Temporal Life: A Proving Ground**

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Events are unfolding rapidly and bringing out things I never thought I would ever live to see in the good old USA.

Biblical prophecies speak of end times persecution and a fading faith but it always seemed too far in the future for me to really worry about.  I never thought I would see this nation fall to such a depth of depravity that our Christian heritage would be not only rejected but mocked and denigrated and despised by so many.

The Holy One speaks an important truth and reminder to me today, “Look to eternity for your hope.  Your temporal life is just a proving ground”.

If prophecy teaches me nothing else, it teaches me that God knows everything about life from beginning to end.  His conversations of late have been more about eternity and I wonder if that is an indicator as to how close we are to the end of life here.

The Great I AM is eternal.  He WAS before the creation of the earth, and the solar system that the earth is a part of.  And He WILL BE after this earth and all it contains is gone.  

God created man in His image and with the intent that humanity would live in relationship with Himself (The Trinity) for eternity (forever).  The intimate relationship that began in a protected garden by Divine intent had to move into a place of testing so that the eternal relationship with the Creator could be determined by a free will decision on the part of the created.

God desires a relationship with His created but does His created desire a relationship with Him? 

The Sovereignty of God is surely mysterious and while we cannot fully grasp the entirety of it, we can trust that God was not surprised by what happened in the Garden of Eden or anything that has transpired since.  The fallen temporal earth is that proving ground where all humanity is given a choice and is then tested for the choice we have made.

James 1:2, “Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”

By age 18 all of us should be well acquainted with the process of education.  We have a course, we are provided lessons and then comes a test to see what we have learned. Failing the test requires another pass through the course or having the help of a tutor for the part we have failed to learn.   Our faith life with our Creator is no different.  

I relate to this part of my faith journey as “going around the mountain one more time”.  This is a personal application to what the children of Israel went through in the wilderness back when they made countless trips around Mount Sinai due to the hardness of their hearts and in rebellion of Holiness. 

As a child on earth our parent’s job was to prepare us for life in this world. As a child of eternity our Heavenly Father is preparing us for life out of this world and the lessons are clearly different.  All the whys and wherefores go unanswered as a child until we mature enough to see how it all relates to the adult world that we will enter at a certain point in time.

Even Jesus was put to the test in the wilderness. When I look at the life of our Savior I can see my trials here for what they are.

Satan is the enemy of our Kingdom and our King.  He is on the loose to test our loyalty.  When Jesus encountered him in the wilderness, Satan used pleasure and perks to temp Jesus to betray His mission and separate Him from the Father He was sent to glorify.

At the end of Jesus’s life, Satan used the pain of crucifixion and heartbreak to sever that relationship of the Father-Son.  Perks and persecution are both tools in the enemy’s arsenal to test our loyalty to God.  Jesus was moved by neither the rocks nor the bouquets thrown at Him.  He never wavered in His mission or His loyalty to the One who sent Him.

The fallen earth is a proving ground where our faith and loyalty to our Lord Jesus is on the line. Once we choose to follow Him all the way through the cross into eternity, that decision will be put to the test. 

When we meet the One who died for us face to face, will we look back and laugh at the enemy who tried and failed to divide us?  Or will we look back ashamed that we failed to stand firm in the testing of our faith? 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?