The Best of the Portals of Prayer

Read: Matthew 18:8-14
Whither?

We come from God, and God wants us to return to Him and be with Him in all eternity. Man has been created for eternity. The song of the gypsy, “the dewdrop vanishes, and so do I,” ignores man’s eternal destiny. The grave is not the goal of man’s life. “It is appointed for man to die once, after that comes the judgement” [Hebrews 9:27]. This life is but a preparation for eternity. Since man’s fall into sin, not all are journeying toward a blessed eternity. Christ speaks of a place where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of hell-fire and of torments so great that it brings this heart rending cry: “I am tormented in this flame” [Luke 16:19-31].
However, because of God’s redeeming grace in Jesus, there is found in eternity also a place of unmarred and never-ending joys for all believers. “In God’s presence there is fullness of joy; at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore” [Psalm 16:11]. Christ tells us that the loss of worldly things is far less serious than the loss of eternal life. “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul?” [Matthew 16:26].

May 17, 1937