Question: “Does the red tape mean more to you than the rest of the rope?”

To show what this question means, Mike uses a vivid illustration offered by Francis Chan. Chan puts red tape on about six inches of a very, very long rope to show how much time is spent here on earth relative to the rest of eternity (the remainder of the rope).

Ultimately, the question before us is, are we willing to live for eternity, or do we choose to live simply for today…for personal pleasure or gain?

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God…”

^“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.”

Excerpted from Hebrews 8:11-16 (NIV)