One Life To Live

Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 39:4-6 4 "Show me, O LORD, my life's end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Each man's life is but a breath.
Selah
6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:
He bustles about, but only in vain;
he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

Psalm 144:4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.

In May of this year (2008), not far from my house, there was a car accident in which 2 teenage boys were killed and a third seriously injured while goofing around with friends.

Yesterday, 11/18/2008, a 26 year old woman, mother of two, was killed in a car accident on ice.

Not to long ago a young mother, in her 30’s, died of cancer.

We live in a broken world that doesn’t work right, the way God created it to. We now have death, disease, deformities, and depravity of every kind (moral and physical). Life here on earth is fragile and fleeting.

My compulsion in sharing is not so much to address the bad things of this broken world, but rather to emphasize the reality that we all have only one life to live and we should live it well and wisely.

Whether we live 18 years or 80 years, the fact is we are all going to die and the time here on earth we do have is relatively short in the light of eternity.

I want to encourage us to live life to the full. Don’t settle for anything less than God’s best.

I want to encourage us to live with eternity in our view. Don’t waste your life living and striving for things that are of no value eternally.

Keep life, the good and the bad, in perspective. It can always be better, it can always be worse, but the truth is that neither matter because this world is not our home, it is not where we will spend the majority of our existence.

I want to encourage us to live a life that is meaningful and one that God can bless and take pleasure in, one that stores up for us much reward/treasure in the next life.

I want to encourage us to live a life that doesn’t leave people guessing about our eternal destination.

I know so many people that go to church, claim a belief, but by their lifestyle cause you to wonder what they really believed. Where was their heart? What did they truly believe and live for? If actions speak louder than words, then many weren’t living up to the claims of their mouth. If actions speak louder than words, then they were telling us by their lifestyle a whole different set of values and beliefs than they were saying with their mouth.

It is these kind of people that make funerals so hard. Complete Godless heathens aren’t hard. Faithful Christians aren’t hard. It’s the wishy washy, lukewarm, double minded, half-hearted, and hypocritical that make things very difficult. You believe and hope for the best, but there is always that gnawing ache in your mind and heart that makes you struggle with the question, “Where did they end up?”

Let’s live in such a way that when our day does come to leave this world and all that is in it behind, let’s be able to look back with no regrets. Let’s be able to look back and know our life counted for something more than just living as a selfish consumer. Let’s be able to look back and see that we made a contribution to the world, an eternal contribution. Let’s be able to here that commendation, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

We all have one life to live. Let’s make it count. Let’s give it our BEST shot.

Lastly, let’s keep in mind that this is true of every person around us to. This life is fragile and sooner or later each of those people will also leave this world. Are they ready? Are we doing what we can, in word and deed (lifestyle), to reach these people for eternity? Are we giving them every reason we can in word and deed to turn to the only one who can give them that guaranteed future of life, peace, love, and bliss? Or are we giving them another excuse of why this whole God, Jesus, Heaven, and Hell thing is just bunk and shouldn’t be followed?

“If it were true, wouldn’t the Christians really live it?”

Many people find the proof that the Bible is true is that we faithfully live it, and in their minds the proof that it’s no big deal and just a fairytale or waste of time is that we, who claim to believe it, don’t live like we do, we don’t live like it’s all true.

Live your one life for God’s approval, to be a reason not an excuse for people to follow or not follow Jesus, and determine to settle for nothing less than your life being all God made you to be, experiencing life to the full and making your life count having maximum impact.

God Bless America

We have all heard the phrase and probably even said or prayed it ourselves, but what is it we’re really asking for?

When you say the word blessing the first thing that comes to most peoples mind is some thing or experience that results in pleasure/personal gratification fulfilling the desires of our flesh, or ego, or emotions, or all three. Most think of a blessing as getting what I want.

But, a blessing is a thing or experience that BENEFITS the one who receives it. It may involve pleasure and gratification, but it may not. It may be getting what we want, but it may not.

Jesus said, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?” (Luke 9:25 NLT)

God wants to bless us, meaning He wants to work in our life that which will benefit us, and sometimes it’s not getting what we WANT, but rather what we NEED. Sometimes it’s getting the answer we don’t want to hear.

A good friend of mine was teaching on the power of prayer and said, “Some people accuse God of not answering prayer. It’s not that God doesn’t answer. It’s that sometimes the answer is ‘No’.” It’s not what we want, but it’s what we need, and it is an answer.

Jesus tells us it’s not always to a man’s benefit to gain the whole world (i.e. get what he wants all the time), but in fact may be to his detriment.

Sometimes the prayer, “God bless so and so…” is asking God to NOT give them the things/pleasure they desire. Sometimes it is to our benefit that God says no.

Taking it a step further, sometimes the benefit is even painful. When my children are purposefully disobeying and misbehaving after being corrected they experience love in the form of punishment. I’m not out to harm them. I don’t want to inflict pain because I hate them. I want to train and help them now while the pain is controlled and minimal, rather then let them go off and destroy themselves and others with wrong living.

If this is true for the individual then what does this mean on a national level?

When we say “God bless America” we may be thinking a prosperous economy, peace, freedom, pleasure, happiness, etc. But, it may very well be an invitation for God to show his love by giving us what we NEED and not what we WANT. It may be an invitation for God lovingly withhold even the perceived good things to help us enter in to the great things down the road.

Often in our narrow and selfish perspectives on life we fail to see the destructive nature of some wants in our life. Because they seem fun, exciting, pleasurable, etc. we think they’re for us (a blessing), and yet to have it, or more of it, or other things would be a curse not a blessing.

Getting what we want all the time, always getting our way, things always being handed to us, being free from discipline/punishment and consequences are not a blessing, but rather a curse.

So, on a national level, I wonder if our request for God to bless America is being fulfilled in some of the difficult situations our country is facing. Rather than pointing fingers and blaming one or two people, perhaps we need to realize that America has been blessed with a lot of stuff and opportunities, but maybe we’ve become such a selfish people so caught up with our own agendas that God is saying, “Wake Up! I’m not giving you what you want (a life of comfort, ease, stuff, and pleasure). I’m giving you what you need.”

Maybe we NEED to learn to trust Him more. Maybe we NEED to make the things of this world less of a focus and priority in our life. Maybe we NEED to begin to think of the needs of others and not what we WANT. Maybe we NEED to focus more of our resources on building the Kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of this world. Maybe we NEED to learn to walk more in the truth, love, grace, and mercy of God.

Some might be tempted to say that America really hasn’t done anything so bad or depraved, compared to other nations, which would warrant punishment from God. But, depravity doesn’t come just in the form of immorality, although we have plenty of that to go around too. The depravity that led to Sodom’s destruction wasn’t just homosexuality, there was behavior/depravity that led up to that final straw that broke the camels back.
(49 " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. Ezekiel 16:49-50) I don’t know about anyone else, but the descriptions “arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, haughty, and not help the poor and needy” sure reminds me of a lot of Americans.

Sure the detestable things get us in trouble too, but that’s not all.

I don’t think America is on God’s black list, but I do think we’re naive to think that asking for God to bless our country or us as individuals is always going to result in pleasurable things or experiences. God loves us and He loves us enough to bless us with what we NEED not what we WANT. He is truly out to benefit us even when it doesn’t make sense to us.

So, as we pray for God to bless our nation, others, or ourselves, let’s not put God in a box of what that will be and look like. Let’s trust that God knows best and that while we may not understand, nor even like the initial blessing, lets look for what the benefit of the blessing is.

I do want to clarify one thing… I do not believe that God is the cause of every negative or bad thing in our life. There are four sources of negative experiences… 1) We live in a broken world that doesn’t function the way God created it to, so things break down and bad things happen to good people. 2) We live in a world of broken people, so whether the bad and foolish choices of others or our own bad and foolish choices we experience the negative consequences and because we are not truly independent of others our lives affect others people’s lives for better or for worse. 3) The devil and demons are at work in our world to work death, destruction, and all kinds of wickedness, pain, and harm. 4) There are those rare occasions where a person or nations sin has reached such a point that God pours out His Judgment/Wrath. This is not as often as some would like to think and when it happens people are warned and have a chance to repent.

When I refer to God disciplining, punishing, withholding, etc in the name of a blessing I’m not talking about tragic things like birth defects, premature death, etc. I’m talking about God withholding pleasures, materials, etc that are a WANT, not a NEED.