“Everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” -John 11:26
[We will take a break from our Friday “Story Behind the Song” series. This little post by Phil at Fighter Verses was too good not to share!]
… shall never die.
I remember a brother praying over me, mentioning in his prayer: “We will be enjoying you 8 billion years from now.”
I was taken aback. 8 billion years from now? I opened my eyes and stared at him. Does he realize what he just said?
Whoa. I’m going to be alive 8 billion years from now. And not just alive … experiencing that fullness of joy—God’s presence.
Sometimes, infinity is so abstract, we need big things less than it just to begin to feel it. That’s probably one reason the Scriptures can describe other infinities finitely. Take David’s words to God: “Your righteousness is like the mountains of God” (Psalm 36:6). God’s righteousness is infinite; mountains aren’t. But when you get the right angle on a mountain, it puts you in your place. So also God’s righteousness, the Scriptures effectively say.
So we return to John 11:26: “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Alive, 8 billion years from now. Somehow I missed it all this time, in all the familiarity of the believers’ eternal life. I even missed it in Amazing Grace:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
[by Phil at FighterVerses]
New Life Baptist Church 