YOUR LIFE IS A BOOK

Jesus holding a book of life

It is another beautiful day that the Lord has given us; let us all rejoice and be glad in it! Of course, it is not easy to wake up with joy and gladness every day considering the trials and circumstances of the days behind us, but if we look back, we will see that the faithfulness, grace, and mercies of the Lord have been consistently available for us, otherwise we would not have made it this far. So let us rejoice and be thankful. As the Psalmist declares in Psalm 118:24, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it," and we are reminded in Lamentations 3:22-23 that His mercies are new every morning.

Today, it has pleased the Lord to let us know about something, and if you already know it, praise God! I guess the Lord wants to remind you about it during this end-time harvesting period. The Lord wants us to talk about your life. He wants to remind you that your life is a book. There is a book that was created in heaven for your life even before you were born. You were destined to live according to what was written in your book. Your book was already filled with details about how you should live your life on earth—details like who you should marry, what you should become, the number of children you will have, your purposes to fulfill here on earth, and other things you can think of. Even your number of days were already determined, and every event or experience on earth was supposed to be in accordance with your script in heaven. Your life on earth was already planned out from the beginning to the end.

It is like a movie script where the actors perform stunts, demonstrate experiences, and live a life in a movie all by the script. If an actor goes off-script, the director has to intervene—redo the scenes, or cut out the unscripted moments that ruin the story. While a human director might sometimes compromise and include an unscripted scene for a better outcome, our Heavenly Director never compromises with sin or deviation. However, in His infinite grace, when we stumble off-script, He provides a way through repentance to redeem our detours and weave them back into His ultimate purpose, ensuring His perfect outcome is still achieved. As Romans 8:28 (NIV) promises, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." The director can fire you from the studio if you stubbornly refuse to follow the script, and a good director also guides and empowers you to do even more than what is written for an award-winning performance. That is what happens in Hollywood, and so it is with your life, but with far greater eternal stakes. In the movie of life, you are supposed to follow the script too; you are an actor responsible for executing that script, and the Lord is the Director. Let us look at what the Bible says about this.

David in Psalm 139:16 (ESV) says, "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." David knew about his script. He knew that even before he was created, his book about his life was written first. It reminds me of Jeremiah when he said in Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." It is like God was just reading Jeremiah’s part of his script about his purpose on earth from the book to him. When God says, "For I know the plans I have for you" in Jeremiah 29:11—plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future—it is like He is just reading from the book of your life. Furthermore, Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) confirms this by stating, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

God would never write a book that He would not like to read and then create a person. Jesus put it in this way in Matthew 18:14 (NIV): "In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish." So God would never waste time to write a book whose character (a person) would end up being destroyed. That is not who our God is; He is a loving Father who wishes only good things for His children. He is not the author of our destruction, nor is He the author of our sin—He is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

David in Psalms 69:5-6 (TPT) says, "God, my life is an open book to you. You know every sin I’ve ever done. For nothing within me is hidden from your sight! Lord YAHWEH of Angel Armies, keep me from ever being a stumbling block to others, to those who love you. Lord God of Israel, don’t let what happens to me be the source of confusion to those who are passionate for you." It is like David also knew that whatever he does, God is looking at him to see if he is living according to the script. He is instead asking God to help him to live his life by the script and not deviate from it, because he knew his life from the day he was born became an open book to God. As Hebrews 4:13 (NKJV) reminds us, "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

However, the big question is: what if you are living contrary to your book? What if your life is completely the opposite of your book in heaven? Does that mean you are rewriting your book? Well, your earthly account or deeds do not rewrite your original book in heaven—God's sovereign purpose remains unchanged. However, there is another book now that is being written, recording how you are actually living your life. While the original book represents God's intended will for you, this other book is the record of your choices. During judgment, this record will be opened and compared to your heavenly book to see if you have lived the life God intended you to live. Ultimately, your alignment with that script determines your place in the Book of Life. Let us look at the scripture about this.

Let us look at Moses in Exodus 32:32-33 (NIV), who went out to the mountain to pray to God for forgiveness for the children of Israel after they created a golden calf for idol worship. Moses offered himself as a substitute for their sins, prophesying what would happen later when Jesus Christ would go on to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus but didn't accept Moses sacrificing himself for the sins of the children of Israel. We will talk about Moses being a shadow of the coming Messiah in another article. However, Moses still insisted to be removed from the book that God had written. This is the Book of Life. In fact, Moses already knew that he would make it to heaven, for his name was already written in the Book of Life. But God refused to do so; instead, He said that everyone was going to pay for his own sin and He would remove those who sinned, one by one, from the Book of Life. This is mind-blowing. God is saying that because your life is a book, it will be used in the days of judgment to check if you deserve to remain written in the Book of Life. This is echoed in Psalm 69:28 (NIV), which says, "May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous."

Revelation 20:11-12 (ESV) says, "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done."

These two books—your book (God's original script for you) and the books of your deeds (how you actually lived)—are what are going to be used to judge you, determining whether your name remains in the Book of Life. All the good works done in faith through Jesus Christ that were predestined for you to do are the ones that will play a major role for your name to remain written in the Book of Life and enter heaven. All the evil works being done right now that were not even written in your book before you were born are the ones that are stopping your name from being written in the Book of Life. If your name was already written in the Book of Life, or if you have been doing well before, God has no problem removing it from the Book of Life and throwing you in the lake of fire with Satan. As Revelation 3:5 (NIV) warns, "The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels." Conversely, He will never run out of erasers to remove your name from the Book of Life, and His finger is still strong, never grows tired, and has no problem writing it back again into the Book of Life if you repent and perform well at this stage of life called Earth.

I think it is time to start re-evaluating our lives and deeds and give ourselves an honest evaluation to start implementing major changes, if not drastic and surgical changes, in our lives so that one day we should make it into the Book of Life just as Jesus Christ intends us to be. As 2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV) exhorts us, "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves." And Revelation 20:15 (ESV) gives us this solemn warning: "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

May God speak to you in Jesus' name.