Keep Our Eyes on What is to Come
Updated: Aug 18, 2021
KEEP OUR EYES ON WHAT IS TO COME
By Rev. Gary Lewis
Senior Pastor
Recent events in the world – the earthquake in Haiti, the collapse of Afghanistan, the division within communities and families, another wave of illness and death from COVID-19 – reminds me as a Christian to never forget of what is to come. During these brutal days of suffering and unrest, we need to remember that it will not ALWAYS be this way.
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 8, describes the world’s reality as “all creation is groaning.” Let us never forget that this suffering is momentary. The groaning on earth is temporary. All we have to do is to keep our eyes on Jesus and continue to serve him. The Bible is clear how a life of faith is not always a life of ease or comfort. This does not mean life is without success or without a sense of joy.
Indeed, by suffering in this life, even as Christ himself suffered, the Christian calls attention to the life of Christ within him and the ministry of Christ around him. Thus, the Apostle Paul speaks powerfully of Christ’s death in 2 Corinthians 4:12, “So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”
I want to share with you the words of 1 John 3:2-3, 14 and 16:
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure … We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other … This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
There is a day coming when God, with his very hand, will wipe away every tear and there will be no more death, sorrow, and pain. There is a day coming when sickness will be no more and all violence and hatred shall cease. The message to our Bristol church family, community and world is all that we are going through is worth it.
We shall overcome all the disappointments, the putdowns, the difficulties, all of those things shall be no more. This should energize us to serve God with more energy and more sacrificially. God is going to set things right.
Allow this truth to sustain you through all that we are going through. One day, all of this nasty stuff will be behind us and we will forever be with the Lord. Until then, dear loved ones of God, the Lord is with us to strengthen us to keep loving, keep living faithfully, keep believing, keep enduring and laying down our lives for others. In terms of eternity, all of this is “just a little while.” In the light of eternity, all of this will be behind us soon.

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