Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. – Matthew 6:9-10
“We are born, we study, we graduate, we find a job, we get married, we have a family, and then we die. So meaningless right? Is there more to life than this?” My cousin was a year older than me. To me, she seemed to be living the life. She had a well-paying job. She was having fun. And so the question caught me by surprise. And the twenty-three-year-old me, didn’t have any answer. What is our purpose for being here?
Harper writes, “If Christianity is to have significance, it must deal with eternal issues.”111 God’s grace must bring glory to God. But it does not just start when we die. Wesley writes, “Your life is continued to you upon earth, for no other purpose than this, that you may know, love, and serve God on earth, and enjoy him to all eternity.”112 In other words, we are to glorify God by the choices that we make in this life even until our last moments on this side of eternity.
In his earlier days Wesley had been plagued by the fear of death. At critical times in his life it had risen up to render him useless. But as he grew in his understanding of glorification and its relation to life here and now… Wesley was able to end his life with words that describe the Christian relationship to time and eternity, ‘Best of all is, God is with us.’113
我们在天上的父，愿人都尊你的名为圣，愿你的国降临，在地上如同在天上。《马太福音》6：9-10
“我们出生，学习，毕业，找到工作，结婚，有一个家庭，然后我们就死了。毫无意义对吗？生命有没有比这更多的吗？”我的表姐比我大一岁。对我来说，她似乎过得很好，有一份高薪的工作，也很开心。这个问题让我感到惊讶。而二十三岁的我，没有任何答案。我们在这里的目的是什么？
哈珀写道：“如果基督教有意义，它必须处理永恒的问题。”上帝的恩典应当为带祂来荣耀。但不只是从我们死亡时开始。约翰.卫斯理写道：“你的生命在地球上继续存在，因为除此之外别无其他目的，你可以认识，爱和侍奉上帝，并永远享受他。” 换句话说，我们要荣耀上帝通过我们在这一生中所做的选择，甚至直到我们在永恒这一边的最后时刻。 在约翰.卫斯理早些时候，一直因为害怕死亡而倍感困扰。在他生命中的危机时刻，严重到一个地步让他觉得自己很无用。但是，随着他对荣耀及其与生命之间的关系的理解逐渐增长..... 在约翰.卫斯理生命结束的最后时刻，他以时间和永恒来描述基督徒的关系，“最重要的是，上帝与我们同在。” 你如今
反思
当有怎样的生活目的以面对永生的问题？
Reflection
“How does an awareness of your purpose here on earth help settle the question of eternal life?”114