organ saved someone’s life that didn’t know Jesus Christ yet?  What if the time that your organ extended someone’s life was enough time for them to make Jesus Christ their Lord and they accepted Him into their life and got saved from God’s wrath.  I’ll add Jesus doesn’t reject us; we are the ones that reject Him.  And maybe, just maybe your generosity of giving someone a second chance and extending their life was enough time for them to except Jesus into their lives and instead of dying, living in Heaven for eternity. WOW, what a thought!

So, give blood when you can, people that possibly don’t know God, could get another chance of finding God, or be an organ donor, maybe that buys them more time to find God.  What a thought, not only could you extend someone’s life, but you could possibly help someone get more time to find Jesus!        

Eternity Devotion

The Lord put this devotion on my heart to share with you before Easter, the day Jesus was resurrected, paying our sin debt in full.  Read below the devotion I gave Sunday, March 28, 2021.  I asked a friend to perform Amazing Grace. 

I’ve asked Neil to sing Amazing Grace for us today. 

I love the line in Amazing Grace that says:

“When we’ve been there ten thousand years

Bright Shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we’ve first begun”

Today I want to you about Eternity, eternity

Pray:

Dear Heavenly Father, I love you.  Help me articulate this message that you have laid on my heart.  It’s hard for us feeble humans to understand eternity, please give me the words to say.  Please be with this church Dear God, lead, guide and direct us as we make important decisions, we want your will to be done.  Please place your comforting and healing hand on everyone on the prayer request list as you see fit and the unspoken prayer requests, I am sure you know their needs.  Be with our country.  I pray that the leaders of this country would come to you in prayer asking your guidance before implementing any policies that affect us all.  Be with brother Zack as he brings the message, you have laid on his heart.  Forgive me of where I have failed you, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.   

First, what is or how long is eternity? The dictionary’s definition says Endless or unending time, A state to which time has no application; timelessness.

When I was coming up with some examples to try and explain what this might look like I thought about when I take our dogs out at night, I oftentimes look up on a clear night and see God’s beautiful and amazing creation and I see all the stars that God spoke into existence.  I see millions of stars and I wonder how many stars are there and does that equal eternity?  Supposedly, the stars add up to a 10 with 24 zeros and it begs the question, does that equal eternity? No it doesn’t

Another example I thought of was, if you have ever been to the ocean and looked out as far as you can see where the water and sky meet and you can see the sun rising or setting, another beautiful example of God’s might, that he spoke into existence.  It’s as if you can see forever, does that somehow equal or represent eternity?  No, that still doesn’t match eternity. 

Then I wondered how many drops of water make up the ocean, what if every drop of water in the ocean represented 10,000 years of eternity, would that somehow equal eternity, there’s roughly 26 sextillion  drops of water in all the oceans, does that add up to eternity?  And the answer is no it doesn’t.

The truth is we are not equipped to understand God’s power and might as human beings we can’t fathom what eternity is going to be like. 

When I think of spending eternity, with our Heavenly Father forever and ever and ever, the ever’s don’t end.  When I think of that it brings a smile to my face.

If we are a born-again Christian, if we asked Jesus into our heart, if we repented from our sins.  If we believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, in a miracle in itself, that Jesus walked the earth free of sin, teaching and preaching, healing the lame and sick, that he died on the cross for our sins and was raised on the third day and sits on the right hand of the Father, then we are going to live forever and ever and ever praising God and that should bring a smile to your face. 

What I would like for you to do is turn to your neighbor and say eternity to them?  Can you say it without smiling?  Can you really think about spending eternity in Heaven without smiling?

The Bible says…John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

John 6:54Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today when you go from one place to the other, from here to upstairs to Sunday School or to the main Church worship area and you pass by someone, say eternity to them as they pass by and see if they smile or if you can keep from smiling, because it is going to be awesome to live in Heaven and praise our Heavenly Father for eternity, forever and ever and ever.  The ever’s don’t end.

The devotion turned out very good and went right along with the Pastor’s sermon preparing us for Holy Week.