Put On Your Eternity Glasses!

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you.

This is the Truth Network. Okay everyone, grab your glasses, your spiritual lenses, and put them on because we're talking to the author today of a brand new book called The Eternity Lens. And I am holding the copy in my hand.

I'm looking at the author right now. It's a little loud in here, Bill, because did you have any idea, brother, what you walked through this morning? No, man, but it was great. It's great being with the people, the pastors, the Word, the whole deal.

Awesome. We're at Wednesday in the Word at Dario, and he was able to come down and hang out with us and share a little bit with our guys. And then I wanted to talk to him about his book afterwards, so we just turned to Dario into a big national recording studio for Truth Talk. Gary Chapman says about your book, Bill, he says, if you read this book, it may well change your life. You'll discover that living with an eternal perspective in the real world is the most fruitful way to live. The Eternity Lens is your book, Bill, and the subtitle is Living in the Real World with an Eternal Perspective. Where did this come from? Because all I know is you direct messaged me on Instagram and said, Stu, I got to talk to you about my new book, and I love the title.

I love everything. How did God birth this in your heart? Yeah, actually through being a pastor for over two decades and doing a lot of counseling. And what I began to realize was God had kind of uniquely, I think, gifted me with the gift of faith and being able to see the things that were happening around, but view them through an eternal perspective, which is actually what his word calls us to do. But it seemed like in counseling, I'll continue to guide people towards this perspective because most people didn't have it.

And so about 12, 13 years ago, God laid upon my heart to begin writing so that maybe I could spread that net water and just help people turn their gaze toward the eternal. The Bible never dismisses the temporary things, the struggles, the trials. In fact, it embraces those, but it says to look at it through an eternal perspective.

When I was 17 years old, my life versus became, do not lose heart. Though outwardly, we are wasting away, yet inwardly, we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. What is seen is temporary.

What is unseen is eternal. Those became 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18 became my life versus. And as I was counseling and leading people, I felt like the Lord was leading me to write this. Now, I think I wrote a chapter and then set aside for a year. And I really probably up until 2019 had written maybe half the chapters in there. And I became kind of convicted or convinced, whatever you want to say, do I want this to just be on my computer that my kids find one day after I die?

Or do I want to finish this and actually get it out for what I felt like God had laid on my heart? So I had to start setting some time aside to really just focus in, finish writing it and getting it out there to hopefully help people with their vision put on the lens. The book is The Eternity Lens.

The author is Pastor Bill Coleman, who is a pastor. And you get into your life here. I mean, like you open up the introduction. I'm not gonna read the whole thing because I want people to buy this book and read it themselves.

But 17 years old, head in my hands, eyes puddling up, God, just tell me what to do. And then you say, I remember it was just like yesterday, but then you get into, I mean, these chapter titles, you know, Broken and all these things, you know, you get into 2020, which was a crazy cataclysmic year. I know it affected all kinds of pastors and churches and people. Bill, what's the, I guess you got 25 chapters, not all of them are super long, but you got all kinds of things in here, five different sections. What's the big takeaway that you want people to give this book, your heart for them, all stripes and flavors of folks that may pick up The Eternity Lynch.

What is it you want them to walk away with? Yeah, well, I split up the book into five sections, which is basically second Corinthians four, 16 through 18 split into five sections. And then each section has five chapters. And what I do is I weave together personal experience with the word of God, because my, my goal here is not that the book's about me. My goal is that people begin to see their own journey, their own experience, their own life through an eternal perspective. And so my goal would be that through the word, people begin to fix their eyes on the things that really matter, the things that are eternal, because our lives here are but a vapor. They're, they're a blip on the screen, their preparation for eternity. And what we go through here is all about building in us what is going to continue on forever.

So to draw people close to the Lord. And 2020 was the last chapter I wrote. This is the first chapter after the introduction in the book, but what a what an example of being possibly brought down by all the circumstances around, but viewing it through an eternal perspective, as much as I feel like, or would wish this book would have come out years ago, when God first laid it on my heart, the timing of it coming out now seems to be incredibly relevant for everything that's going on in our society.

And we should tell our listeners how they can get the book. I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk. With me is Dr. Bill Coleman, who's been a friend of mine for like over 35 years.

It's scary, isn't it? Youth group together. You're always a great leader, great friend. You've pastored in four different churches. Currently you're the associate pastor and elder at He's Alive Church in North Carolina. I guess the Concord area, right?

Kannapolis, that area. And then you're also assistant professor of pastoral ministry at Luther Rice College. You've been on a bunch of missions trips.

You've led dozens of missions trips. Bill, I guess your book, The Attorney Lens, it was really hard to look through, look at 2020. And even today, I mean, there's so much, you get mad. And someone told me yesterday, he said, I can't even watch the news anymore, Stu. All of a sudden, I find myself wanting to put a fist through the tube, the TV screen.

What would you say very practically? And there's a whole lot packed in the book. And I love that passage.

Segriny is for so rich. But what would you say practically kind of maybe one takeaway from this book is, and also to kind of whet people's appetites on how they can pick it up? Oh man. Well, first of all, you can go to drdrdrbillcoleman.com. That's my website where I talk about the book and have a link to purchase it if you want. And just encourage people, read it. If you like it, get other people it, you know, this honestly, it's hard to, I'm not good at promoting myself. This isn't about promoting myself. It's promoting what God laid upon my heart. And if it can help people, fantastic. So that's the way you can do it.

It's on other outlets too, Amazon, all those things. So whatever works on that. But there's so much in there as far as, as far as whetting the appetite. One, one chapter when people are looking through the contents and they see the jerk prayer, they're like, what in the world is that? And, and really it is, it is a take on, we all encounter jerks in life. And typically what happens in our flesh is jerks make us into jerks.

You know, I mean, we kind of raise the level on it all. But what I found in Romans chapter 12 verses nine through 21 is what I've turned into the jerk prayer and basically would take what Paul is instructing there. To me, it's how do you deal with jerks?

How do you do it? It's, it's where it says, and as much as it depends upon you, live at peace with all people. It's where it says, if your enemy's hungry, give him something to eat. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing you heat burning coals on their head. A vengeance of his mind says the Lord.

All that's in there. But basically it is, it is flipping that and praying that, turning that into a prayer to work through. How do you deal with jerks in your life? How do you, how do you rise above that? How do you take an eternal perspective? Cause the eternal perspective, the temporal perspective says, somebody's treating me poorly.

I don't deserve that. The eternal perspective says anybody who's a jerk to someone else is either not at peace with themselves or they're not at peace with God or most likely both. So the eternal perspective says there's a person who needs to be pitied, not deserving of my wrath. And so what I need to do is say, God, by your power, by your spirit, what you have given to me, I will turn that and give it to others.

Not because they're deserving of it, but because I'm a light for the gospel. And there's an eternal need there. The greatest need of a jerk is not to treat you better. The greatest need of an alcoholic is not to get sober. The greatest need of a sex addict is not to get pure. The greatest need of, of everyone in every situation is a relationship with Jesus Christ and to grow closer to them.

Because what Jesus does is he changes people from the inside out to change behavior without Christ is to change behavior, but still be headed towards eternal condemnation. So we need Jesus. And we, the eternal perspective says, how am I going to see what's going on around me through how God's working for eternity? Because listen, I know there's a lot of conspiracy theories. There's a lot of bad news. There's all kinds of stuff going on today, but not a thing you're going to hear on the news is going to change who ultimately trials.

There's nothing that can thwart the plan of God for all eternity. And this is just the process by which we get there. So we can be confident. We can be bold. We can stand up and we can be gentle and kind. I don't, I don't have to be arrogant or rude. My demeanor does not have to be rough because I know what's going to happen in the end. And so therefore that affects how I'm walking through what I'm going through now. Awesome. This is a great reminder that the attorney lens, Dr. Bill Coleman is the author living in the real world with an eternal perspective.

It's a daily thing to daily put on that armor and put on those lenses. Lord Jesus, let me see people as you see them having the eyes, the heart of Christ, Paul said in Corinthians 2 14 or 2 16 have the mind of Christ. So thank you bill for this great book, man. What a blessing.

One more thing. If you look at the front, this is intentional. The lady in my church, when we started talking about the book, she did this chalk drawing for me based upon the vision, but there's a storm raging in the background. But when you look through the lens, everything becomes clear.

And that's the visual. We'll get a picture of you and me holding this book and I'll put it on my social media pages. We'll make this a podcast, friends, share this with everyone and better yet get the book, the attorney lens, the website one more time. Dr. Bill Coleman.com. This is the truth network.