Eugene Luning - Everything Worth Having: A Journey Through 30 Unchangeable Promises from the Mouth of God

Another Destiny Image Book by Eugene Luning

Yesterday, Today, and Forever: A Journey Through 30 Unchangeable Promises of God

Copyright 2020 Eugene Luning

All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked Phillips are taken from The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips, copyright 1960, 1972 J.B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops Council of the Church of England. Used by permission. All emphasis within Scripture quotations is the authors own. Take note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized. We choose not to acknowledge him, even to the point of violating grammatical rules.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 / 24 23 22 21 20

We know sorrow, yet our joy is inextinguishable. We have nothing to bless ourselves with yet we bless many others with true riches. We are penniless, and yet in reality we have everything worth having.

2 Corinthians 6:10 (Phillips)

*******

But is it really possible, amid the wear and tear of daily life, to walk in the experience of these blessings? Are they really meant for all Gods children? Let us rather ask the question, Is it possible for God to do what He has promised?

Andrew Murray, The Two Covenants

To Hadley.

To Tripp.

To Hoyt.

Contents

Prologue

Because the book in your hands is the second of two volumes on the promises from the mouth of God, I wont reiterate the first volumes self-explanation and Foreword. Instead, Ill ask you a few pointed, personal questions:

• Are you presently totally satisfied with your experience of God?
• Do you feel as intimate with Him as you think its humanly possible to feel?
• Do you believe that you can trust His personal promises implicitly?

If not, why not?

Because, if God is totally true and trustworthyall-knowing and perfectly lovely in action, word and workand if He has already done absolutely everything necessary, in Heaven and on earth, to set you freeeverything including not sparing His very own Son from gruesome deathand if He has made direct, He-to-you promises of spiritual satisfaction, earthly intimacy, power by His Spirit, and practical provision for your human life then what are you waiting for?

For Him to become somehow more true and trustworthy?

To intellectually assent more fully to His loveliness?

To shore up your theological position regarding His death for you?

For some better logical understanding of His eternal plan for satisfaction, intimacy, power, and personal provision?

You might be waiting a very long time!

But what if

God being Truth

utterly lovely; in fact, Love Himself

having done everything already to make you free forever and ever

having made direct, personal promises for your spiritual, earthly, heavenly life

you simply took Him at His word?

Wouldnt that be the life Hed actually want for you?

It would be.

And here it is.

Lets go explore.

Eugene Luning

Colorado Springs, Colorado

June, 2020

Section One: Walking With Jesus

Promise

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Matthew 28: 20 HCSB

Do you know whats maybe most interesting about any end of an age? It never seems to recognize that its inhabiting an end of an age. Historically speaking, every era and epocheven if its poised at the edge of a precipicealways receives its reality as the simple cycling of the days. Its people get out of bed, look in the mirror, brush their teeth, get dressed, have breakfast, say goodbye to their family, go off to work. They finish work, come home, take off their work clothes, get comfortable, have dinner, entertain themselves, get ready for bed, fall asleep. And, tomorrow tomorrow! might arrive the new reality that cuts them off from the old reality: the end of the age was today. Tomorrow tomorrow! might be the day of the Great Market Crash of 1929, the arrival of the Prussians to the edges of Paris, Alexander the Great meeting the High Priest of Israel on a prospect near Jerusalem.

The most interesting thing about the end of the age is that, quite reasonably speaking, you might be living through its last momentsright now. You might be one who wakes on the morrow, finds the former ruling reality no longer ruling, and thinks, Oh! So that was it, I guess

In a similar way (and paraphrasing one of my favorite lines from Hemingway, here) the beauty within a revolutionary army is that, if you follow its flank far enough, it always ends with just one person. There is one final man or woman, ready in their foxhole or in their observation post, who, knowing it or not, is the last linethe farthest flankof the whole endeavor. And, realizing it or not, their presence theresitting, waiting, ready, observing, armedmight have outsize impact within the bulk of the whole army. They might be the tip of the spear, for all they know.

Now today s promise:

What if today is the literal end of the agethe end of everything youve ever knownand what if you are the one at the Kingdom Armys outer arm? What if your day today was the exact plan of God for establishing His Way within that one heart, that one situation, that one city block? Right now, watching you, watching your day ahead, what if the whole of Heavenangels and saintsare holding their breath for the heavenly outcome they hope will happen? What if you learned to align the movements of your day today with the seriousness, and potential non-serialness , of the day, the week, the year, the age?

Again, what if today is the end of the age?

Again, what if you are the one for someone?

Remember, I am with you always, Jesus says to you, meaning each one of those words, to the very end of the ageeternal age or any age. The One who sits on the throne of Heaven, and within the movements of your human heart, is the One whose promise you have for any end of any age. He is the very One who already accomplished His own one-man, revolutionary-army-action to rescue your heart from sin, death, and the grave. He is the One who ushered in the ultimate New, Final Age of human historythe glorious end of the Old Covenantwhen He calmly strode from the open grave. Jesus is Himself the farthest flank of the age-old Way; He is Himself the Alpha and Omega of ages, eras, eternity: His presence is Heaven itself.