Today vs Eternity

I was saved in Canton, Ohio, on June 14, 1970. The same day I was saved, during the same invitation, I gave my new life to the Lord. God immediately called me to go to Bible college. So, ten weeks later I was in Bible institute. But, I almost didn’t go! Nope, I wasn’t fighting the Lord or out of His will.

In the few months I’d been attending Canton Baptist Temple I had heard a great deal about the Blessed Hope. (The Rapture) Like everyone else at that time I was convinced that the Lord would return to get us within the next three years. I told my youth director that the Lord wanted me to go to Bible college but I wasn’t going because I wanted to get right out and start doing something for the Lord. I knew He would come within the next three years and I didn’t want Him to come before I graduated. I wouldn’t even get started in the ministry!

My youth director heard that and said, “If God wants you to go to Bible college that better be where He finds you when He comes!” That was the greatest advice he could have given me! That was 55 years ago. If I had listened to my own advice I would have never gotten the Bible education I did and would be extremely poorer for it. I have built a great deal on that biblical foundation. I didn’t think I had three years ahead of me and I actually had 55!

So here I am in 2025 and I still think the Lord will probably come this year. We can’t possibly have three years before the Lord returns to get us. I have only been wrong about that 55 TIMES! But, as wrong as I’ve been in the past, the events of today convince me, like so many others, that our time left here is short.

But the subject of this Essay is not the timing of the Rapture or how right or wrong we have been about it. Without a doubt we are 55 years closer to it than when I was saved! But think about this: if the Lord comes in the next 12 months, then we are just months from entering Eternity. This life will be past, never to be revisited. Once we enter Eternity we will be there, well… forever. We will spend Eternity with the rewards we have earned in these “few” years on earth.

The purpose of this Essay is to prod you to think beyond this life. How many rewards have you earned so far? If you just got pious on me and solemnly stated, “I don’t serve God for rewards.” I don’t believe you.

Today, in the USA, everybody is enrolled in some kind of “Rewards” program. Most likely wherever you buy groceries, gas, clothes, or other things, they have a “Rewards” program. You probably are a member of rewards programs at all kinds of businesses, but you’re not interested in rewards that last… FOREVER!

If you style yourself as “too spiritual” to be “so carnal” as to be interested in serving God for rewards I have a question for you: Who instituted the “Divine Rewards Program?” God did! And you’re willing to say, “No thanks, I’m not that carnal.” When you casually dismiss God’s Rewards Program you are saying to Him that His program was a “bad idea.” Think about this, the rewards He wants to bestow on those who serve Him are gifts… so is Eternal Life! Aren’t you glad you took that gift?!

I don’t think men in the military should intentionally try to win medals. They should try to do their duty to the best of their ability. But I do think that men, while serving, do something outstanding, “above and beyond the call of duty…” they should receive a medal for it. The medal acknowledges that they not only did their job but went even farther and did more than asked or required.

Have you ever competed in anything? Have you tried to win a trophy, a Certificate of Outstanding Performance, or anything else that gives public acknowledgment to your outstanding efforts? Do you think someone who wins an Olympic medal should reject it? Doesn’t the medal illuminate the hours and years of practice they endured just trying to do their best?

That seems to be the approach God takes about those who choose to serve Him. We all have a “Divinely Appointed Job” to do. It only makes sense that God is going to judge how well we performed our appointed tasks. (2 Cor. 5:10)

So, I ask you, what have you been doing for the Lord since you were saved that He will want to reward you for? More than a few Christians have lived clean and virtuous lives but have done very little directly for the Lord. Then doesn’t that make the ones who actually do what they’re expected to do special?

I’m not scolding you or trying to make you feel guilty. I’m trying to get you to take an inventory of how much of your time has been spent trying to accomplish something that will bring God glory rather than yourself. It will matter in Eternity. And, the eternal rewards you get are only in your power to attain.

If you fear you haven’t done too much for the Lord, let me give you some easy things you can do that may help you in Eternity:

1. Get some tracts and put them out. Even if you’re afraid to hand one to someone, put them around where someone can find them. Who knows if someone will pick one up, read it and get saved? Think about it: if you walked across the country and tossed handfuls of corn seed in every field you pass it wouldn’t all take root and come up. But it wouldn’t all NOT come up! If you put out no tracts you’re assured no crop. But if you put out a bunch of tracts…? You won’t know until Eternity what took root and led to someone trusting Christ… to your credit! But, they won’t find those tracts if you don’t put them out!

2. Go to your pastor and tell him that you will pay for all the tracts your church buys. That way you’ll get some credit for the tracts that others sow.

3. Do the same with Sunday School material. Think of the benefit young children get from Sunday School… and you helped!

4. Pick a missionary from those your church supports and tell your pastor that you will provide that monthly amount for them. (But please! Realize that this is that missionary’s lifeline. Don’t fail to provide the money and if you change churches continue to send that missionary his support!)

5. If you’ve never won a soul to Christ ask your pastor if you can go soul winning with him or whoever he designates. Ask them to tell you what to do and then the two of you go “Soul Hunting.”

6. When a missionary comes to your church, fill their vehicle with gas for them. Buy them a $100 gas card, or Walmart card or restaurant card. Maybe if they need a piece of equipment for their field you could buy it for them. You may think that it might cost too much. Well, I’d rather buy the bullets for one of our soldiers than face the combat he has to! Same thing with a missionary on a foreign field.

7. Ask the Lord for guidance as to how you should invest in His Great Commission.

Read Exodus 17. You can be a soldier engaged in hand-to-hand combat or you can be Moses who, if he makes one bad call, Israel is destroyed… Or you can be Aaron & Hur who simply held up Moses’ hands!