Eternity

To Be With You

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Jesus,

You have been loved by your Father

 

Forever

 

And how thankful we are

that You want to share that love

 

Welcoming us in,

the adopted

 

into the intimacy

already there

 

How blessed

are the Children of God

 

And You not only welcome us

but You long for us

 

You want this great big family

of loved ones

 

How encircling is Your heart,

my Lord

 

I can’t wait to be with You

where You are

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Father, I long for the time when those You have given Me can join Me in My place so they may witness My glory, which comes from You. You have loved Me before the foundations of the cosmos were laid.

– John 17:24 (VOICE)

 

But for all who did receive and trust in Him, He gave them the right to be reborn as children of God

– John 1:12 (VOICE)

 

And now, children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for Him when He appears, ready to receive Him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when He arrives.

– 1 John 2:28 (MSG)

 

How blessed is God! And what a blessing He is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him. Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son.

– Ephesians 1:3-6 (MSG)

 

Father, I want those you gave Me
To be with Me, right where I am,
So they can see My glory, the splendor you gave Me,
Having loved Me
Long before there ever was a world.
Righteous Father, the world has never known You,
But I have known You, and these disciples know
That You sent me on this mission.
I have made Your very being known to them—
Who You are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that Your love for Me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them.

– John 17:24-26 (MSG)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Is This All There Is?

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

 

Living life

in light of eternity

 

means living as if

there is more than now

 

Eyes up

Trust forward

 

knowing that existence here

is a speck of dust

 

in eternity’s line

of endless

 

Remembering what is important,

Who is important

 

and not becoming attached

to what doesn’t last

 

Lord, show me how NOT to live

as if this is all there is

 

Show me my purpose

lived out

in Love

 

Finite life on earth

wrapped in infinite life with You, God

 

There’s so much more to come

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.

– Luke 10:27 (NIV)

 

Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and He’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

– 1 Peter 4:7-11 (MSG)

 

Don’t be troubled. Believe in God, and believe in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not true, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you?  If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again. Then I will bring you into My presence so that you will be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.

– John 14:1-4 (GW)

 

For our momentary, light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]!

– 2 Corinthians 4:17 (AMP)

 

This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and Him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

– John 17:3 (WEB)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Forever

/ Susie Stewart / 1 Comment

God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends.

– Jeremy Taylor

 

 

Forever

is a long time

 

and there is no one

I’d rather spend forever with

 

than You,

my beautiful God

 

Uninhibited praise

will be Yours

 

Untainted cherishing

will be ours

 

And I long for the eternity

that my mind can’t fathom

 

even as I walk

through time

 

And then I realize

that now

is part of always

 

Time is swallowed up

by eternal

 

All is present

 

And even as I wrestle

with the dust

 

I will still seek to praise You

uninhibited

 

And I will choose to cherish You

every day

 

As I look up with,

“Come, Lord Jesus, come.”

 

– Susie Stewart

 

With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever.

– 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 (CEV)

 
For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.

– C.S. Lewis

 

I will be there to greet you personally and welcome you home, where we will be together.

– John 14:3 (VOICE)

 

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy., the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

– C.S. Lewis

 

When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am.

– John 14:3 (NLT)

 

I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing:

Salvation to our God on His Throne!
Salvation to the Lamb!
All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, singing:

Oh, Yes!
The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving,
The honor and power and strength,
To our God forever and ever and ever!
Oh, Yes!

– Revelation 7:9-12 (MSG)

 

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

 

 

Gripping Eternity

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

I’m holding tightly, Lord,

to eternity

 

and I’m holding loosely

everything here where I am

 

…at least I’m trying to

 

Life here can be hard

and disappointing

and painful at times

 

but knowing there is perfect

and beautiful

 

and everlasting, never-ending love

 

beyond

and forever

 

makes me want to hold tight

and to savor the thought

 

of peaceful and vibrant heaven

and of forever with You,

my beautiful Savior 

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Set your heart not on riches, but on goodness, Christ-likeness, faith, love, patience and humility. Fight the worthwhile battle of the faith, keep your grip on that life eternal to which you have been called, and to which you boldly professed your loyalty before many witnesses.

– 1 Timothy 6:11,12 (PHILLIPS)

 

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.

– 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)

 

My heavenly guide brought me to the river of pure living waters, shimmering as brilliantly as crystal. It flowed out from the throne of God and of the Lamb,  flowing down the middle and dividing the street of the holy city. On each bank of the river stood the tree of life, firmly planted, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and producing its sweet crop every month throughout the year. And the soothing leaves that grew on the tree of life provided precious healing for the nations.

<<<Fed by a crystal clear river is the tree of life. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were prevented from eating from the tree once they were expelled from the garden of Eden. Divine creatures and a flaming sword then stood guard at the entrance to the garden (Genesis 3:24). Now the tree of life returns to the story, a single tree situated on both sides of the river. No one is denied access to its luscious fruit and healing leaves.>>>
No one or nothing will labor under any curse any longer. And the throne of God and of the Lamb will sit prominently in the city. God’s servants will continually serve and worship Him. They will be able to look upon His face, and His name will be written on their foreheads. Darkness will never again fall on this city. They will not require the light of a lamp or of the sun because the Lord God will be their illumination. By His light, they will reign throughout the ages.

– Revelation 22:1-5 (VOICE)  

 

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

– 1 Peter 1:3,4 (NLT)

 

I would not give one moment of heaven for all the joy and riches of the world even if it lasted for thousands and thousands of years. 

– Martin Luther

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Not Safe

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

We are not all called to go to El Salvador, or Moscow, or Calcutta, or even the slums of New York, but none of us will escape the moment when we have to decide whether to withdraw, to play it safe, or to act upon what we prayerfully believe to be right, knowing that with all our prayers we may be wrong, and knowing that we will probably be punished by those who do not want universe-disturbers to stand up and be counted. Perhaps what we are called to do may not seem like much, but the butterfly is a small creature to affect galaxies thousands of light years away.
– Madeleine L’Engle

 

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow Me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed Him.

A little farther up the shore He saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And He called them to come, too. They immediately followed Him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
– Matthew 4:18-22 (NLT)

 

Life is short, hell is hot and eternity is forever!!! The world has NEVER been impacted by Christians who spend their whole lives in a car seat and beg God to never let anything bad happen to them!

Ask HIM to set you on fire with HIS plans…and THEN GO FOR IT!

– Perry Noble

 

 

My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus’ words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to Him.

– David Platt

 

Photo Taken by Arik Stewart

 

 

Ambassador

/ Susie Stewart / 2 Comments

 

Home.

It’s somewhere I’ve never been.

Amazing really.

That I long for this place.

That there are people I love there.

And I want to spend time with them again.

But I am here.

 

You put eternity in my heart, God.

And when I look to the sky

and the clouds part

it’s almost as if I am trying to see

Home.

 

Where I truly fit in.

And feel completely fulfilled.

And there is no pain.

And there is no feeling lonely

for home.

 

You tell me that I am a citizen of heaven.

I believe You.

Because You are first in my heart

and I trust You when You say

that you have prepared a place for me.

 

I am a citizen of another place.

Let me live as if I truly believe it!

 

You, Lord, made me Your Ambassador.

Your representative citizen of heaven

here in the world I was born into.

The world of humanity.

The world that sometimes feels like home, comfortable and safe.

But I know better.

 

My promised home is perfect.

Imperfections abound in my temporary home.

 

That’s why I am an Ambassador.

An Ambassador to bring reconciliation

between God and people.

I’m calling out to those who are weighed heavily

with those imperfections

to accept His invitation!

to come home.

 

He calls all of us from beyond,

and in our hearts.

 

Will you embrace this earthly home

with everything you have to give?

Or choose a perfect home

swept away to its streets of gold

in the twinkling of an eye

on the day of God’s choosing?

 

I embrace that which is beyond what my human eyes can see.

For I am seen.

And I am His.

And He will call me
some day

Home.

– Susie Stewart

 

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

– 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)

 

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

– 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT)

 

…He has planted eternity in the human heart…

– Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)

 

Photo taken by Susie Stewart

 

ChoiSes

/ Susie Stewart / 4 Comments

I was jogging along this morning,

got to the end of a sidewalk where it forked two ways,

and I came across this:

Image

Hmmm…..  Which would YOU choose?  Seems pretty obvious.  Unfortunately my house was in the direction of the “worst” choise.  I wasn’t about to run the long way to get back home so I went right.

It made me think about choises, large and small, that we make throughout our lifetimes.

Selflessness <     YOUR CHOISE      > Selfishness

Soft Answer <     YOUR CHOISE     > Harsh Words

Listening Much <     YOUR CHOISE     > Talking Much About Myself

Disunity <     YOUR CHOISE     > Unity

Love <     YOUR CHOISE     > Hate

Truth <     YOUR CHOISE      > Lie

React <     YOUR CHOISE     > Respond

Violence <     YOUR CHOISE     > Peace

Addiction <     YOUR CHOISE     > Freedom

Give <     YOUR CHOISE     > Hoard

Cheerfulness <     YOUR CHOISE     > Negativity

And the list goes on and on.

I have definitely made my share of wrong choises.  Some that I seriously regret, but can’t take back.  Every one of us has.

Throughout this blog, I deliberately spelled “choice” with an “s” just like our young chalk artist.  Spelling it the wrong way on purpose  reminds me of how we all make deliberate wrong choices.

Deliberate AND wrong — those are the “worst” choices.

I know better and I choose wrongly.

Praise God,  love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), but when I do make the wrong choices, and it’s usually because of self, there is strain, relational scars, and consequences.

But here’s a choice that has ETERNAL consequences:

Love God <     YOUR CHOICE     > Reject God

If you love God and you believe Him when He says Jesus is the only way to the Father (1 John 14:6), then you make that choice to believe and follow.

The choice is simple, yet SO profound.

Eternity with God <     YOUR CHOICE     >  Eternity apart from God.

I made the choice to be blunt, because it’s important.

Lord,  help us make right choices.  Give us discernment and a grounded sense of right and wrong

from your Word and Your Spirit.

– Susie Stewart


  Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

-Psalm 119:105

Photo taken by Susie Stewart