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

  • An Independent Spirit

    “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded to do, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” (Luke 17:10).

    God’s people are called to be together and to serve together. One of the most respectable sins that is taking place today is the sin of individuality – the pride of an independent spirit.

    This spirit of independency is killing our country and our communities. The church is not strong. Why? Because the church is the one organism God has brought together. When one part of the organism begins to withdraw from the body of believers as a whole then cancer begins to show up. And it will metastasize to the point of corrupting other parts of the body.

    When the human spirit expresses itself apart from the body of Christ, then we can be sure that it will cause harm to the family of God and to the person’s family. The spirit of independency expresses itself in two areas: a resistance to authority, especially spiritual authority, and an unteachable attitude.

    When we are young, we tend to think we know it all. When we are old, we tend to think we are not needed. God has given the family so that we will learn to submit to one another in love. God has given the church so that we will learn to obey God’s headship and to do it with joy and not with joblessness.

     

  • 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.

  • Thankfully Yours

    “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana, of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there” (John 2:1).

    In the book of Exodus chapter seven you will find a story of judgment fallen against the nation of Egypt. There God caused all the waters to be turned into blood. It did not  matter if there was left-over water in a cup for it was turned into blood. Recognize that God owns the waters and the molecules that make up everything visible and invisible and He holds it all together.

    We do not know the couple’s name who was married but we do know that Jesus, God’s Son, turned the water into wine. Recognize this fact: When the resources of the world runs out and dries up God is there to show you His joy. He wants us to recognize Him. He is the giver of life and all good gifts.

    Our God would rather bless than judge. Invite Him to the wedding of life. God weds you and me to His life so that we may be thankful for His good gifts. If we forget and turn away from Him we invite His judgment and our souls become worried and fretful. The world doesn’t like it nor do they understand when we find Jesus to be our source of joy.

    Father help us to realize that You own all things and everything. May we fall down upon our faces with gratitude and thank You. Ingratitude is when we forget the gifts You give.  You give the water and all good things. Thank You for giving us the miracle of gratitude whereby we may thank You. Amen

  • A Crazy Kind-Of-Love

    “…Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad” (Acts 26:24)

     

    Francois Fenelon said, “To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins – is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?” Is the church missing what God intended her to be? In many ways, and I’m nervous about it, the church is not doing so well.

     

    It used to be that “Good Christians” avoided drinking, drugs, sex, swearing, and fought their desires in order to please God. That is the way many were brought up during the Christian culture of the day. In reality and hindsight, I don’t believe the church’s teachings were incorrect, just incomplete.

     

    If we would get into the Word of God and think Biblically instead of conventionally, it would change our paradigm. Our thinking would explode and it would be exhilarating. We have all we need. We have all of Jesus we need. What we don’t have is to want Jesus more.

     

    Are you bored with American Christianity and that which it offers? Do you want to rise above the plateau of the American style of doing church? Would you want to get to the place where you would rather die than let go of your convictions in Christ?

     

    “More God” and “more life” follows. Not to be immune from self-giving is to realize how wonderful God is. To not hold back anything but to give all is the utmost way to live. To be totally abandoned is to be totally absorbed.

     

    God wants to lead a group of comfortable people into lives of risk and adventure. He wants us to love people like we never have before and to go to extremes to do just that.

  • Moving Away

    “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved” (Phil. 4:1).

    We as a society have been conditioned to believe in the big, the fast, the expensive and the far away.  Whatever is big, fast, expensive, and away is the life of joy and happiness.  I am convinced that if you have to move ten inches from where you are now in order to be happy, you never will be.

    Paul was in prison for Christ, yet he was content.  Joseph was indeed in a mess down in Egypt, yet he was aware that God was working.  John the Baptist had stumbled over the timeline that God had for him, but he was learning.  The Lord Jesus operated by faith and not by feelings, and never moved from where His true peace was located.

    One can live with joy in their present circumstances and still live with expectation.  Life becomes more precious and more special to us when we look for the little everyday miracles and get excited about the privilege of simply being human.

    There is a powerful story of a young man who was seeking God.  He sought out a wise man who lived in a nearby beach house and posed the question:  “Old man, how can I see God?”  The old man who knew God at a depth few experience, pondered the question.  At last he responded quietly:  “Young man, I am not sure that I can help you–for you see, I have a different problem. I cannot not see him.”

  • What is Sin?

    “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

    What is sin? Sin is universal and it represents the margin of difference between all that God is and what we are on our own.

    Sin is anything that falls short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), so that God will evaluate sin as any behavior that falls short of what He does, what He says, and what He is.

    Sin is exposed simply by relating our behavior to God’s behavior. God is perfect, and by that perfection we can recognize what sin is, because sin is anything which falls short of His perfection.

    God Himself is therefore the only standard by which sin is recognizable.

    Sin is also defined as faithless independence: “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). It is an attitude of “lawlessness” according to I John 3:4.

    He Who is in us is holy. When we step out of dependence in Him into independence in us, the measure of our repentance will be the measure of our dependence in Him. Every area of our life which we have not learned to be truly dependent on God is an area of our life in which we have not yet truly repented.

    Christ died for us, who is risen and alive, who indwells every believer, so that we may no longer be egocentric, self-oriented, living only for our own interests.

    Never be sorry for your self. Just be sorry for your sin!