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Job 27:8
8 For what is the hope [tiqvah] of the hypocrite [chaneph], though he hath gained [batsa`], when God ['elowahh] taketh away [shalah] his soul [nephesh]? KJV-Interlinear
8 'For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, When God requires his life? NASB
In this world there are two broad categories of people - unbelievers and believers in Christ.
Within the believer group there are three general categories of people - those who do not grow up spiritually at all, those who have varying degrees of spiritual growth, and those who advance to spiritual maturity.
The first group, the unbeliever group, will have no blessings whatsoever in eternity. Their future will be in the Lake of Fire.
The next group, all believers in Christ, will go to heaven regardless of their spiritual growth.
In eternity, God has waiting for believers, phenomenal blessing packages. These additional blessings will be given to believers who have spiritual growth. Review the Parables of Christ studies.
The mature believers will receive all of their blessings. Those who have some spiritual growth will receive a prorated share of their blessings. And those who have no spiritual growth, will not receive any of their extra eternal blessings. Their blessings will be redistributed to those who have advanced to maturity.
This is the ultimate truth regarding life and the future for each and every one of us.
Life for us all began when we were born. We have two categories of life - the first is our physical life here on this earth. For most of us, this life will last for maybe eighty years on average. The second, is our eternal life which will occur after we leave this world and enter into the next life. This second life will last forever, for billions of trillions of gazillions of years and more.
Now here is a test question. Which life span is the longer of the two? Which of these lives will be the more significant? If you answered the second or the eternal one, then you do have a brain after all.
For most of us … our first life, comes first.
Don't want to go to fast for anyone here.
The eternal life expectations of the believer are infinitely better than the expectations of the unbeliever. Heaven verses Lake of Fire.
The eternal blessings of the mature believer are infinitely greater than the blessings of the negative believer.
The obvious objective of the individual should be to maximize their future by advancing to spiritual maturity.
In this life, none of us had any say or choice in our birth or circumstances of life. From the time of Adam and Eve right down to the time of our parents, we had no say in our genetic makeup, nor the circumstances of history, or the environment into which we were born.
But as for our eternal future, we have phenomenal opportunities in preparing for our next life, in insuring that we will have blessings above and beyond all that we can even imagine. That is a huge change from our former situation in which we had no input.
So you can live for this life alone, perhaps a few decades, and forget your future, eternity, or you can prepare during this life and have the greatest life beyond imagination in the next life, the one which will last forever.
Job points out one big truth. We will all leave this life eventually. We will be cut off. We will die. And then eternity will begin for each one of us in due course.
One day, God will issue a command and your soul will leave your body, and gone from this world you will go.
What hope is there for those who reject God? None. There is no other deity to which they can turn.
What blessing is there for those who ignore God? Zip. There is no other source of blessings from which they might gain some advantage.
During this life many will be indifferent toward God. They will pursue the world, they will express their opinions, they will presume that they know more than the average person, they who have not lived but a few years but presume to know history as though they have been around since time began.
Mk. 8:36-37
'What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'
Unbelievers give up their entire eternal future in heaven for their passions during this short life now, on this earth.
Negative believers forfeit their eternal 'extra' blessings for their passions during this short life now, on this earth.
Life now is very short in comparison to all of eternity. And while a person may enjoy the benefits of this world, from a spiritually negative life now, and God will allow it, but giving up all of eternity seems like quite a large price to pay for virtually nothing in return.
Look around you, at all that you have, and all of that will be lost, for certain the very moment of your eventual death.
You cannot change your future (death and eternity), but you can change its content. And to make that change for the better, all it takes is a positive attitude toward God, Christ, doctrine, your daily study and your spiritual life.
And of course you can ignore all of this, too. But there is a price for that decision.
