Vital Credentials

   Vital Credentials are life- containing evidences or verification of one’s position as to the rights or furnished by them.  They are essential certificates or documentations of a warranty guaranteeing the rights to live and enjoy all the benefits endorsed by them.

   In this world we need credentials for just about everything we do.  Most credentials have to be earned, or have a qualification to attain, such as a Drivers’ License, a College Degree, etc. 

   Then there are credentials that a person receives by being born, such as a Birth Certificate.  A name is written on a document in which the person born came into existence from having not existed.  From a non-entity,  he had no part in deciding to become an entity.  He became a member of a family solely via another, becoming a living soul.  Life is an ingredient that man has no power or knowledge to engender.

   Through trial and error man has become able to replace just about every part of a human body, but the ingredient called “LIFE” is not in his realm of replacing or producing.  Life comes from God.  We cannot see “Life” when it enters the body, nor when it departs.  We only see the effects of it being within a person.  God in-breathes the component part called “LIFE” into man, and He also takes it back when it departs.

   “And the Lord God FORMED MAN of the dust of the ground, and BREATHED IN TO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE; and man BECAME A LIVING SOUL.”   (Genesis 2:7).  Adam, even though FORMED, did not become a LIVING SOUL until God imparted “THE BREATH OF LIFE” into his FORM.

   God, “in Whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the BREATH OF ALL MANKIND.”  (Job 12:10; Psalm 66:9; Acts 17:25,28).  The same thought continues in Job 33:4:  “The Spirit of God HATH MADE ME, and the BREATH OF THE ALMIGHTY HATH GIVEN ME LIFE.”

   We serve a God Who designed the universe, and set our world in motion.  The hand of God, Who hung the stars in the heavens is also the Great God Who has BREATHED THE BREATH OF LIFE into all of mankind, and our destiny is in His Master plan.

   “Our generation passeth away, and another generation cometh.  To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die.  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all shall turn to dust again;  God knoweth the SPIRIT of man that GOETH UPWARD.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:4: 3:1,2,20,21; 12:7).

   Our universal destiny began in Genesis, and Psalm 90:12 teaches us to number our days.  “For what is your LIFE?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a LITTLE TIME, and then vanisheth away.”   (James 4:14).  “...The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away; Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”  (Job 1:21).   “God Taketh AWAY THEIR BREATH, they die, and return to their dust.”  (Psalm 104:29; 90:10).

   When LIFE leaves the physical form all that is human departs with it.  There are no attributes  left in the container of LIFE.  The cadaver cannot be harmed nor comforted.  The marvelous assemblage called LIFE goes upward, and the FORM returns to the dust.  Psalm 90:10 gives our average lifespan:   “The days of our years are threescore years and ten: and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon CUT OFF, and WE FLY AWAY.”   The “WE FLY AWAY” here is LIFE leaving our FORM, and returning to God Who gave it.

   Apsotle Paul says:  “We are confident, and willing rather to be ABSENT, (i.e. gone from the body), and to be present with the Lord.”  (2 Corinthians 5:8).  

   Many think that when they depart from a funeral at the cemetery they leave their loved one behind.  That is not the case at all.  He or she has gone on Upward, and left US behind.

   As easily as our minds traverse through time and space LIFE leaves our body, and beams its way beyond the sunset with the same fluent ease.  The pilgrimage of our stay on earth is fulfilled when the BREATH OF LIFE departs; and like Stephen, we commit our LIFE into the hands of God.  (Acts 7:59).

   We are each imbued or endowed with a quality of progression which, when we truly reflect upon LIFE,  our thoughts sweep the heavens and wander through eternity with immortal longings for our distant home in Heaven, which alone declares the meaning of our existence.

   Physical LIFE is a precious IMPERMANENT gift from God.  We gain credentials by this birth to calm all rights and privileges of CITIZENSHIP IN OUR COUNTRY, but this is only our preparation pilgrimage for what lies ahead.  Ahead lies ETERNAL LIFE, and that is a PERMANENT unmerited free gift from God, and only by being born from above  can we gain the vital credentials to become CITIZENS IN HEAVEN.  

   When we become BORN INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD then we can “Rejoice because our name is WRITTEN in Heaven.”  (Luke 10:20; Phillippians 4:3; Psalm 119:89).  Having our name written in the BOOK OF LIFE is the most vital credential we will ever possess.

   We cannot be BORN into either the physical LIFE nor the Spiritual LIFE by any means of our own.  Both are freely received from another.  We come from having NO LIFE, a non-entity, into physical LIFE by another.  The same axiom applies to being BORN AGAIN.  We get LIFE freely form Another.

   “That which is BORN of the flesh is flesh; and that which is BORN of the Spirit is Spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto thee, ‘Ye must be BORN AGAIN.’  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, BUT CANST NOT TELL WHENCE IT COMETH, AND WHITHER IT GOETH:  so is every one that is BORN OF THE SPIRIT.”  (John 3:6-8,36).  Before this Spiritual Birth takes place we were DEAD in trespasses and sin.  (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:12,13).

   We see a standard in the design of God in this two-fold LIFE that far exceeds our thoughts or ability to fully comprehend.  The reason:  “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than earth, so are My ways higher than yours ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  (Isaiah 55:8-9).  

   We must recognize that God’s magnitude and magnificent ways are far above our ways.  However, when we surrender our LIFE to Him and His ways, we find that His whole scheme of our LIFE is for our redemption, and He fulfills it.

   If all that is Divine could be comprehended by what is human it would cease to be Divine.  Our intellect will never equal His, and we will not know the “Why’s and Wherefore’s” of it all until we meet and see Him as He  is.

   “We are partakers of a heavenly calling.”  (Hebrews 3:1).  But, the greatest cause for rejoicing will be the eternal triumph of being ENROLLED among the Citizens of Heaven.

   “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptibile, and undefilled, and that fadeth not away, RESERVED IN HEAVEN for you.”  (1 Peter 1:3-5).

   “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out HIS NAME out of the BOOK OF LIFE, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.”  (Revelation 3:5).

   Those who have their names WRITTEN on the Vital Credentials in Heaven will never be disowned, forsaken by Christ, and shall never perish.  His saving grace is more cause of rejoicing that all spiritual gifts, or earthly treasures.  To have one’s name inscribed on God’s roster are the most Vital Credentials for rejoicing.

   The Bible is all about the transitional steps of LIFE, and how fit into His Master Plan;  “...This is the RECORD, that God hath given to us eternal LIFE, and this LIFE is in His Son.”  (1 John 5:11).

   LIFE can depart at any moment.  Are you prepared to meet THY GOD?  (Amos 4:12).  Settle this question today before it’s too late!   “For our citizenship is in Heaven.”  (Philippians 3:20).  Are you sure that you have the Vital Credentials to be a Citizen there?

   Send questions and comments to:

John Burt
The Upper Room Ministry
6854 N. Zett Rd.
Loretta, WI  54896