Lights Ahead

A compilation

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”­1

We don’t know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. The things we need to know, the Lord tells us, and sometimes the things we want to know, He tells us, but most of the time He throws a veil over the future so it is known only to Him—and that really keeps us close to the Lord.

He’s promised to never leave or forsake us.2 “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”3 He’s also given us the torch of His Word to show us where our path is going. “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”4—David Brandt Berg5

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Your time on earth is just a small pinpoint in eternity. It's a tiny train stop of a few years when put into the timeline of infinity. And yet this stop is one of the most important times in your existence. It’s the only place that you will be able to do certain things and learn and grow in certain ways.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy6

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It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.—Edgar Allan Poe

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What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.—James 4:147

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It may be well to make the best of both worlds, but of this poor world, nothing can be made unless it is viewed in the light of another. This is a poor withering life at the best, for we all fade as a leaf. Unless we purposely live with a view to the next world, we cannot make much out of our present existence. Such rags as this poor present world of time and sense can never be made up into an array in which a man would care to robe himself. At the same time, do not be frightened at the unhandsome form in which this life, at times, appears—it is, after all, but a vapor—and who will be alarmed at it?

Is life so short? Does it only appear for a little time and then vanish away? Then let us put all we can into it. If life is short, it is wisdom to have no fallows, but to sow every foot of ground while we can. It will be prudent to pack our little space as full as possible.

Let us put plenty of life into our existence, plenty of work into our life, plenty of heart into our work, and plenty of warmth into our heart. May God [grant] us to live while we live! May we not only live but be all alive.

Is time so short? Then do not let us fret about its troubles and discomforts. A man is on a journey and puts up at an inn. And when he is fairly in the hostelry, he perceives that it is a poor place with scant food and a hard bed. “Well, well,” he says, “I am off the first thing tomorrow morning and so it does not matter.” This world is an inn and if there are certain discomforts in it, let us remember that we are not tenants for years, but only guests for a day! Let us make the best we can of the temporary accommodation which this poor shanty of a world affords. Our life is removed as a shepherd’s tent, which was a hovel in which the shepherds watched their sheep. A shepherd who has to watch the sheep for a short time does not set to work to build a granite palace or a brick house—he is satisfied with a reed hut—and does not complain of its scant space and slender strength.

Do all that you would like to have done if you knew you would die tomorrow. I like Mr. Whitefield’s order, for he could not go to bed comfortably if his gloves were not in his hat ready for the morning! He felt that he could not tell when he would be called away—but he wished to have everything in its place whenever the summons should come. Must this life vanish away? Then remember it is the beginning of another. The present life melts into the life to come!—C. H. Spurgeon8

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Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.—Jesus9

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I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.—Apostle Paul10

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I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said;
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what lies ahead.
Many things about tomorrow,
I don’t seem to understand,
But I know who holds tomorrow,
And I know who holds my hand!
—Ira Stanphill

Published on Anchor December 2012. Read by Simon Peterson.
Music by Daniel Sozzi.

Posted in: audio, compilation, new year

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