eternity

[ginnae]

Is there anyone out there that has experienced a cold chill running through your body when you think about eternity and living forever? I used to a lot, but now I hardly do, since I have come to terms with it. Mostly just saying that is the way God made things, so deal with it.
The problem now is that it is happening with my 9 yr old son. He is getting those same chills and it is scaring him. I try to comfort him, but it my words don't seem to help much.
Anyone else deal with this? If so, how do you come to terms with it and any advice on helping my son??

[ChristiRB]

:nod It happened to me as a kid too. I would space out and think about eternity and that my soul was alive and I would never truly die. And this weird feeling would overcome me and it would make me want to pass out.

Just tell your son that we can not understand eterrnity here on Earth b/c we operate in time and space in physical bodies. Once we leave this planet through death, we will finally be able to understand eternity and living forever! :clap

Also tell him that it REALLY helps when he knows where he will spend it! ;):

[RobinB]

It makes my skin crawl to think of the alternative. . . .

[Saviorsent]

Well, don't forget that God knew us before we were born. In a way everything is eternal through God and I am looking forward to being part of that after this life on earth. Its just sad that some choose to be seperate from Him, because this time on earth is really not alot of time in the grand scheme of things.

[Catwoman]

If you really stop and think about it the time we spend alive on earth is nothing compared to the life after. It can be daunting I guess!

I remember very clearly things that happened many, many years ago and I'll stop and think that time has passed very quickly. You turn around and it's gone!

[RonnieBee]

Is there anyone out there that has experienced a cold chill running through your body when you think about eternity and living forever? I used to a lot, but now I hardly do, since I have come to terms with it. Mostly just saying that is the way God made things, so deal with it.
The problem now is that it is happening with my 9 yr old son. He is getting those same chills and it is scaring him. I try to comfort him, but it my words don't seem to help much.
Anyone else deal with this? If so, how do you come to terms with it and any advice on helping my son??

This verse helped me get over my awe of eternal life. Life with Jesus will be wonderful.

Psalm 16:8-11 / NKJV

8 I have set the Lord always before me;

Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;

My flesh also will rest in hope.

10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

11 You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

[ginnae]

I am not talking heaven or hell. It is just the concept of eternity that our minds can not comprehend, that leaves us feeling weird. I am sure what he is experiences was the same as mine. You think 5 million years from now, still living, 50 million years, still living. Hard to comprehend, especially when you don't know what you will be doing.
Eternity is hard to grasp in our puny bodies, that is why the chill comes, I guess :confused
I just wish I could help him more. Maybe the more he grows in the Lord, the more comfort he will find..

[RonnieBee]

Delete, Double Post :redface

[RonnieBee]

I am not talking heaven or hell. It is just the concept of eternity that our minds can not comprehend, that leaves us feeling weird. I am sure what he is experiences was the same as mine. You think 5 million years from now, still living, 50 million years, still living. Hard to comprehend, especially when you don't know what you will be doing.
Eternity is hard to grasp in our puny bodies, that is why the chill comes, I guess :confused
I just wish I could help him more. Maybe the more he grows in the Lord, the more comfort he will find..

Ginnae,
When we arrive at the beginning of the next eternity, we will have new bodies equiped to live eternally. The word eternity in the original Hebrew means more correctly, perpetual, as in a cyclical process. God declares he is making all things new, and if he gives us a new body, then why would he not give us a new mental capacity that will allow us to comprehend and cope with it.

Jesus said not to worry:
Matt 6:25-34

25“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

[GloryBound]

Ginnae, I've used the concept of eternity being forever to determine my choices in life. That way it's so much easier to choose to do the hard but correct thing. because the brief pleasure of making the wrong choice doesn't compare at all to the fact that a reward for doing something hard, but temporary, will last FOREVER.

[ginnae]

I guess, I am just not coming across clearly. I am not concerned about eternity, or that what God has planned for us or things like that.
What the concern was the our puny minds can't comprehend it now and thinking beyond our capabilities left a chill to my son as it used to me.
Hard to comfort him about those chills because even when you think of all the lovely things God will have for us, it is just beyond our mental capasity now and it leaves us feeling weird.
..........................................................


*wishing now I never brought it up!*

[antitox]

Ginnae,

In my mindset I tend to look at things more from a logical perspective, but I do get excited about it, goosebumps, etc.
If you take a dog, for example, he doesn't understand where his master gets that awesome people-food, or why the master's dwellingplace is always a better temperature than outside, or even why he's here for that matter. But it's all normal to the master to live that way because that's his world. It's a similar thing with God; eternity is normal to Him. Not to us, who only know a beginning and an end to life. So we cannot comprehend it, and at the same time struugle with it in some ways. I can assure you that those questions will be answered for us and our intellect will be quickened by the Spirit, in a body that doesn't align itself with doubt and unbelief. What a wonderful life of discovery and beauty!

[blitzkreig]

Better "cold chills"... than periods of foreboding "hot flashes"... :freaked

[kgreen20]

Imagine still being alive 900 trillion years from now--and counting!! LOL!



Kathy G.

[GloryBound]

I think we are getting it. So many christians don't get it at all and are only living for the here and now. They don't want to think about eternity. The thought of what I do here affecting what happens to me 100 billion years from now is incredible. Because our rewards will last forever and ever and ever and ever. And the rewards people WON'T get because it's easier not to earn them is also hard to imagine. I really had a hard time comprehending why a person I know refused to follow God's call on her life because she chose the easy life. Did she have any clue that that choice has eternal consequences? That it will affect her entire eternity? People just don't get that eternity is forever. People made fun of me in college because I was a nursing major. Christians. Even after I let them know I thought it was God's will for me. I tried to ask if they had ever thought about heaven being eternal and rewards lasting forever, but they looked at me like I had two heads.

[kgreen20]

Well, any rewards I receive will be only by God's sheer mercy alone! [wry grin] I'm too messed up to ever qualify as a spiritual saint who will earn lots of rewards. At least I'll have eternity with Jesus, though, and that's more important than anything.



Kathy G.

[RonnieBee]

When we've been there 10 million years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less ways to sing his praise
Than when we first begun...

from: Amazing Grace.

I added a few years. :D:

[RobinB]

[QUOTE=ginnae]What the concern was the our puny minds can't comprehend it now and thinking beyond our capabilities left a chill to my son as it used to me.
/QUOTE]

I see what you're getting at. It's like trying to comprehend how large the universe is. . . .