Eternity

God lives and works today, and one day each one of us will have to face him in eternity. Whether this meeting is a joyful reunion or the beginning of an eternal nightmare depends on us, on our lives now. A look at the life of Dostoevsky in today's meditation by Basilea Schlink brings home this important truth.

Whoever is a realist is concerned with eternity, for eternity is a condition that will reach us all in a few decades at the very latest. We don't know in advance what awaits us tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but one thing we do know, for each one of us the hour of death will come and afterwards. Let's take a look at an event in the life of Dostoevsky.

In a literary club, Dostoevsky loved to read aloud forbidden letters, and as a result he was sentenced to death. Dressed in a white funeral robe, Dostoevsky stood at the execution square in St. Petersburg, tied to a post awaiting the deathly bullet. In these indescribably tormenting minutes he looked death squarely in the face.

With lightning speed his whole life flashed before his eyes. Later, Dostoevsky described these seconds as the most dreadful ones in his whole life, because he had to look eternity in the face. In the last second a stay of execution was granted, but this horrible experience was indelibly imprinted upon his soul.

Afterwards he wrote in his diary, I thought over everything. I gave God an account of my whole past. I held a strict and relentless trial for myself, and I thanked God that he gave me this experience.

Dostoevsky became a changed man. Because he had looked death and eternity in the face, he was now purified in the fiery furnace. So consider this well.

We're all confronted by eternity, and in eternity we'll not be asked what we've done for ourselves, or how much we've lived for our own interests and those of our family and profession. No, we'll be asked what we've done for eternal life, whether or not we've lived for God. All of our thoughts and dreams will become irrelevant the minute we die.

Then we'll only be asked, what have you prepared for eternity? Yes, in the face of eternity God wants to awaken in your heart and mind the prayer, O Lord my God, let your light of truth show me how you see my life. Cleanse me through Jesus' blood from all my sin and every bondage to Satan. Yes, blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Jesus went through torment and suffering and has risen victoriously in order to open the gates of his kingdom for us. His love longs for us to reach this goal, the goal of eternal glory. Therefore, O my soul, put off your shackles, break each tithe that binds and tempests, all that's earthly fails and dies, and your life in ruin lies.

Every hour indeed is precious, use time well, God's word still warns you that you may prepare your way for your heavenly wedding day. You have been listening to a program written by Basilea Schlink of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website www.canaan.org, that's K-A-N-A-A-N.org. If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet.

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