I found a good quote today and it’s something we should all consider as part of our mission in life.
George Bernard Shaw said this: We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.
There are funny moments in life almost every day and truthfully we should enjoy them. God didn’t intend for us to be so serious all of the time. I’m sure there were a few funny moments during the few years that Jesus was teaching His disciples. We may not get to read about them in the Bible, but I imagine we may hear them when we get to meet Peter and John and James and the rest of the gang.
Many of us do grow old because we stop playing and that is something I’ve noticed about grandparents. When they become grandparents and their grandchildren want them to play with them…they seem to get some of their youth back. While it may be painful to get down on the floor and play and it is difficult to get back up again too, they will tell you that it was fun. Painful but fun.
The only part of life that isn’t funny is realizing that you haven’t asked Jesus into your heart as your Savior. If you haven’t done this yet, you’d better get to it! Not one of us is guaranteed tomorrow morning so don’t put an eternal decision like that off until another day that you might not see in this life. If you have not made this crucial decision please do so. We spend so much time planning for retirement and we might not even live long enough to enjoy it. But on the other side of this life is your eternity and that is something that many people don’t plan for at all. Satan has convinced them that they have plenty of time to get ready for that but he doesn’t know when they will die. Unless he causes your death.
The good news is this: if God has a plan for your life (and He usually does), He won’t allow Satan to kill you. You might get hurt in some way but He will make sure that you get a chance to ask Jesus into your heart and be useful in His Kingdom. The time that we are living in is coming very close to the end of the age of grace that the church has enjoyed ever since Jesus ascended to heaven almost two thousand years ago. I don’t know when the Trumpet of God will sound but when it does, those who have given their hearts to Jesus in the past and recently will be taken up to heaven to be with Him forever.
Make sure that your spiritual ears will hear that Trumpet when it does sound by asking Jesus to come into your life and change you into the person He knows you can be.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/mat.11.28-30.KJV
Much of the world does not accept this invitation. Why? It is the only way to paradise and eternal joy with God. The places in the world where Christianity takes root the best are in places where there is much resistance to the gospel. Places where many are threatened with death or with being thrust out of the family because of giving their heart to Jesus. The invitation has been open for a couple of thousand years now and many people have accepted it regardless of the danger to themselves. Some have even given their lives because of their love for Jesus and because they would not recant their belief in Him.
The invitation is an open invitation to everyone who may be seeking to fill that empty place in their heart. They’ve felt it for many years but they don’t know how to fill it. Money and power won’t fill it. Fame won’t fill it. Having a beautiful home and family won’t fill this void either. There is nothing in this world that will satisfy the longing for meaning in your heart except having Jesus as your Savior.
This was true when Jesus was teaching it to His disciples and it is still true today. Not one teaching in the Old Testament or the New is out of date. Every one of them is useful for our lives today…especially the gospel of Jesus Christ. Your life and mine will only last for a few years and there are so many who spend their lifetime trying to provide for their retirement. If people spent as much time and energy getting to know Who their Savior is and how to be saved by grace through faith in Him…there would be more Christians in this world today.
Most who have good jobs with retirement benefits spend lots of time trying to get as much as possible out of their 401K so they will have a comfortable retirement. Yet many of them will die not long after retirement because they are dissatisfied with it. There is no fulfillment in retirement, even though it is something they have been working toward for most of their lives. Some will even die soon after retirement because there seems to be no joy in retirement but joy can be found in Jesus and in Him you can have and enjoy eternity.
In the garden of Eden, the serpent tempted Eve with those words to get her to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “You’ll be like God”. What does that mean exactly? Satan was tempting them with the idea that they would have God’s power and become as He is. The problem with thinking this way is that nobody is like God except God. Nobody outside of the Trinity can be or have His power. Satan knew this but he still used these words to entice them to go against God’s commandment about this tree. Because he knew if he could cause a rift or a split in their relationship with their Creator then Adam’s claim of being the steward of Earth would be null and void.
You know the rest of the story if you’ve been in Sunday school at some point in your life. Adam and Eve did fall for it and they were put out of the garden to live and populate the Earth along with having to work for everything that they needed.
Can we become “like God” to do His will on Earth?
YES, we can if we have given our hearts to Jesus and we are striving toward that goal every day! We will not be like Him in ways of being healers or creators in supernatural ways but becoming more like Jesus is the progression that we are seeking. Becoming mature in our faith brings us toward His likeness each day but we still have to work at it. We have to become more like Him just as the disciples did. With the Holy Spirit living in us, we can become more like Jesus Christ. Using our gifts and the wisdom that we gain from His Word we can spread His message around the world even if we only touch one person each day. That is at least 365 people in a year’s time. Then if they touch only one person each that gives their life to Jesus…the church is growing exponentially from that point on. Imagine how many that could be!
365+365 = 730
That’s just the first year! You get the idea. If God used each of us to touch only one person that gave their heart to Jesus and this kept going…there would be a worldwide revival of Christians before too long. God’s math is fantastic and He knows exactly how much and how many it will take to bring about revival in this world. The problem today is that the church is outnumbered by those who oppose our message…His message.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 1 Corinthians 13:4-10 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/1co.13.4-10.ESV
This is a description of love in human terms but it is also the way that God loves us except that His love is truly unconditional. In the parable of the wedding feast where this king has prepared a wedding feast for his son’s wedding, Jesus said that all of those who were invited refused to come. So, the king sent his servants out and found people who would come to the wedding feast. Now, the king had told them to go out into the streets and the highways and find people who were willing to come to the feast. But…in order for them to attend the wedding feast, they had to put on wedding clothes.
Many of them, in fact, most of them did put on the wedding clothes that they were given. Garments of pure white. All of them except one. When he was noticed, the king said to bind him and cast him out. Why? Because he didn’t put on the garments that were offered to him to be there. Some use this parable to say that God doesn’t want us to come as we are but He does. His servants in this parable brought the people into the feast just as they were but they had to put on their wedding clothes. The wedding clothes symbolize the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we accept when we accept Him as our Savior. Without His righteousness covering our sinfulness and all of our sins, we wouldn’t be allowed into Heaven.
We are called and chosen just as we are, warts and blemishes and scars included but when we accept Jesus as our Savior we are clothed in His righteousness. So when God looks at us, He sees His Son’s righteousness covering us so we are allowed into the banquet. Jesus does call those who are flawed and sinful to be His servants and His followers in this world because those who believe that their “righteousness” is good enough don’t believe that they need Him. Like the man who didn’t put on the wedding clothes, they believe that their “righteous” clothes are good enough.
Make sure you have your wedding clothes on.
It is in prophecy that there will be many false teachers during the last days. Whether many believe it or not, we are living in the last days before the Tribulation. The Truth of God’s Word is that which should be preached in these days, not teachings of men or “ideas” or “visions” that someone claims to have. God’s Word is the Truth and it is that which saves you from the punishment for sins. Not just reading it or hearing it but seeking the Savior in it and becoming a follower of His and not just a hearer but a person who does what God’s Words asks of him.
Go and tell others of the salvation brought to you and bought for you by the blood of Jesus. This life of ours is fleeting and very short compared to eternity. Make sure of your place in eternity because once this life is over you don’t get a “pass” or a “do-over”. The choice that you make in this life, even up to the day of your death, are what determines your eternal place. It will either be in torment because you rejected Jesus or it will be in Heaven because you accepted His call to be one of His disciples and followers.
Some even preach that you can claim your rewards now in this life. To a certain extent that may be true, if you are asking according to God’s will for your life and for an actual “need” in your life. God doesn’t grant wishes like some genie. He only gives to us those things which will enable us to be useful to Him and His Kingdom and bring Him glory. Those who claim to have millions and fame for themselves from God I would question their true relationship with Him. God does not share the throne with us. The only One Who sits next to the Father is His Son.
We who are saved by His grace and His call on us have the third Person of the Trinity living with us, the Holy Spirit of God. He agrees with our Spirit to ask for those needs that we have whether they are for healing or for our ability to do God’s will in this life. God knows the ones that He has called to be His own and He knows who has accepted that calling. Make sure of your calling and what you are doing for Him by prayer and fasting and by reading His Word. This is the only way to know for sure what you are sowing into eternity.
The Living Message of Christ 