Life

 Eternity’s a long time to be wrong about something so critical as eternity. In most cases, the fool and coward being indistinguishable, the reaction to a topic as heady as eternity is usually to scoff, mock, and brush it off with some ignorant trope like “I don’t care; I’ll be dead anyway.” Your flesh surely will, but that which is more than flesh that resides in you will not.

Perhaps it’s because that part of them knows the truth of it that some people are so reticent when it comes to considering and pondering eternity. If that which animates man and constitutes life comes from God, then that breath, that spark, that divine sliver knows when it is no longer in an environment conducive to His nature.

Most people say that the longing for God in the heart of man is like a hole that only He can fill. I’m sure you’ve heard the God-shaped hole theory at least once in your life; all of us have. What if it’s not a hole, after all, but that which God put of Himself in man that longs to be reunited with Him?

Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

Whether your relationship with your parents is good or otherwise, they’re still your parents. No matter how much you disagree, no matter how distant you grow, and no matter how far away you run, your mom and dad remain your mom and dad. It’s whether you want to acknowledge them as such and submit to their authority that’s in question, not whether or not they made you.

Since the big tech firms have determined that drinking boba tea, getting your septum pierced, and daydreaming about personal pronouns isn’t really worth shelling out six figures, many a youth with no life skill other than watching numbers on a screen has been forced to move back in with their aging parents. What they’ve found is that although the parents are welcoming, they have boundaries and standards they insist their children live by while under their roof.

Some find the idea of submitting to the authority of their parents so off-putting that they choose to live on the street and scrounge in garbage cans for their daily bread. Whether it’s their pride or that their sin has so consumed them that they cannot consider parting with it, they would rather descend into rot and ruin than humble themselves.

If you want to enjoy the safety and comfort of your Father’s house and avail yourself of His promises, then you have to submit to His authority and live according to His precepts.

It’s why I’ve never understood those who insist that you can come out of the world and continue to live like the world but enjoy all the perks of belonging to God, including eternal life. Did you climb out of a dumpster only to make your Father’s house a dumpster? How does that work exactly?

We pretend as though the only thing Jesus said to the adulterous woman was that He did not condemn her. That go and sin no more part, well, that was never really confirmed. It may have just been an artistic flare on John’s part or something that got lost in translation. It happens, you know, but that ‘I don’t condemn you’ part, that’s solid. It’s the sin no more part, that’s in question.

We play these games thinking that God’s participating, but He isn’t. They’re games we’re playing by ourselves, with our flesh, and diluting ourselves into believing that our machinations will somehow have an impact on God’s decision-making or that we will be able to scripture twist enough verses to get Him to change His position. It won’t, and He won’t.

God will not go back on His word because this generation is so enthralled by the sin that so easily besets it. He’s not going to have a change of heart because we’re whinier and more entitled than any generation to come before us.

1 John 5:10-13, “Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

The litmus test isn’t whether you performed signs or wonders if you prophesied or cast out demons or if you belonged to a specific denomination. The litmus test that determines whether I have eternal life or not is whether or not I have the Son of God and if I believe in the name of the Son of God. That’s what the apostle who focused more on eternal life than any other declared inspired by the Holy Spirit.

I get that it’s enticing, even tempting to chase after movements, manifestations, winds, and revivals, but if we ignore the Bible because we like the sound of clanging cymbals too much, we do so at our own peril.

Back in the day, a commercial was going around with a genius tagline. If you’re as old as I am, then you surely remember it. Got Milk? That was it! That was their pitch and the entirety of their messaging. As believes our messaging should be just as clear and succinct: Got Jesus?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.