Tract Of The Month
5 Minutes After
Wayne Christianson
It may be in a moment, or after months of waiting, but soon I shall stand before my Lord---perhaps this year.
Then in an instant all things will appear in new perspective.
Suddenly the things I thought important---tomorrow's tasks, the plans for dinner at my church, my success or failure in pleasing those around me ---these will matter not at all. And the things which I gave but little thought---the word about Christ to the man next door, the moment (how short it was) of earnest prayer for the Lord's work in far-off lands, the confessing and forsaking of that secret sin---will stand as real and enduring.
Five minutes after I am in heaven I'll be over-whelmed by the truths I've known but somehow n never gasped. I'll realize then that it's what I am in Christ that comes first with God, and that when I am right with Him, I do things which please Him.
I'll sense that it was not just how much I gave that mattered, but how I gave ---and how much I withheld.
In heaven I'll wish with all my heart that I could reclaim a thousandth part of the time I've let slip through my fingers, that I could call back those countless conversations which could have glorified my Lord .... but didn't.
Five minutes after I am back in heaven, I believe I'll wish with all my heart that I had risen more faithful to read the Word of God and wait on Him in prayer---that I might have known Him while still on earth as He wanted me to know Him.
A thousand thoughts will press upon me, and though overwhelmed by the grace which admits me to my heavenly home, I'll wonder at my aimless earthly life. I'll wish . . . if one may wish in heaven---but it will be too late.
Heaven is real and hell is real, and eternity is but a breath away. Soon we shall be in the presence of the Lord we claim to serve. Why should we live as though salvation were a dream---as though we did not know?
"To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
There may yet be a little time. God help us to live now in the light of a real tomorrow!
Just Think
Of stepping on shore
And finding it heaven;
Of taking hold of a hand,
And finding it God's hand
Of breathing new air,
And finding it celestial air;
Of feeling invigorated,
And finding it immortality;
Of passing from storm and
tempest to an unbroken calm;
Of waking up ----
And finding it Home.
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