I Realized When

I realized tonight just when this is going to get hard~ it is going to be when I take my eyes off of the cross. That is when I will start to think that this is our final home. That is when I will forget where Trent is, and what it cost for Jesus himself to bring him there. I will start to forget that God himself gave up a son for my son to enter His glory. I will start to forget about God's perfect plan that He called good. I will forget about the grace poured out on us on every step of this journey so far because Trent was saved and is now in heaven. There were 11 other boys with him, several who have admitted to us that they are not saved and would have been in hell right now had God taken them last Friday. When my eyes stray from the cross my apathy returns and I forget the souls surrounding me that have an eternal destination. I will then seek my comforts here and expect again that this world will offer me what only God can. I will forget that my life is only as a shadow, that my eternity will be in heaven, and that only what is done for Christ will last. I can say with Paul:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

May God never take my eyes off of the cross in all of this. May He keep me faithful to the high calling He has brought in my life. May it all be for His glory. And may many souls be woken up to ask the question~ What if it had been you that died on that slope on Friday? Where would you be? Where would your children be? Christian parent, what are you raising your children for? For the glory of God, or the glory of the world?

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 3:17-21, and 4:1&4 taken from http://www.biblegateway.com/

Looking back I found these posts very interesting in light of God's sovereignty~ click here and here and here to read more.