Then and There

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose…a time to gain, and a time to lose” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 6 NKJV).

A police officer pulled over a distinguished-looking woman, the story goes, and asked why she had exceed the posted speed limit.  The old gentlemen sitting in the passenger seat laughed and said, “Well, young man, we were speeding to get to the place before we forget where we are going!”  Many people forget that they are going somewhere — either  Heaven or Hell.   And many have forgotten, just as importantly, that there are those who are following them on the same journey.  As long as we are breathing we are leading the way.

Heaven is a time to gain, while Hell is a time of loss.  If you throw in Heaven on this earth, you will also gain Earth.  But if you throw in Earth without Heaven you will find yourself the loser, and you would have lost the most anyone can lose for eternity.  There is a season, and when that season is over we either have gained or we have lost.  Many people are ill-prepared for the realities of retirement and the realities of eternity.

Similar Posts

  • Amusement, Children, and Prayerless Disciples

    “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).

    Our children are bombarded with “fun and done.”  After one event of fun then we go on to the next.  Water rides, the pool, cookouts, trips, videos, gaming, eating out, and taking off from church ministry are the norm today.  America’s Christian Culture is entertaining our kids and ourselves to spiritual and emotional death.  It is not healthy.  We teach them inadvertently how to whisk their days away instead of numbering their days.

    While we teach our children how to live by “do your work and then we play” attitude, adults are living continually on spiritual autopilot.  In our highly educated, technologically-hyped and prosperous society, and within our theologically almost astute Christian culture, we tend to settle for “zipper prayers” to open or close our days and gatherings.  Prayerlessness has become the attire of our independence from God.

    Vance Havner said, “Few people would want to live where there are no churches but millions live as though there were no churches.” Church attendance is taken lightly today.  Hearing the Word of God cost aplenty in days gone by.  Where much is given, much shall be required.  Today’s land sees a famine of the hearing of God’s Word, not because we cannot hear it, but because we do not listen to it.  Moreover, as the text declares, there is the duty of doing it when we hear it.

    Some things are inevitable, the status quo is here, but we do not have to be a part of this.  We should raise our heads and say, “Thy will be done.” I’m going for God and I’ll do my part and see that it is done. “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord“, Joshua of old said to the people of Israel.

  • Get In Shape

     

    “So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days” (Nehemiah 6:15).

      The enemy doesn’t mind if you are spiritually active. He just doesn’t want you to be spiritually effective. One may be active in church, doctrinally pure, serving on the church board, teaching, etc…. but if one is not involved in the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life then that life is at a minimal. Minimal in church and minimal in the family.

         “What are the spiritual disciplines?” you ask. It is the reverence for God’s Word and the power of effective praying. We owe to Scripture the same reverence we owe to God. The Bible is revered but it is not read. There is low reading of the Bible by believers.

          “Sine qua non” is a Latin phrase which means “without which, nothing.” Without a good diet of Scripture and an exercise in the effectiveness of praying, you’ve got nothing. You and I cannot finish the Christian marathon without true prayer. We cannot even enter the race without the Word of

  • The Third Day

    Spiritual Development:  fisher of men net

    Is it a Blessing?

    Or a Burden?

     
    “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”     (Galatians 4:19).

    Most fathers are absent when it comes to leading their children to faith/life issues. Most mothers are misguided as well when it comes to patiently loving their children to Christ. There are very few lives where Bible and devotions are in the home. Today’s generation of youth know little of the Faith once delivered. They know little of the reason for the Bible and to why they believe what they do.

    Dawson McAllister states that ninety percent, “of kids active in high school church youth groups do not go to church by the time they are sophomores in college.” Rigorous teaching and training in the faith of children as taught in Scripture must be practiced, or the church will lose multitudes more to the god of this age.

    What a great time to invest in the lives of our youth. It is a good time to always reach out to children and youth, to lead them and to guide them to Christ. Evangelism and discipleship is never easy. We seem to want everything to fall into our laps. It is not the way of the Master. For discipleship works when we work as we are led by the Spirit of God. There will be trials, tears, and at times a desire to throw it all to the side–but it is not what God would have for us or for the youth of this day.

    Paul travailed in prayer, in practice, and in perseverance till Christ was formed in the church of Galatia. Should we expect anything differently?

     

     

     

  • Flummoxed and Flabbergasted

     
    “They will be called oaks of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3, ESV).

    The King of Babylon had a bad night. And because he had a bad night everyone else was going to have one as well. He was confused about the dream he had. He did not understand it.

    The King’s advisers were stunned. They were asked to give the details of the dream and the meaning of it. How could they do this? Only the gods could’ve revealed what the King dreamed.

    Daniel was neither flummoxed (confused) or flabbergasted (stunned). He had FAITH in the living God. Daniel asked for an appointment with the King. He would reveal to the King what God would reveal to him (Daniel 2:16).

    Daniel asked to meet before he knew the dream and the interpretation of it. Now that is faith. That is counterintuitive courage. I will tell you the truth, I am flummoxed and flabbergasted.  How could this young man have been so sure? Daniel wasn’t stalling for time, he was asking for a time to meet with the King!

    The fact of the faith is this: Daniel knew who his God was and what He could do. Daniel was soaked and steeped in the sovereignty of God. Faith like that was not built overnight; it began somewhere and at some place.

    Here is what I want us to take from this lesson. Maturity is a slow process and so is the development of faith. But sometimes God breaks the mold and works swiftly in a man. But for the most of us, faith comes slowly, just as slowly as to the oak tree. But growth does come. Daniel knew God and so can you. God planted His seed in you when you were born again. Allow it to grow. Trust and obey for there is no other way.

     

     

  • Spiritual Discipline

    “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Psalm 19:11).

    We live in an undisciplined age. The old disciplines are breaking down. Today the discipline of divine grace is derided as legalism by those who are not disciplined. We have an illiterate generation that is not steeped in the Scriptures or the very truth of God. Without this rugged strength of Christian character that originates from the discipline of grace and Scripture we will continue to fall on hard times.

    There must be direction given to the soul of a man if he is to succeed in this life and be rewarded in the future. Prayer threatens to be a drudgery but if one looks into the future and views prayer accomplishments, we would pray with discipline. Meditation on Scripture is certain but we treat it as if it is not important in our lives then we fail to know the ways of God.

    Sunday is a day to come back with the people of God under the Word of God and yet when we treat it as an unworthy discipline then we will fail to glean the benefits of assembling with one another. God is looking for men and women in whom He can trust to wield His presence and power in and through and for a lost people who need to know there is a true God.

    It is crucial to see the Lord in these days for without holiness no one can see Him. This generation is lost. The god of this age has blinded their minds and we can become obstructions to God instead of stepping stones that lead to Him. Godliness is God’s goal for you and for me. Live a life of discipline and count upon the future to be kind as God shapes you into one of His own.

  • Be Wise and Listen

    “And Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow any time, or the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee, and show it to thee” (I Samuel 20:12).

    The son of King Saul, Jonathan, spoke to David in the presence of God’s hearing and seeing, and brought out to David that he would speak to his father about David and get his father’s true opinion of what he thought of David. He promised David to find out once and for all.

    The rest of the story is known to all Bible students. King Saul wanted David dead. He chased David all over the countryside trying to murder him and get him out of his life and kingdom. The result was disastrous for King Saul and Jonathan.

    Today many reflect the way they think of King Jesus by their action. There are no gray areas when it comes to Christ. Either we are for Him or against Him, wanting Him or driving Him away, crowning Him or crucifying Him. The Lord did not send peace upon earth but a sword to divide and to cut through.  

    The heart truly reveals what we think of David’s greater Son. Our motives, methods, and hidden thoughts will reveal what we imagine of God’s only begotten Son. The Word of God tells us, “To kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they who put their trust in him” (Psalm 2:12).

    God runs this universe by decree, not by democracy. God’s decrees will succeed. Puny, foolish men with their godless living will not eradicate or hinder His work. God’s scepter of righteousness will sound forth and what we think of Him really does matter.  We will either cry out in repentance or cower in rebellion. Listen and be wise to the Spirit of God for He is sounding out what we think of God’s Son.