Seeing Life Through An Eternity Lense!

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. He's one of the most down-to-earth Christians that I know. He loves Jesus.

He's just the kind of guy that if you have something you need and it's a shirt on his back, he gives it to you. He loves the Lord. He's been all over the world preaching the gospel. He's pastored. And he's just written a book to kind of talk about his life and kind of what God's done in him and through him and is doing right now. His name's Pastor Bill Coleman.

The book is The Eternity Lens. Living in the real world with an eternal perspective. And our culture has been rocked.

The last couple years have been absolutely chaotic. Pastor Bill Coleman, you wrote this book. God really downloaded this in you. It's been over time, but you finally said I'm going to put it on paper, huh? That's right.

Long time coming. A lot of it came out of counseling people. Finding the stuff that even mainly within the church, people being just bound up with their circumstances.

And this is long before COVID. I mean, this is everybody deals with it, but just getting caught up in the circumstances surrounding them and realizing that trying to point their eyes and focus towards the things that are eternal, not denying the circumstances. The word never does that. It's very honest about the circumstances, very honest about the flaws of who we would normally call heroes. And there's even a chapter in the book on that, but people that we would call heroes and that the Bible lifts up, but shows their flaws.

Everyone but Jesus, you know? And so it's not a denial of certain. It's not some type of a Buddhist or Hindu type philosophy where you just kind of deny suffering or existence or reality.

No, no, no. The Bible is very clear on reality and even the negative circumstances, but it calls us to view them through a lens of eternity. This life is but a vapor.

And so how do we view the things that are happening to us through the lens of a sovereign God, who's still the sovereign Lord of history, moving everything toward a final culmination and eternity. Amen. And we're in a little bit of a noisy area.

This is a restaurant called Dario. We just had Wednesday work. We had like 70 men in here going through the Bible together, talking about love edifies and builds up knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. So many struggles Christians have, but you really go straight to second Corinthians chapter four. That's kind of the formative foundational verse passage of your book.

Will you quote it for us real quick? Yeah. Take heart though. Hourly we are wasting away 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 for what is seen is temporary. What is unseen is eternal. And that's the foundational passage for the book. But as I showed throughout the book, that principle of an eternal perspective is seen throughout the word of God.

Amen. The attorney lens is the book. Bill Coleman, pastor Bill Coleman is the author. You have really, you've slugged it out in the Christian life. Let's go through these sections real quick. If you could give me like a one sentence kind of a summary of each section, let's start with section one where you talk about though our outward self is wasting away. You talk about broken jars of clay, stop blocking the light. Where's the hope?

What's this section one about? Yeah. I mean, that's, that's where, uh, reality kicks in. I mean, life is not all a bed of roses. And when you give your life to Christ, everything doesn't automatic.

Your circumstances don't automatically change, you know? And so the, the Bible is very honest about that. And I show some real life experiences, some, some, some disappointments, but also face-to-face reality with the frailty of, of this physical life itself.

Okay. Section two, our inner self is being renewed day by day. Chapter six, this I know chapter seven, your funeral, the prescription for peace, the holy thought sifter, the heart of service.

Give us a quick snapshot of that section too. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, we know that we are more than just our physical bodies and Paul relates us a lot. And here he says, outwardly wasting away yet inwardly, we are being renewed day by day. So, uh, those, those passages kind of talk about that, that transformation and what happens from the inside because the whole eternal perspective goes from rather viewing life from outside in you view it from inside out.

I love it. Section three for this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So chapter 11, the holy tapestry chapter 12, whose boy is he? 13 hall of faith, 14 brace the core, 15 pressing on. How would you summarize that section? Yeah.

Yeah. That section, uh, is, you know, it's not, uh, God is glorified despite our suffering. He actually says God is glorified through our suffering. And so the glory comes through the suffering, not just outside of the suffering. It's not like get through this to, to, to get to the glory. It's that actually getting through this as part of God's glorifying work in you.

Wow. And section four, two more. So we're going to roll through these quick. As we look to the things which are seen, we look not to the things which are seen, but to the things which are unseen. So you have chapter 16, the jerk prayer chapter 17, reevaluating the underdog. You have that you have chapter 18, part two of that chapter 19, where's my miracle and chapter 20 dumb idols. We talked about that a little bit today Wednesday in the word, but yeah, give us a summary of chapter of that section seven section four.

Yeah. So look into that, which is not saying means to see past the physical, everything that we learn in life is generally through our five senses, but faith takes it beyond that. And so we're not looking at just simply what is saying, we're looking at what is not saying. So section five for the things that are seen are transient or temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal. And here you have these five chapters, chapter 21, mastering the escape room. You have chapter parking deck theology, chapter 23 stuck in the in between chapter 24, all in, and then the final chapter when life makes no sense.

Chapter 25, take us, uh, take us home with this section. What's what's going on here. Yeah. Ultimately what is seen as temporary, what you physically see with your eyes, temporary, what is unseen is eternal.

And so when we fix our eyes on the unseen, we are transforming what we see through the lens of eternity. Wow. You know, it's interesting, pastor bill, a lot of life experience, a lot of stuff.

You, you having an interesting experience with a high school football team when you're moved to a whole new area. I love that story. This book is full of stories.

Friends, the attorney lenses, the book, the author's bill Coleman living in the real world with an eternal perspective. And I love you told last time you were on the story, that lighthouse on there. That's pretty amazing. There's a picture there.

There's a spiritual, powerful, spiritual message on that high end there. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So, uh, the, the majority of the cover is this stormy scene, faded, dark, lightning lighthouse. And then through this, really, it's like a bubble of water or a lens. Everything becomes clear. So it's not denying the, the, the storm around, but it's seeing it through a clear perspective.

I love it. This book is so encouraging pastor bill Coleman. I read an article pastor bill early into COVID where a Christian author wrote this article saying, you know, COVID, we are not as much to be concerned about being exposed to COVID, but we should be exposed. We should be concerned about what COVID has exposed in us. And it's interesting, this massive trial it's turned into a two year ordeal where churches, businesses, radio stations, we've had to rethink everything, but there's something about it that has caused us to focus. It's also caused us to realize we waste a lot of time and we have a lot of temporary, you know, like that verse four 18, looking not at things that are seen temporal things, but you turn you things, take us on by commenting on how we can elevate our focus on the eternal and not so much on the temporal people are dying. People are not here that were here a year ago because of this disease and other things.

No, they're great. This is a great example because what happens here is we, we look at COVID, we shrink back the pandemic. We, we can get fearful.

We've seen people just get kind of nuts over it all and, and scared. And, but really through an eternity lens, it's a platform. What's happened is God has put our society in, in a, in a situation. And I'm not saying he calls a pandemic, I'm saying that this is everything that we go through can be used as a platform.

When you look at the lives in the Bible, they all, most of them all went through difficult times and they were platforms to show the glory of God. COVID is merely a platform to show the glory of God. We go, well, yeah, but people are dying. Exactly.

That's the point. This, this people are dying. People are going to die anyway, whether it's COVID or old age or whatever, some cases the death rate is down because we're being so careful. So other diseases are things that are killing people.

Aren't aren't as prevalent. This is a weirdest thing. Here's the thing. Everybody's going to die and eternity is on the other side. So rather than make me shrink back going, I don't want to die.

I've got to be careful. And I'm not saying don't take the necessary protocols or whatever, but I'm saying like in a lifestyle of fear, or I go, yeah, people are dying. Eternity's on the other side. What are we doing to share the truth of Jesus Christ to share the gospel because eternity is right on the other side. Dying does not cause me to fear.

Dying cause motivates me to get on it, to get on it with the gospel, to live as Christ, to die as gain. I love it. He's a pastor, Bill Coleman. He's married to Tiffany, two adult children, Austin and Elena.

I've, he and I kind of have grown up together. Loves Jesus. He's the associate pastor in Concord. What's the name of the church that you're associate pastor in Concord, North Carolina? It's called He's Alive Church. That's a good name for a church.

I like that. And the book is The Eternity Lens. How can folks get it, brother Bill? Well, it's on all the major book outlets where you would normally buy books.

However, I am running a thing right now. If you get with me personally, if you go to bill.colman. he'salivechurch.org, that's my email address. If you contact me, I am running a deal right now with Christmas. If you buy four, you get one free. Okay.

And you might find them better on social media, Facebook, Instagram. He's all on there. I mean, he's a, he's a big pro wrestling NASCAR guy, but he loves Jesus, right Bill? I'm not an NASCAR guy, but thank you. All right.

We did send you a race rush, right? That's right. Exactly. Awesome.

Well, find them there. Get this book. The Eternity Lens is a great gift for a lot of folks. It could be a blessing to a lot of people. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. This is the truth network.