anglican devotional

The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 2 November 2021 – Eternal Life Or Judgement: The Choice Is Yours

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TOPIC — Eternal Life Or Judgement: The Choice Is Yours

READ: John 5:24-29 (NKJV)

  1. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
  2. “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
  3. “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,
  4. “and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
  5. “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice
  6. “and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

THE MESSAGE:

On this day – All Souls’ Day- the Church remembers all the departed faithful in Christ Jesus. The Church does this with a view to recalling that though these brethren are dead, their separation from us is only temporal as we will be reunited with them on the resurrection morning.

In our reading today, Jesus reveals that He has the Father’s authority to bring the dead back to life. The simple conditionality here is that the spiritually dead who hear the voice of the Lord must believe and respond accordingly in faith and total submission to the Lordship of Christ. In other words, it is the doers of the Word that will experience His resurrection power. But for those who are hearers only and not doers, the story will be negative. These remain in their dead state, under the dominion of the devil and the eternal judgment of God. Jesus also asserts in this scripture His authority to judge the world at a time set by the Father when He will raise from the dead everyone who has ever lived and judge them accordingly for all eternity. This ageless truth stands as a clarion call on us to make hay now that the sun still shines. The choice you make today will ultimately determine whether you end up in eternal life or judgment.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to choose wisely so I may enjoy the benefits in obeying Your Word. Amen.