What lasts?
When I am listening to music these days, I love to play Christian worship songs, but then country music is kinda my guilty pleasure. I just like it. While the first moves my heart, country oft makes me smile. Guys like Jason Aldean, Chris Stapleton, Darius Rucker and gals like Kelsea Ballerini, Gabby Barrett and the rest. But one song really got my attention recently--" Forever After All" by Luke Combs. Each stanza of the love song concludes with ‘Maybe some things last forever after all.’ I believe Combs has it right -- some things do last forever after all.
I ask myself, ‘What lasts?’ If ever there has been a throw away culture, this is it. There really isn’t any need to repair a television, because it is cheaper to replace it. That bugs me. It is easy to throw away people; we can just ‘cancel’ someone out--you know, just unfriend them. It even sounds mean.
podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/ab5456e9/some-things-last-forever-after-all-41421
But here’s the thing--I know some things last…. How can I be sure? Mostly because the Bible tells me so. Like no other tangible item, I trust the Word of God, and I simply love my Bible. Any strain of teaching or preaching that waters down the value of the Bible, no longer considering it the inerrant Word of God, is wrong. I have noticed that many opt for a pick and choose buffet-style Bible; that option is not open to us.
As I was driving Highway One, which is also Capital Blvd. in my new town, I asked myself aloud, ‘So what things last?’ This is what came to mind. It is actually a really clarifying exercise.
What lasts? God. He is the Alpha and the Omega…. He has always been and always will be. Wait, what is the whole verse? I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.1
Jesus Christ never changes! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.2
The psalmist's simple words: You remain the same and your years will never end.3
What lasts? The Word of God.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.4
Expanding that thought, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”5
What lasts? Relationship with God. God will not cancel you; he will not unfriend you. You will not fall out of favor with God; your relationship with him is forever. John explains it this way: And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.6
There it is - simple, straightforward, out of the Word of God--these things last.
Luke Combs was right - some things last forever after all. Man, am I glad!
A worship song: Great are You, Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaP8fKAR2Og
With love,
Christine
1 - Revelation 22.13
2 - Hebrews 13.8
3 - Psalm 102.27
4 - Matthew 24.35
5 - 1 Peter 1.24-25
6 - 1 John 5.11-13