Straining Part 2

Last week at a men's discipleship meeting one of the guys made the following comment:
"I just feel like if I knew for a fact that in one year I would die... I would change everything about my life."

Wow!  His honest statement should resound with us all.  How much of our lives would we change if we knew our days were numbered?

Well, they ARE numbered!  We would all do well to not get too comfortable with this world and these bodies!  Our life here on earth will one day feel like the faintest of dreams while all of eternity bounds over the horizon ahead.

Psalm 39, James 4 and the entire book of Ecclesiastes are just some of the scriptures that plead with us to live like we won't be here long at all.  This is one of the keys to seeing through the veil of this world!  We must not only operate from the awareness that our life on earth is fleeting, but also that when our lives here are done an eternity of reward or punishment opens to us.

If we wake to find ourselves entering eternal reward, then our hearts will thrill to find that each pleasure, adventure, and joy there will be quickly followed by pleasure, adventure or joy that exceeds the previous encounter!  But on the flipside, if we find ourselves entering eternal punishment then our experience will be the constant feeling that the pain and misery is unbearable. In that place, every time we would think it can't get worse we will wail to find it 10 times worse over and over, forever.

One of those two experiences is the destiny of every person you will encounter today.  And for some, their appointed time is sooner than others.  Don't waste a single encounter!  Don't waste a single conversation.  The only way for a person to find eternal reward is through faith in the one true Son of God, Jesus Christ. 

Keep your spiritual eyes open always for opportunities to lead people even one small step closer to Jesus and eternal reward!  And by all means, live like this is not your home!  None of us will be here long.