Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

2 February 2025

Reading From Matthew 21:23-46

“Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”

–Matthew 21:42-43

     Yahweh is always faithful to keep the covenants He has made with His people, even when they are not faithful to do so.  This passage in Matthew does not record a wholesale abandonment of Israel, but rather that those who are offered salvation through Jesus Christ but choose to reject Him are they themselves rejected.  For there is no other way to experience the eternal rest and paradise created by the Most High God except through God the Son.

     It is the height of arrogance for finite, created beings such as us to presume to inform our Creator how we should live and tell Him how the path to Heaven is laid out.  For, “what is man that Thou art mindful of him?”[1]  Yahweh is God and we are not.  We must look to Him for answers to life’s deepest questions and find His guidance, wisdom and knowledge in the written record of His revelations to mankind, the Holy Bible.  The Lord offers salvation and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms to anyone and everyone who believes and receives Him.

     On every page is found timeless truths that, when illuminated by the Holy Spirit, can light our way through this life and into the next.  Salvation is by grace, through faith in Jesus and His atoning sacrifice.  We receive eternal life, the gift of God, by believing and receiving Him as Savior and Lord.  By choosing to believe He is who He said He is, we change our minds about sin and turn away from it to follow Him.  This is the Way to Heaven.  It is God’s way to His own celestial kingdom. By grace through faith we can become His eternal family.

“Lord Jesus, I want to be with You forever in the New Heaven and the New Earth.  Thank You for providing Yourself and Your teachings as the marvelous Way of salvation.  You save me from my sins, You save me from heartache, You save me from trouble, and You save me from myself.  Thank You Lord Jesus.  Amen.”

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

 –John 3:15-17

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

—Romans 1:16-17

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[1] Psalm 8:4