WHAT CAN I TAKE WITH ME
       "Faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus" Philemon 1:5.
                                     Edward Proffitt, Th.D.

 

In the book of Revelation, it tells of the "overcomer". To leave this Life with the testimony of an overcomer is "...the victory that over
cometh the world" (1 John 5:24). To "overcome" I need to know what it is that will endure the test, and what it is that will follow me into
a heavenly eternity.

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There are lots of things that you can't take with you. Paul the Apostles' past had it all -- fame, privilege, status, intelligence and power but after he met Jesus, he stripped himself for the task of the course. By the time he wrote his last epistles he was down to a few parchments and the clothes on his back.

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He tells what he gave up, "circumcised the eighth day of the stock
of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews;
concerning the law, a pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the
church; concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless.

 

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for
Christ" (Philippians 3:5-7). Paul was gifted with talent that
produced advantages.  He had birth, education, social standing and
friends in high places. He had that which would seem unthinkable
to give up, yet Paul said, "these I counted loss for Christ". There
was that which was taken from him; his health, he had no wife, home or family.  He had no one to depend on to "foot the bill" for his
ministry.  He worked as a tent maker to provide for his food and
lodging. His life was made up of dark damp jail cells, beatings,
shipwrecks, and desertion from friends.  (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).

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Bitterness, not belief is what would seem more fitting for the
occasion.  Many have started with a fiery experience that fizzled
out with a lot less trials.  Paul, with all that happened to you,
what do you have to say?  He speaks from the knowledge of death
just days away and says "...the time of my departure is at hand...
I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:6-7).

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The poet said:

Faith, a Ladder, still is reaching

From beyond the beckoning skies;

Charts the course of every Christian,

Leads us on to paradise. (Eva Gray)

 

One of these days we all will be summoned and we will know "the time of my departure is at hand".  At that time, there is one thing

that I want to take with me --OVERCOMER

                                                                                           

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