Day 227: Eternal Perspective

John 8:48-59; 2 Chronicles 5:2-14; Malachi 2:10-16

Jesus' message is certainly an unusual one. He tells the people that if they believe in him, they will never die, and that Abraham was happy to see him. The people are so confused: first, how is it that a person will never die? And secondly, Jesus is only 30 something, how could he have met Abraham who lived hundreds of years before? Jesus is revealing God's eternal perspective. Of course our bodies will die, but what if that isn't the important part? What if the more significant death is the death of our souls because of a lack of faith in Jesus? Something that I heard a while back is that our eternity doesn't start when we die, it starts the moment we trust in Jesus. Our eternity has already started, and Jesus was revealing what that kind of perspective looks like. I've been trying to figure out how to live my life in that way over the last several weeks. It's hard because everything around me screams temporal gain and earthly pleasure. Jesus is revealing that real life actually starts when we accept him for who he says he is and our earthly death doesn't matter much in the scheme of eternity.

Solomon and the priests were having an intense worship service, singing and playing their hearts out, and offering tons of sacrifices to The Lord. In the midst of their worship, God's presence shows up and is so powerful they can't even be present because it is so awesome. What if when we worshiped, we praised God like his glory was filling the room, as if he was actually there? How would our worship be different? If we sit back and watch people in church it is amazing--God's presence really could be there and they act like they are looking at a menu deciding between mashed potatoes or beans. God's glory was so bright that the priests couldn't stay there to do their work, it was so overwhelming that their very presence in the room was difficult. I know I'm definitely going to try and think of this verse the next time I'm in worship. Maybe the words that I sing and the attitude of my heart will be different.

In Malachi, there are some tough words: God is angry because the people have broken their agreement and isn't pleased when they come crying to the altar. Why not? The example given is that the men have not been faithful to their wives, but I see that as being an example of living a life for self or being duplicitous. These people were coming to the altar, weeping, but their lives were not changed. They still worshiped other gods and were not living faithfully, probably in more ways than one. God doesn't want us to just come before him feeling bad, he wants us to come before him willing to be changed, different, transformed, faithful.