Preparing for Eternity

Preparing for Eternity
Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work God does from the beginning to the end.”
God has put a yearning for eternity in all of our hearts; it gives us hope for more because this world often seems so shallow and broken. We all sense that there is something more after this life and we may not be able to describe why that is but we sure can feel it. The worst fear that I have for many non-believing friends (praise God I no longer have to worry about some closest to me) is that they will die and not have prepared themselves for eternity. The focus of this study is eternity and how God’s word is real and He has given us ample information on how to prepare and what to expect when the end times are coming. It isn’t possible for me to cover all of Revelation but I wanted to touch on some of it. This book scares a lot of people because they say it is so difficult to understand but the word itself (revelation) means the unveiling, the revealing. God has blessed men with an understanding of these scriptures and fortunately I have been blessed with a Bible commentary that is pretty good with it.
Chapter 1- discusses the reality of the Resurrected Christ.
Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” … “who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Chapter 2-3 – Things which are, Jesus gives seven messages to seven churches, wherein lies the chronological flow of church history from the beginning of the early church to the present.
Revelation 2:11 “…He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” This is talking about the great white throne judgment for the non-believers who rejected Christ and because of their actions they will cast to outer darkness away from God forever (Rev 20:6-15).
Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept My command to preserve, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” Believers will be raptured to heaven and not have to endure the trials of the tribulation (seven year period where antichrist rises to power on earth).
Chapters 4-5 – Things which shall be hereafter… The church is raptured and taken to heaven for a seven-year “honeymoon” with the Lord.
Revelation 4:1 (part D) “Come up here…” This verse helps support the verse from Thessalonians (4:16-18) which explains that the believers will be brought up to heaven in the clouds to meet with the Lord. I can’t wait to hear Him say “Come up here”, I know I’m going and so should this group. Heaven is real and so is hell, we all need a savior to save us from ourselves and give us a pass to fly with Jesus in heaven for that honeymoon (7 years) and then to reign on earth for eternity, more on that later.
This is the 1st of a four part series that Tyler Parker and I are going to do on the end times and Revelation. So look forward to Sunday like I am to hear what God is going to speak through Parker. I hope this is intriguing to all of you.