The Future Starts Now
October 29, 2007 by Randy
Filed under Christianity, Life
The scripture below stood out to me because one of the management team members at Exodus asked us all to meditate on 1 & 2 Peter in preparation for our yearly management team meeting. I want to start blogging my musings (the ones I am willing to share publicly) as I work through the scriptures. I hope to engage dialog for edification.
1 Peter 1:3-5 (MSG) emphasis mine.
3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven-and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all-life healed and whole.
After reading The Creator and the Cosmos it seemed clear, to me at least, that eternity is a constant state of “now.” Where the past, present and future are all “now.” It was difficult to wrap my mind around that concept at first but after meditating on the way God works, it isn’t that difficult since He can exist outside of, in and through time. He is not linear like we are.
… or are we?
It seems like our earthly lives are constrained by the next thing to do or “tyranny of the urgent.” But if in Christ, the first of the Resurrection, God is watching over us to include us in the future of heaven … and that future starts now … it would seem that it would be best if we are creatures of eternal vision not just focused on the next project or event.
Heaven is beyond our natural imagination so how do we prepare for something that we cannot even comprehend, something the scriptures say that we only see “through a glass darkly?” When I thought of these questions the Spirit reminded me that the scriptures say if you have seen Jesus (in Scriptures as lived out in Communion), you have seen the Father. To emulate Jesus is to prepare for eternity and to live it out in the “now.”
Also, all of nature declares the glory of the Lord, so to literally take the time to smell the roses and contemplate creation, worship, and constant exercise of our faith and intellectual faculties…basically live life toward the goal of experiencing Him by inviting Him into everything … that is preparation. It’s important to recognize evil as well and seek God’s perspective. I can not just blithely dismiss darkness and see it also as preparation for some aspect of Character God wants me to have eternally.
To live being trained by and exercising the mind of Christ, the future starts right now. He says that He is the Great I AM, so He IS and is yet to come. He is the eternal Constant and we are called to be found in Him through Christ…right now.
A life dependent on Christ is a forever Life dependent on Christ. No matter what Heaven is like, those who are found in Christ are going to be serving Christ. We might as well get used to it now. 
It’s one of those simple but profound mysteries that will always go further then my ability to dive into.
So figuring out how to live within the constrains of linear time with the perspective of the eternal “now” … oh that’s easy! 
Ok… jump in and share your thoughts. And as always, I reserve the right to be wrong.
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It’s always fun for me to read your thoughts, Randy. I’m horrible with remebering scripture references (and also with spelling haha), but there is a passage that says the Lord has set eternity in the hearts of men. That seems pretty accurate to me — we all tend to love as if we’re never going to die.
Cool and you are right… we do tend to live as if we are never going to die. My struggle is living for the next “thing” as opposed to the overarching view of eternal perspective.
It’s good to see you here Matt.
Hi Randy good to hear from you.
I think God made our spirits for eternity in heaven with Him and that is why we yearn for HIm and why our hearts fill with joy when we are worshiping, when we feel His presence. its unexplainable but yet so beautiful and nothing on this earth can fill that void not even sex,drugs or rock&roll or a same sex partner…
Always good to read a blog from you Randy. You are a thinker and your musings inspire me to press in and think about specific subjects as well.
Truly what has come to matter most to me,(what has made my life most meaningful), is to see from Gods eternal perspective how to relate to others.
After church Sunday some of our church went over to help a family in our church move. After a few hours I had to head home and let my dog out. a 16 year old daughter of some friends of mine wanted to go home with me. I am really good friends with her parents and after she got her Mom’s permission she came with me. I did not hesitate to say come along knowing God reveals his perspective to me in the way I respond and relate to others. (This was a set up…Gods plan for the rest of my Sunday).This daughter had never before had an opportunity for a one on one conversation with me and I knew God would be so part of our interaction.
I intentionally had an eternal perspective (I anticipated God’s presence in this allotment of this particular time slot in my life).
This daughter of the Most high(who wanted to come over) is sold out to Jesus.
She is a leader and example in her peer group.
We talked for about 3 hours and I was blessed to know this daughter does live life especially fueled by her imagination of the ideal eternal perspective and its necessity to be incorporated into her daily life.
I had the opportunity as an adult to express to her that I get to live the way I imagine God would want me to live too.
I have such an advantage living as a single because I get more opportunity to refresh and purposely place my self in God’s prsence without distraction.
Even this young person does not have as much opportunity to do the same being one of a family of five.
I was able to encourage and reinforce her perspective.This encouragement was neccesary because so many times in her daily activities living among friends and family she does not recognize others living with the same faith to rise above what the devil would use to bring us down.
We bonded and she was reinforced as was I having been reminded through our conversation how to consider every relational circumstance through Gods eternal perspective. Her parents showed up later with their other two daughters and we all had more time together.
It was a very special Sunday.
Leticia, agreed all those other things are things I turned to when I didn’t know Him but now that I know Him they don’t even compare. Thank you for sharing your comment.
Cindy, that’s a nice story of community. I love that your church helped someone move and that you are a friend of that family.