Man ... is of few days, and full of trouble.

(Job 14:1) “Man ... is of few days, and full of trouble.”

How much time and effort do we plough into the temporal things of life? Far too much I say! How much time have I wasted with my life with fruitless endeavours that seemed to have been a priority at the time but now in hindsight, I see so much of that time wasted. You would think that we would have learnt by now and yet today is another day filled with opportunity, will I waste much of it on temporal things or will any of my time be given to eternal matters? I hope the latter, becomes more and more of a reality to all who confess Jesus as Lord! We are quick to point out other peoples flaws, but we needn’t look much further than the mirror. It is easy to spot the folly of a teenager, as he hankers after youthful lusts, but how much time do I commit to everlasting themes? Is there much difference, I think not! Both result in actions that will run their course and then are judged. One may fly a banner of acceptance while the other a streamer of folly. We will justify some things, so long as it has no appearance of outright sin and often to the exclusion of our great Fathers will. We sometimes, no often! Find security in the wrong things in our lives. I look at my bank balance and if it is in the green and it shows a healthy balance, then I sleep better at night. But how will my bank balance help me in eternity, it won’t! How we need with diligence to lay down our lives for Him, our great Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the here and now. Daily, I must seek the correct perspective to all of life’s challenges. I am even now reminded of the instruction through the Lord’s Prayer, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Let us not be fooled into believing lies, when in fact that is exactly what they are, if they get us to take our eyes off our Father’s will for our lives and if what we do has no benefitting bearing on eternity, then what is the point? I say, “Wood for the fire” and then it will be burnt up and remain no more. I wonder at the works judgment (believers hearing) how much of our works (what we have done for the Lord) will burn without churning out any reward on the other side. “Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1Corinthians 3:13-15)

“It may stay us from taking too deep root in this soil from which we are so soon to be transplanted into the heavenly garden. Let us recollect the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies. If we would remember that all the trees of earth are marked for the woodman’s axe, we should not be so ready to build our nests in them. We should love, but we should love with the love which expects death, and which reckons upon separations. Our dear relations are but loaned to us, and the hour when we must return them to the lender’s hand may be even at the door. The like is certainly true of our worldly goods. Do not riches take to themselves wings and fly away? Our health is equally precarious. Frail flowers of the field, we must not reckon upon blooming for ever. There is a time appointed for weakness and sickness, when we shall have to glorify God by suffering, and not by earnest activity. There is no single point in which we can hope to escape from the sharp arrows of affliction; out of our few days there is not one secure from sorrow. Man’s life is a cask full of bitter wine; he who looks for joy in it had better seek for honey in an ocean of brine. Beloved reader, set not your affections upon things of earth: but seek those things which are above, for here the moth devoureth, and the thief breaketh through, but there all joys are perpetual and eternal. The path of trouble is the way home. Lord, make this thought a pillow for many a weary head!” (C.H.Spurgeon)

How I love the bible and all the great examples they leave us to follow, Moses was forty years in the wilderness doing the Lords biding, and it was all about the will of God for Him. I ask myself the question am I doing my Lord’s biding on a daily basis and I implore you to ask yourself the same question, are you? I fear so many of us are left wanting! We need to be faithful in the little things, before we will be ever given the responsibility to great things. Eternal life comes after our carnal lives.

Moses was a man alone in the Wilderness prior to his actual God given duty of opposing Pharaoh and leading the children of Israel out of slavery from Egypt into the Wilderness towards the Promised Land. Reuel (which means the same as friend of God) was a man with daughters and he realised that Moses was a man with a need and he obliged by giving his daughter Zipporah to Him as his wife. The point is this, do we act like a friend of God and do we help our brothers and sister in time of need. That is what we will be judged on. How much of our live have we laid down for one another? God knows! But there is a judgment coming when all will know, as our rewards in heaven will be clearly seen by all. Do not complicate this truth, remember the words of the Lord; “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:37-46)

If someone knocks at our door we instinctively make our way to the door to open it, in like manner if God is knocking at our door will we intuitively respond to His call upon our lives? We must! May we find grace to do His bidding as nothing else will endure throughout eternity.

Signing off

Tyrone