Taking a L-o-o-o-n-g Look at Life.
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14
James who wrote the above words was the half-brother of Christ. He was also the pastor of church in Jerusalem and we know him today as the ‘practical preacher.’ In fact some scholars think that the epistle of James is actually a sermon that James preached while pastoring in Jerusalem.
James, the practical preacher was well aware of the fact that everything we hold in our hands will eventually slip through your fingers. Everything in this world is as temporary as snow and roses. Thus he asks the ever pursuing question; “What is your Life?” In other words if everything in this material world is temporary; in contrast is there anything eternal?
Only 20% of heart transplants survive more than one year.
Emphatically the scriptures remind that in this world we are but pilgrims passing through. II Samuel 14:14 says, that “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die.” That’s the rub. That’s the realism; none of us are going to get out of this world alive. “What then is your life, this life, right here, right now, that you are living and breathing as you are reading this article? Answer: Your life it’s as temporary as grass, as temporary as a rainbow, as temporary as water spilling through your fingers. as temporary as champagne bubbles. Like when the bubble ‘pops’ it’s gone forever. And after this life is over you too will be as gone and forgotten as a bubble, as forgotten as last summer’s grass, as last year’ s rainbow.
Everything in this world has an expiration date on it, except your soul.
So what does that tell us? That this life is but a preparation, a dressing room, for eternity. Here and only here we prepare ourselves for eternity.
“Eternity! That pleasing, dreadful thought.”
There is no reincarnation after this life where you get a second chance to start all over again. Like water spilt on the ground you cannot gather up your days and start all over again. There is no purgatory wherewith you can pay for your sins over time. There is no amount of good works you can put on one side of the scale to cancel out your bad works on the other side. There is no baptism-for-the-dead whereby someone else’s goodness is allocated to you. Such efforts are as hopeless as a beggar going to the bank.
The Good News of the gospel is that as long as there is life there is hope. That is what the dying-repentant thief on the Cross discovered to his eternal joy. His was a wasted life. But because he turned to Christ he heard the Good News” “Today you shall be with me in paradise.” The blood of Jesus Christ has no expiration date on it.
Your life is not a wheel of destiny but it is a series of choices. The ultimate choice is yours to make. Your ultimate destiny lies in your own hands. Where you will spend eternity depends upon what you do with Jesus? There is an appointed day and an appointed hour that always comes. There is no expiration date on that call. Choose you this day whom you will serve.
Christ’s 100% Eternal-Life-Warranty Is Only A Prayer Away.
Pastor Robert Bryant