Living with Eternal Values #1
What will it take to find a generation of God’s people who will live for the summit of God’s best? It will begin with individual believers who base their lives on eternal rather than temporal values. It will take believers who are so convinced about the reality of life in heaven that this world’s pleasures will not be able to grip their lives. It will begin with an eternal value system in the believer’s life.
Both the seen and unseen world has values. Individuals adopt these values and life’s choices are based upon them. This world places value on such things as youth and physical beauty, intelligence and education, the accumulation of money and physical goods, personal power and position, and self-gratification.
The world to come says that this world and its values will soon pass away. In the world to come we will all be given new bodies that don’t age or deteriorate (1 Cor. 15:35-58), we will know even as we are known (1 Cor. 13:9-12), there will be rewards for faithful service (1 Cor. 3:5-15), and we will reign with Christ forever (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 22:1-5).
Those believers with an eternal value system will have a pilgrim’s mentality. They will view this life as temporary, a brief interlude on the way to eternity forever with Jesus. They are only passing through this world on the way to a better life. The time given for this temporal life will be used for God’s glory, always with the eternal end in view. Decisions in this life will reflect the reality of the eternal life we await.
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
Developing Kingdom Leaders - Tom Yeakley 