Late one afternoon I stood at the stern of a ferry boat churning its way from New York City across the Hudson River to New Jersey. As the towering structures of Manhattan receded from sight, my mind suddenly recalled these words from a poem: "These all shall perish stone on stone, but not Thy kingdom nor Thy throne."
A few years later the devastating terrorist attack on the World Trade Center left an ugly gap in that soaring skyline. Everything in the world around us is subject to decline. Beautiful flowers wither and die. Even California's towering sequoias, hardy survivors for long centuries, are gradually being eaten away by the gnawing tooth of time.
As for our bodies, we grow older daily and lose the vitality of our younger years. God alone possesses immortality in Himself, which means that He abides forever (1 Timothy 6:16). The simple truth must be faced that nothing is permanent-only God is everlasting.
Yet by faith in Jesus Christ, we can receive life that will never end. He promised us, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. . . . and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand" (John 10:28-29).
— Vernon C. Grounds
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious-Thy great name we praise. -Smith
To give your life to Christ now is to keep it forever.