Why Wait?

This morning, as I was traveling toward one of my places of ministry, a friend of mine, as we were listening to some rather beautiful music from Sarah Brightman, commented, 'I would like to learn all of these songs in 'Eternity'! As I thought about this, I realized that her statement, a nice thought, was representative of the thought patterns of many people today. The main reason, of course, that most people, Christian and non-Christian alike, make statements like this, is that they have accepted the traditional assumption, especially among evangelical Christians, that we will not enter 'Eternity', aka-'Heaven', until we physically die, or 'pass from this life'. I must remind my readers, at this point, though, what Jesus told Martha, in John 11:26;

"And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

In biblical context, we realize that Jesus was speaking, not of physical death, but of spiritual death, which, as we read also in parallel passages in the Revelation, will never come to those 'in Christ', and transversely, if we will never spiritually die, then we must have spiritual life now. If we have spiritual life now, as I have argued to greater extent in 'A Spiritual Body', then we must also be 'in' eternity! This brings up several questions, which I may treat at a later date: 'What is 'Eternity'?', and 'Can we be in 'Time' and 'Eternity' at the same 'time'? ( 'What, for that matter, is 'Time'?' ) In Isaiah 57:15, we see that:

'For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“ I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. '


Getting back to the subject of my friend's representative statement above then; does it really matter whether we believe that we inhabit 'Eternity' now, or whether will will inhabit it only after we die, whether we can have a physical body and a spiritual body at the same time, inhabiting the physical realm, or Time, and the spiritual realm, or Eternity, simultaneously? Why wait to learn these songs? Why not learn them NOW, enjoy them Now, praise God with them NOW, bless others with them NOW! We have an eternity to learn them! If we wait till we 'pass from this life' because we have made the assumption that we can just 'wait' for 'Eternity'; who's to say that in some future, spiritual 'Eternity' with God, that we'll even be concerned about learning new songs?!

I pray that this will be edifying to you and that you will ponder these things in your heart ( understanding ) and not wait to do things for God's glory because we don't have 'Time'!

for God's glory,
and for His Kingdom (now ) !
Charles Shank