Eternal Significance?
The concept of eternal significance has been floating around in my mind for several days. I am sure there are somethings that are indeed eternally significant. I am however, unsure whether everything is or can be. So I am asking for some discussion on these points:
Is everything eternally significant?
Are somethings more eternally significant than others?
How do we know or can we know the difference?
Or is this just a cold medicine induced delirium?
Looking forward to the e-discussion.
Peace
Neva
Is everything eternally significant?
Are somethings more eternally significant than others?
How do we know or can we know the difference?
Or is this just a cold medicine induced delirium?
Looking forward to the e-discussion.
Peace
Neva
posted by Neva | 6:24 AM
19 Comments:
Since God is God, he can make anything and everything eternally significant, like a boy being sold into slavery to the Egyptians.
Dont you think?
Dan
Okay, this isn't something I've studied before, but ...
Are you wondering if the clothes I decided to wear today could have eternal significance, or are we talking more along the lines of actions? I tend to think that not everything has eternal significance, but that there are certainly things that we wouldn't think about that do.
watch out for BUI (Blogging under the Influence)
I don't know that whether I eat at McDs today or Burger King would make any eternal difference. I don't plan to eat at either one, now if I eat a salad instead of burger and fries, that might make a physical difference, but maybe not an eternal one.
too philosophical for this time of the morning. I will have to think and come back
Okay, (just to stir the pot)
Lisa, what if you wore a t-shirt like a youth rally or Bible camp shirt and someone saw it and you were able to strike up a conversation and perhaps a study with them---eternally significant?
Brian, same deal, what if outside Burger King, you saw a homeless man and feeling compassion bought him lunch--eternally significant?
I still don't know, I may still be blogging under the influence, just questioning.
n
Maybe we can't know what is or is not eternally significant. Maybe we are just to live like God's people and let Him make our lives, behaviors, actions and attitudes eternally significant. Maybe...
Dean
And . . .maybe what is not eternally significant to me, might be to someone else?
Dean
I'm with Dan and Neva on this one. We never know what God might use to make an eternal difference. He does it in the big picture (as with Joseph) and he does it in the little picture (Lisa wearing a t-shirt that causes a conversation and maybe a conversion). God is able to do abundantly above all we could ask or imagine. Our only task is to be ready to do whatever we can in each situation.
I think we (me, 2) should live like everything we do is potentially eternally significant. Maybe we would be more careful what we say, where we go, what we do, what we watch, etc. if we thought that.
Good thought insighter
Pat
I think we have to work to make things eternally significent
Jean
I agree that the things we might think are trivial might indeed have eternal significance. I also believe, though, that were the t-shirt I was going to wear that would have led to someone else's conversion was left in my drawer that day, God would have sent someone else to that person, knowing he or she was ripe for hearing the call that day.
I'm not disagreeing, more being a nuisance. I do firmly believe that we should watch our every step and our every word and always be on the lookout for opportunities to minister. We should act, as Pat said, "like everything we do is potentially eternally significant." If not for someone else's conversion, then for our own spiritual growth.
Good questions, Neva.
Maybe nothing is eternally significant.
Interested Bystander
It seems to me that everything we see is not significant, but the unseen is. We can see the physical traist of a person, but we cannot see their soul. The souls is eternal.
I guess works are physical, but there is a eternality to them. IF they are good they are good eternally, because they are of an eternal God.
Anyway, too much thinking for me. I do like 2 Corinthians 4.16-18
just my 1 cent..and yes you can have a refund.
eternal significance is a function of the grace of God. each action and choice is made in the light of the kingdom and gains its significance from that. thus it may take an eternity to learn the significance of our choices and lives ... but we will learn that it is there.
Shalom,
bobby valentine
neva
as you described, I would agree that everything can be eternally significant. I believe God arranges things and is very active. I often wonder how many people I was supposed to talk to but didn't because I was tired, in a hurry, etc.
powerful thoughts
Good post. I agree that everything we do has the potential of being eternally significant but doesn't always mean that it will be.
We let so many good opportunties pass.
Perhaps somethings "become" eternally significant as a result of an accumulation of seemingly trivial things. Maybe it takes Lisa and Brian and Interested Bystander, all together to make a spiritual impact on someone's soul.
Maybe each and everything we do has that potential and only God knows how truly significant it is.
That's my two cents worth--also refundable.
Rachel
BTW sometimes the eternal significance is negative--like a comment that turns people away from God, and stuff like that.
I was in Walmart today with the girls from 9-2 waiting on my car to get fixed at a near by shop. I don't think I ran into anything eternally significant but like Rachel said, I also didn't do anything to turn anyone away even if they knew for sure I was a Christian. I do think our negative actions may speak more for us than the opportunities we take to speak up.
Kathy
Everyone,
Dito!
One other thought, There are two ways to miss the mark (sin) omission and commission. There are times when we make choices of eternal significance. The scene of Joshua before they go into the promised land, "choose this day" or Elijah at Mt Carmel "how long will you waver ... if Baal is god serve him if God is God ...". The power of choice.
again, just a cent, you choose to take it or leave it.
James
Interesting question and discussion. I just want to throw in the mix that when I think about eternally significant, I think of now more than I do later. Since eternity is something that we are living in now, it automatically makes our lives more significant. Our lives are not just about later, but about now with God and that makes the biggest difference in terms of how I live my life. Or should, or would, if I could remember that all the time.
I loved reading everyone's contributions.
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