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By Pastor William F. Kumuyi

We should all be concerned with eternity, because we will all get there one of these days; and we are created by an eternal God who gave His eternal nature to us that at the end of our temporal stay on earth, we will dwell with Him in the world beyond compare.

Kumuyi

As a result, we are charged as Christians, by our Maker, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, not to live as though there were no life expectancy beyond the earthly grave. This is be-cause some people live as if there is no existence in eternity. They live without eternity in view.

I Corinthians 15:19,32 “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miser-able. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.”

The people who are oblivious of eternity fail to understand that life transcends beyond the grave and into eternity; they live miserable life of hopelessness amidst challenges that life brings to their door step. When the bitter experiences of life batter them, they feel there is nothing to live for and some-times they go on to commit suicide.

They often fall into regular state of depression and are so dis-pirited due to life burden be-cause they cannot foresee any glimmer of hope the future holds. They think that all there is has to be now because they live only in this world and for this world and for the allure-ment of this present age.

Obviously, heavenly minded Christians should not have such a mindset nor live like spiritual urchins who do not have an eternal resting place.

Though back in the days of the apostles there were certain Christians in Corinth who never had the hope of living with God in His heavenly kingdom etern-ally. As a result, they lived life as if they were bereft of a future or a heavenly home. That was why Paul warned them that if they should continue in such a lifestyle that they would be ‘of all men most miserable.’

Today, unfortunately, the story has not changed. There are many people in the church who think that there is nothing worth living for, except for the base crass materialistic valuables of life that fades away. There is nothing of eternal worth that matters to these sets of peo-ple. Of all the men ever lived on the surface of the earth, the scriptures describe these category of people as ‘most miserable’.

In order for Paul to sustain his hope of getting to heaven, he ventured into spiritual combat with men and women that mani-fest beastly nature and attri-bute in Ephesus. To him, if there were no existence of a future life after death, he would not have bothered to risk his life fighting evil men and women. But he would have preferred to seek after the pleasures of life, be-cause death would not have mattered in the nearest future.

That is exactly the attitude of the people who do not have eternity in view. They drown themselves in pleasure and engage in unhealthy rivalry, with the aim of amassing wealth so as to satisfy their insatiable hunger and greed for materia-lism without any hope of life after death.

That is exactly the nature of the people who do not have hope in God nor believe in eternity for which to prepare.

Ephesians 2:12 “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, hav-ing no hope, and without God in the world.”

Do you know that if you do not have anybody who loves you residing outside your own city or if you do not have any fancy for a particular city other than your locality you will scarcely develop the interest to live in that place? This is what I mean. For instance, you have heard about America and have read about the place and, perhaps, you might have even seen the map of the country. But if you do not have anything to do there, or you do not have any-body there or the country does not catch your breath away, you will not think of going to America.

Likewise, the people that do not have Christ do not think about heaven. No, not even once, be-cause there is no magnetic force that will pull them to heaven. If they hear about hea-ven, at all, it does not register in their conscience, because they do not have the charm or ingredient that will attract them to heaven. That charm is none other than Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the number one citizen of heaven.