Kirby Pines Retirement Community | The Pinecone

The Pinecone | April 2026 • 9 • April Vesper Services 6:30pm | Performing Arts Center April 2: Dr. Jimmy Latimer Senior Pastor, Redeemer Evangelical Church April 9: Hymn Sing Celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection April 16: Rev. Chaz Williams Pastor, Grace Anglican Church April 23: Dr. Edsel Bone Retired Baptist Pastor April 30: Ronnie Stephens Lay Speaker, Harvest Church Reflections Maxie Dunnam Christians talk about HEAVEN as the place where they will live for eternity. ETERNAL LIFE is the life that is a gift of God which comes to those who accept Christ as God’s gift of salvation. Paul uses the phrase eternal life to describe the goal of the process of salvation. We normally think of eternal life as what happens at death, but eternal life begins in this life when we link ourselves in faith to Christ “ This is eternal life, ” Jesus prayed, “ that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent ”. (Jn: 17:3 NIV) “ Do not all Christians desire to have Christ to be their Savior? Yes. But here is the deceit. All would have Christ to be their Savior in the next world and to help them into heaven when they die, but this is not willing Christ to be thy Savior; for His salvation, if it is had, must be had in this world. If He saves you, it must be done in this life, by changing and altering all that is within thee, by helping thee to a new heart as He helped the blind to see, the lame to walk and the dumb to speak ”. (Pocket William Law, p 128) Jesus left no question about it. “ I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ” (Matt 25:45-46 NIV). In our thinking and conversation we mistakenly use immortality for eternal life . There is nothing distinctively Christian about belief in immortality. Many religions - and many people with little or no religion - believe in the survival of the soul, the Greek philosophy that regards immortality as an inherent attribute of the human spirit. This is not what eternal life is about. As Christians, we either have to talk about Christian immortality, or restrict ourselves to the term eternal life . Eternal life is not the natural wish for survival, or that somehow there is something about us that lives on after we die. Eternal life is the gift of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ and made real by his resurrection. It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, “ Because I live you will live also .” In Jesus, God completed his mighty work of incarnation and redemption. The promise of Jesus had the proof of his very life: “ I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. ” (Jn 11:25-26). Though we may not be able to explain the By resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, we can affirm this remarkable promise of Jesus. The mystery of it is profound, and we will have to live with the mystery until the full experience comes. But for now, to our threatened identity, to our lack of confidence and feelings of worthlessness, to our lack of self-value and a raging secular materialism that would squeeze spiritual life from us, the promise of the resurrection and eternal life engenders hope and provides us power. In his resurrection Jesus is saying to each of us: You are important, so important that I gave my life for you, so important that l offer you eternal life. The invitation is clear and bold. “ Come, you who are blessed by the Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ” (Matt 25:34 NIV) I remember vividly when my friend and mentor, John, died the week before Easter. He was eighty and I had not had the opportunity to visit him three months before his death. He couldn’t get out of bed, so we spent our three hours together in his bedroom. The time went too fast because we both knew we would not see each other again until we met in heaven. When it came time to go, I reminded him of the promise in Romans 8 - “ Nothing can separate us from the love of God... ” then we prayed. The taxi driver who was taking me to the airport blew his horn, but we couldn’t rush our sharing. I hugged him and he saw the tears in my eyes. What could I say? I blurted it out, “ I’ll see you” . A smile came on his face. His feeble hand was shaking as he lifted it, pointing upward. In a loud rasping whisper, he said, “ Tomorrow! I’m looking forward to that tomorrow ! “ No mere man has ever seen, heard or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord. ” (T Cor 2:9 LB). Keep that in mind as you move through this Easter season and into the future. WE ARE NOT VICTIMS EITHER OF CIRCUMSTANCES OR OF DEATH. THE PROMISE OF THE RESURRECTION AND THE HOPE FOR ETERNAL LIFE MAKES US VICTORS. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD ON EARTH WILL DETERMINE OUR RELATIONSHIP TO HIM IN ETERNITY. ETERNAL LIFE