The Race for Eternal Life
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the meaning of the race for eternal life.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Race fir Eternal Life
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed a good profession before many witness." Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 12.
Brothers and sisters, in today’s broadcast, we explore the nature of the race for eternal life. The heavenly Father has called us to enter this race for eternal life, and victory shall be ours for the taking if we fight the good fight of faith. All souls who come to Jesus in faith, shall be given this eternal life. And we begin this race in this life, right here as we are, admittedly with some internal changes such as being born again.
We must be born again in order to enter the race for eternal life. You can not enter the race for eternal life unless you are born again, born of the spirit. Eternal life is the endless quest for divine values and meanings. This command to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect has activated the whole creations, as countless angels and other spirit beings have flocked to earth to assist us and inspire us as we harvest the divine values and meanings from our moral and spiritual decisions. All who have the ability to enter into a moral agreement with the heavenly Father, that is all who agree to abide by his will as demonstrated in his Son, Jesus who is the everlasting guide in this race for eternal values and meanings.
Our race is relatively short but intense, full of trials and tribulations. At every turn our faith is tested again and again. And it continues to be tested until we conquer the doubting of the material mind which constantly seek material proof of spiritual transactions. The moral road upon which this race is run is winding, filled with detours, barriers, and all sorts of potholes of evil, and dangerous cliffs of sin and iniquity border the sides of the road. If we stray from the road, we will fall over the side onto the rocks eternal damnation The moral road of life is not easy to travel down. But if we will run the race of life sincerely, and persistently, we shall certainly win the victor's cup, the crown of eternal life.
On the moral road of life, we meet many fellow travelers. Some of them are responsible for our birth; they are our parents. Others, we are responsible for bringing into the world; we are their parents. As children of our earthly parents and as parents of our earthly children, we become very attached to them. Others: We are hardly aware of their existence.
On the moral road of life, we must still pay attention to our material needs. We must render to Caesar the things of Caesar and render to God the things of God. We must struggle to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves, and those who are dependent upon us. We must deal with the frustration of first learning how to work, and then the frustration of finding work to do. And all this is complicated by the fact that whether we work or not, the body must be fed, clothed and sheltered. On top of this we must cope with the disagreeable feelings that we have while we pursues these worthwhile material goals. Further we must become expert in balancing the emotional demands made upon us by those close to us while we try to satisfy our own emotional needs.
The moral road of life is plagued will failing health, and aging bodies. All sorts of infirmities slow us down, and make the race all the more difficult to run. So called accidents of time also harass us as we struggle down the road of life, those mysterious happenings that pluck our loved ones off the track, and out of the race, leaving gaping holes in our emotional lives that have far reaching temporal consequences, but not eternal consequences. But as this is a moral and spiritual race, material handicaps can not interfere our impede our race. In fact the more the material handicaps the faster we are likely to run this race, since we have a greater incentive to acquire the divine values and meanings, a greater incentive to do the divine will. The acquirement of moral and spiritual values is not dependent upon our physical status, only our moral status.
The Father sends His spirit to dwell in our minds and souls to reveal his love to us. This love is revealed in such a manner that it is most acutely felt in adversity, the time that we need to feel it the most. This love can be realized when we unselfishly love our brothers and sisters. As one of the brothers recently said, "To be loved, you must give love." This love is made personal by the Father’s Son, Jesus’ Spirit of Truth. This Spirit guides us into the ways of divine reality-eternal truth.
The scourge of hardship, suffering, and disappointment effectively drives our easing seeking souls down the moral road of life, and in the process, acquiring the divine values and meanings. As these tools of mercy force us to place our supreme hopes on eternal realities, we shift our loyalty to building our hopes on eternal things. We learn to cease moaning over the past, cease to be fearful of the future, while we learn to joyously embrace the present. Since love is the greatest spiritual value, for God is love, we must learn to extract the constantly increasing meanings of this eternal, infinite and absolute value.
It is our faith that allows us to experience the divine values and meanings that constitute eternal life, while still living the life in the flesh. Our souls can rise to such heights where we can not only see the divine values (comprehend them) but actually grasp them and live them. Any divine value that we can comprehend, the Father gives to us. In fact our comprehension of the values is the proof that we have received them. And as we pursue these divine values and meanings, our souls become raptured with joy as we pursue the race for eternal life.
This concludes today’s message on the understanding the meaning of the race for eternal life. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this Dr James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By. Dr. James Perry
The Race for Eternal Life
