I'm not picking and choosing, I'm just looking at it from a different perspective.
Where you see fire, I see a purification process.
Zec 13:9
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It
is my people: and they shall say, The LORD
is my God.
Everlasting is also a period of time. You go back through the OT and the old covenant and the priesthood were for everlasting.
Meaning it lasted throughout the generations until a change needed to be made.
So everlasting doesn't mean permanent. It means enduring.
What is the reason God sends prophets to nations?
God is eternal, God is permanent.
When people begin to forget God, he sends them prophets to remind them.. I'm here.
And the rememberance will lasr for everlasting generations, until they they begin to forget again.
These days are scary days. There is a whole generation of people that don't know God. They make fun of people who profess they do know God. They say things like, oh, you believe there's a guy in the clouds blah blah blah..
God will hold them accountable.. anyways..
As time goes by this forgetfulness will become more noticable, by the evidence of lawlessness increasing.
This is that darkness that can be felt.
Exo 10:21
And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness
which may be felt.
It's the deepest despair mankind can find itself in with no hope in the world.
Because there is only hope in God. And a world without God has no hope.
These are the times when God's sends messengers, angels, prophets.. whoever, into the world to revive the momories of those who've
forgotten.
So to me everlasting can only be applied to God alone. Because he alone exists for all eternity.
While we are alive on the earth, this time we have is only everlasting until we die.
After this life we are told we enter into a new life. One with God or one without God.
Right now there are a lot of people in the world without God. I consider this everlasting punishment, until, they find God or God finds them. Then they are translated into everlasting life for however their life lasts on earth knowing God.
For some this punishment, we see is punishment, because we know the love of God, we know his peace, his comfort, his joy. Life.
And we see people living in despair, hopelessness, anger, greed, and to those who know God this is punishment. Death.
You are as a seed that is planted which has yet to bud. Your feet are solid on the ground, your wings are still untested.
One of these days you will have an aha moment. When the carnal world meets the spiritual world and your eyes and heart will be set on higher things and a new and deeper, higher, wider, longer, understanding.
Some people afraid to spread there wings because they are afraid of using their imagination which God gave man to inquire about spiritual things that we can't see. Some people abuse this gift for their own benefit, but God gave it to us for understanding Him.
There is only one verse I have found where imagination is used in a good sense:
1Ch 29:18
O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:
Every other verse regarding imagination has to do with evil hearts and bad intentions.
Imagination isn't evil when you try to picture in your mind, what does heaven look like? What would a perfect world look like?
You need to imagine in your mind what it looks like to remove the old man and to walk in the new man.
You form an image in your mind what this might look like. You meditate on the things of God.
God tells us:
Isa 55:9
For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
You have to reach higher as a new bud reaches for the sun, like a bird that learns to fly.
And there some that say oh that sounds new agey, or esoteric, or whatever words they use to keep you down and clip your wings.
Consider the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was the seed in the ground. Jesus is the bird that soars.
There is the bread you eat, and there is the bread which is the Word of God. Both do the same thing, they fill you with nourishment.
One is carnal and earthy and fills your stomach. The other is spiritual and light and fills your heart and mind.
Everlasting is both carnal and spiritual. One lasts your lifetime, or a generation, or many generations.
The other belongs to God permanently.
And that we may know him. Not only in this life, but that which is to come.
I don't know what is on the other side of this life. But I can imagine what it could be like.
And I have hope and not despair. I live in the light and not the darkness. I once was dead but am now alive.
Glory to God!
Amen
Hugs
