Excerpt from Throwing Grapes and Moving Mountains, a devotional journey for the hungry heart available on Amazon

and Barnes and Noble by the end of December 2012. 78 A Slice of Eternity
And He was saying to them all, If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:2326) I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. (Rev. 6:1213) Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Rev. 19:78) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. (Rev. 21:1) Do we ever stop to consider all that is at stake as we interface with others throughout our daily routine? That man honking his car horn when you do not accelerate quickly enough at the change of a light, the woman who speaks crossly to her whining child in the store, the teenager who knows so much more than his parents, the unreasonable supervisor whose expectations could not even be met by Supermaneach of these people is precious in the sight of God. They are not merely physical bodies that move through our days. They are each a small slice of eternity resident within an earthly body. They each have an eternal destination, one that will shock and surprise many when they find their good efforts were not sufficient to earn them a reservation in heaven. A slice of eternity walks among us. It is your pesky neighbor, your gossipy coworker, your annoying relative, your persistently whining child, your loving spouse, your dearest friend, and even your worst enemy. Each is a slice of eternity walking around on this material earth. The physical landscape that spreads before us and assails our senses every moment is only here for the blink of any eye. Everything we vainly chase after and labor long and hard to possess will one day fade away into nothingness as the creation is consumed with the fire of Gods cleansing. This earth will be no more, the sun and moon will cease to shine. Even the stars will fall from the sky. All that remains is God, His heavenly host, His created people, Gods Word, and the evil one and his band of demons.

All else will be utterly consumed, and the evil hordes do not stand a chance in front of a holy and just God! As the mists of our daily, ordinary tasks swirl about our feet, the perspective of the eternal softly fades into the background. We become consumed with solving the next problem, earning the paycheck, and meeting the next bill. Physical needs must be met, and we rise to the challenge because their call is so persistent and so immediate. We are intentional to work in a way to accomplish our goals and satisfy our earthbound dreams. The pursuit of these aspirations often drowns out the still, quiet voice that would lead our hearts to hunger for something far bigger and grander. God offers to share the wonders of His heart of love with us. Will we listen? Do we even dare to reflect on the magnitude of all that our God has planned for us? We have the opportunity to join with the vision of heaven to reach the hurting and meet the unspoken cry of desperation of mankind. Whose eternity will our witness impact? Those who we rub shoulders with do not intersect with our lives by accident. They are there by divine design. Our God knows the special gifts He has deposited within us, and He sees how those gifts can be uniquely used to touch and inspire all those we meet. It may be a smile, a kind word, an act of mercy, or a heartfelt prayer of supplication that would meet the need of the moment. We cannot see into the heart of another, but the Spirit can. We need to listen intently to His gentle nudges and doggedly follow through when He moves on our hearts. Our witness may only be one more nugget the recipient tucks away in his or her memory bank. Yet one sweet day the Lord will have deposited enough seeds and brought enough nourishing water into their souls to cause those seeds to sprout into salvation. Imagine the Lord saying, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master as He reviews how each thought, deed, word, and prayer worked together to further increase the scope of His kingdom. (See Matt. 25:21.) How much eternal impact are we creating? God convicts our hearts ever so gently. So then what are we to do? Do we hold loosely the things of this earth, or do they captivate us and garner the majority of our attention? Honestly look at all those around you. Could it be that God has caused your paths to cross so that you can show them the way to an eternity of peace, glory, and incredible joy? Could you be the one who shows them how to alter their eternal destination? Will you risk and reach out to care and love? Will that piece of eternity next to you rejoice in the courts of your God because you took the risk and loved in the name of Jesus? May God give us each the grace to see with His eyes and consider the truth that each person we see is a slice of eternity walking among useternal man still breathing. Their destination can still be altered. Rescue is still possible. Lets risk all to win some!