By Not Known
Arthur and all his family were alcoholics. His
two sisters ran brothels. Arthur had little
schooling and made his life in pubs and brothels.
One day Arthur committed himself to the Lord
and his life changed. A year or two later, a
sermon about eternity touched Arthur’s heart
and life. This barely literate man found he could
write the word eternity in a beautiful script.
Arthur roamed the city streets for many years
and chalked ‘eternity’ on footpaths over 500,000 times.
Arthur was tying to put a sense of eternal realities into human lives and lift
others from his old life of eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. This is
an echo of God who put eternity into the hearts of man (Eccles 3: 11).
Eternity – Challenges all to consider that day when we will face God as judge.
What will we say to god on that day to secure entry to eternal life? It also
Challenges believers to live with an eternal perspective.
Our present life is one of struggle and suffering. We struggle in the space
between our desire to what is right and our inability to do it as we labour in the
Spirit to put the sinful self to death (Rom 7:14-25; 8:13). We suffer as God
lovingly disciplines us into his Son’s ‘shape’. We also suffer as we forfeit things
and bear hurt for Christ’s sake (Rom 8:17; Heb 12:4-11).
If we have no sense of eternity, this present struggle and suffering has no point (1 Cor 15:19).
The reverse is also true – Rom 8:17-25. Paul never minimises the
struggle and suffering of the Christian life. But it is his calculated view that the
coming glory absolutely outweighs the present suffering (Rom 8:18). The coming
glory also frees us to deny ourselves and to give loving service to God and
neighbour in the presnet.
Eternity frees us to live responsibly in the present. That was Arthur’s life and
should be ours too.
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