by David Brenneman
We know not the day nor the hour of the return of Jesus Christ...but that's not what this is about.
You don't want to admit that you realistically owe the very breath you breathe to Him as well. You, my Dear Reader, do not know when you will breathe your last.
Millions per moment are dying "unexpected" deaths. People who, under what's been termed 'normal' circumstances, wouldn't have died.
People standing up to go get something, a cup of coffee, a check in a mirror to see if something is on their face, dropping.
People who go for a swim not returning again to the land of the living. People in insurance companies twist statistics all the time to either avoid payout due to untimely death or they just pay it.
We just don't like to admit our potential mortality. People working on vehicles themselves without good prior experience dying from a slip of the hand. People just walking a yard as they have done a million times before.
While the Scriptures say that God has set eternity in the hearts of mankind, our own hubris gets us to not consider the moment in time in which we live with greater importance.
Do you truly realize that in a split second you can either be in Heaven or Hell? There's no wandering around the Earth after dying.
"Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight—but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." 2 Corinthians 5:6-8.
We listen to this fallen world as to priorities and not to the Creator of all things. What becomes of what you leave behind? The people, the things...think about it.
No this isn't some Halloween style of post. This is in the wake of so many publicized deaths that people erroneously portray as untimely deaths.
In God's scheme of things there's no such thing.
In God's plan and purpose you have a very defined purpose. Your life isn't your own, you were bought with a price, the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We're to live for the one who took our place on calvary.
We don't consider the future. Don't often consider the mess we might leave others should Jesus say our time is up.
This plan and purpose...should you persist in not fulfilling it...it will be given to another. You may or may not live out your days. But you will give an account before Jesus as to why you didn't. You.
We really need to consider the cost to Jesus before we decide not to count every single moment as precious in His sight.
Some out there reading this might not even get to finish reading it. Jesus determines the length of days to those who have the breathe of life that He granted them. Satan indeed is the destroyer of life. If God values it Satan wants it. Read the chapters of the book of Job from when Jesus replies to Job.
Why does Jesus allow so much death from abortions to wars and senseless violence? It ought to teach people the value of life. It's extremely fragile. It's granted...and shouldn't be taken for granted.
We accumulate so much stuff to honestly create our own version of Heaven here on Earth and don't realize the parables of Jesus that, in this, apply to all. Someone else will get what you leave behind. All the wills or non use of them are the red tape that happens. But your stuff will never mean the same to those who get it next.
As someone coined the phrase, there are no U-haul's on caskets. Nothing here on Earth is ov value in the next life except for those with the breathe of life.
Really consider your mortality. Really consider just what you are contributing to the plan of God for you. Do you mistakenly think that an hour or so on a Sunday morning is enough? Are you kidding me? Jesus wants our all on the altar.
If you stand before Jesus today...will you be glad to see Him or ashamed because of how you were living?
We don't like to think about death but it's the consequence of sin. After Jesus responded to Job, in as much as his life was good before his trials, the remaining years of his life probably were far more enlightened. Sure he was physically blessed in many more ways than before, but nobody who ever comes face-to-face with Jesus is ever the same.
If you're not a changed person after meeting Jesus, question your salvation. Nobody who comes to Christ for salvation should be the same as they have always been. Growing in Christ should be happening. In Romans 12 it's called a transformed life. A changed life in Christ should be for all to see.
We don't want to think about consequences, but, Jesus says they are there, so they are real.
Live each day as if it were your last. Live to be the best you can be in Christ. Colossians 3:23-24. Look at the examples of those in the early Church. Many millions of whom you read who received the New Testament died because of living for Jesus and they cared not about stuff. Paul commended many in those letters for their concern for him and the saints.
Consider today just how precious that breathe you breathe really is...don't take it for granted.
All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.
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