Life is Short.

Have you ever faced your own mortality? People who know they should be dead, but got a second chance at life often make changes. It is as if they suddenly realized what matters most. A man on TV’s “I Should Not Be Alive,” was lost 20 days in the jungle at Cozumel—he had no food, almost no water, and enough mosquitoes to keep him from ever sleeping. He survived and decided to be kinder. Nebuchadnezzar survived seven years out of his mind, living as an animal, and served God after that instead of himself. In 1997 I had a car wreck that everyone said I should not have survived. I think about death and eternity, eternal rewards and similar things much more than previously. It is wise to consider your death.

“Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure” Ecclesiastes 7:3-4.

David even prays for that perspective:

“Lord, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of my days. Let me know how short-lived I am. You have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every man is a mere vapor. He walks about like a shadow. He makes an uproar for nothing, rushing around in vain, gathering possessions with no idea who will end up with them” Psalm 39:4-6.

Ask God to give you the wisdom that comes from knowing that life is short, so you can use your time wisely. Store up treasures in heaven, where nothing can destroy them—rather than on earth, where moth and rust and termite can destroy. Ask God to make heaven your priority, not earth. Consider the chorus of a poem/hymn by C.T. Studd:

“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

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Obituaries.

One of the most popular sections of the newspaper is the obituaries.  Friends of mine scour the obits, collecting nicknames.  “Oh, look at this name: Booboo Eddie! I love that!” I’ve also heard: Bingo Willie, Rookie Amtrak, Sugar Foot, and Momma Peaches.

But an obituary is so much more.  It is a chance to sum up a life, to capture in a short essay the essence of who a person was and how they lived.  An obituary includes the basic biography—birth, death, career, family, and hobbies—but also gives you a sense of personality: their sense of humor, passions, and what their life was really about.

Fred Gessner used to have his high school students draft their OWN obituaries in English class.  What would yours include?  What do you hope to accomplish? What have you done that has eternal consequences?  Have you stored up treasure in heaven?  How will you be rewarded when you arrive? 

Do these questions seem odd or morbid in some way?  The truth is, although several parents of Gessner’s students complained, the Bible says it is good to think about these things.

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than one of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man. The living should take this to heart” Ecclesiastes 7:2.

“Lord, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of my days. Let me know how short-lived I am. You indeed have made my days short in length, and my life span is as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal is only a vapor. Certainly, man walks about like a mere shadow. Indeed, they frantically rush about in vain, gathering possessions without knowing who will get them” Psalm 39:4-6.

WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO SAY ABOUT YOU WHEN YOU DIE?  FOR WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED?

I think about that every day.  It influences all my choices.

“Lord, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom” Psalm 90:12.

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The Prayer of Jabez.

Have you heard of it?

Bruce Wilkinson wrote a bestseller about this obscure verse in the Old Testament:

“Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because she said, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ Jabez called out to the God of Israel: ‘If only you would bless me indeed, enlarge my territory, let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I might not cause pain.’ And God granted his request.” 1 Chronicles 4:8-10.

Imagine being named PAIN. Actually, Jabez’s name means “PAIN-CAUSER.” That’s not a positive name to hang on a newborn child, is it? It is a curse in a culture that took words so seriously. But Jabez refuses to be cursed. For years, he begs God to bless him—and he gets specific:

  1. Give me more territory—more OPPORTUNITIES to serve you and to bless others.
  2. Keep Your hand on me and protect me from harm.
  3. Do not let me be a pain-causer anymore.

And what happened?

GOD GRANTED HIS REQUEST!

Isn’t that great? But why did God grant his request?

  1. First—and this is important—over the years, Jabez’s prayers became more SPECIFIC. He does not just say, “God help,” or “God, bless me.” He asks God to bless him in clear, specific ways. God likes for you to pray specifically, so that when He answers, you will KNOW it.
  2. Second, I think the difference between many of our prayers and those of Jabez is that he insists. He grabs hold of God and won’t let go! He begs and pleads with God for years until God grants his request. (Reminds me of Jacob wrestling with God all night and saying, “I won’t let you go until you bless me!”)
  3. Finally, God LIKES what Jabez requested. Are you praying for things God agrees with? Are you specific? And are you praying hard—insisting and never giving up? If so, God will grant your request!

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The Time Machine.

What if you could go back to the days of Job or Abraham? There are no written scriptures.  Everything you know about the One True God came to you by word of mouth passed down through generations: stories about families and wars and the flood and animal sacrifices and a God who might be listening to your prayers but otherwise seems as remote as the North Star, way off in the sky somewhere, blinking and uninvolved. 

Then someone from the future steps out of a time machine, carrying a black, leatherbound Bible, its thin onion paper nearly see-through, many passages underlined, some parts printed in red.  And you are astounded. 

“This whole book is about God?”

“Yep.  It contains everything you need to know about God and faith and how to live on this earth.”

“Amazing! Can I read some of it?”

“You can keep it.”

“Oh, no.  I could never—”

“Keep it.  I insist.  I have a dozen more just like it.”

So you dive in.  The stories are incredible, this God is a God of love and forgiveness and He gets involved and He cares.  You read about the way He is going to rescue His people from slavery in Egypt.  He will perform miracles.  He will prove Himself to be the greatest, the God of Gods.  And He will give His children laws to guide them on every subject. 

And then you get to genealogies.  “Eleazar begat Phineas, Phinehas begat Abishua, Abishua begat Bukki, Bukki begat Uzzi, Uzzi begat Zerahiah, Zerahiah begat Meraioth” .…  1 Chronicles 6:4-6.

What do you make of these long lists of children?  Some famous, others obscure.  Some twenty-five times the Bible provides lengthy genealogies, chronicles of the extended family lines of various people.  To put it another way, God gives pages and pages of space to these long, difficult-to-read records of people most of us have never heard of.  In fact, God put those genealogies in the Bible even though He knew many first-time readers would quit reading when they hit the second or third list of “begats.”  Why would God put those lists in there?  What’s going on?

Adam Clarke writes, “How barren to us is this register, both of incident and interest!”  In other words, he admits these records make dull reading.  But he goes on to argue they provide the history of God’s providence and grace and therefore no one should ignore them. 

Here are a few things we can learn by reading Biblical Genealogies:

  1. God loves families and FAMILY TREES. How many of your ancestors can you name?  God knows and loves them all; we should all learn more about our ancestors.
  2. God loves you.  No matter how small a part you may think that you play, your role matters to God!  If scripture were being written today, your name would be in the list!
  3. God uses families to create patterns.  Sometimes genealogies highlight groups of people with specific trades: “Meonothai fathered Ophrah, and Seraiah fathered Joab, the ancestor of those in the Valley of Craftsmen, for they were craftsmen” 1 Chronicles 4:14. “They were the potters and residents of Netaim and Gederah. They lived there in the service of the king” 1 Chronicles 4:23. In addition to craftsmen and potters, these passages talk about families of hunters, warriors, musicians, shepherds, priests, and more.  Obviously when people are gifted in one area or another, that gift may be passed to many of the children and grandchildren, creating a whole family working in the same field. (For example, I once wrote down every job held by every person in my family tree. More than half of them were teachers of one kind or another.)
  4. You are not an island; don’t try to be so independent.  You are a product of your family.  You have their strengths and weaknesses.  You have your family’s gifts and talents, and more importantly, you have your family’s encouragement and applause. The generations that have gone before are standing behind you, offering you their love and support!
  5. No family is perfect.  Biblical genealogies include plenty of unsavory characters—both the ancestors and the descendants.  And your family has them too.  There are bad apples in every family tree.  We should raise our children to love the Lord but we must also give grace to ourselves and other parents when children rebel.
  6. Finally, because God has given so much Biblical real estate to genealogies, mature readers of the Bible should not skip the “begats.”  You will always find a nugget of truth in them.  Just keep reading!

God, teach us to love Your word more every day.

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Better is One Day.

Most days are average.  Hum-drum.  Boring, even.  Most are regular—not great, not awful.  We love mountaintop days.  Who doesn’t love those greatest days, days of excitement and joy, victory and success, achievement and celebration?  Every life has rare days you look back on, islands of excitement in a sea of the ordinary. 

I look back on Youth Congress.  In 1985 we went to Washington, D.C., to a national event for Christian youth.  There were musicians and speakers and something like 50,000 young people gathered together, sparking with an electric energy none of us had ever seen before.  I remember a speaker who told us to look around and take it all in.  He said this fall when you go back to your high school, remember that there are 50,000 on your side, 50,000 who have your back.  When you face peer pressure, remember the 50,000 supporting you, wanting you to walk with Christ.

That stuck with me.  That was 38 years ago, but I still remember looking around that huge arena in the nation’s capitol and seeing 50,000 other kids cheering and singing about Jesus and rooting for each other to be faithful and walk with Him on the narrow road.  But that was only one day—one brief moment.  Yet it still has an impact.

“Better is one day in Your Courts than thousands elsewhere” Psalm 84:10. 

Someone has said that life is not the years—not even the days—but the MOMENTS.  God speaks to us in MOMENTS.  ONE DAY is all it takes.  When you go to the PASSION CONFERENCE, the time will fly by.  But ONE DAY in the Courts of your King is all it takes.  ONE DAY can change your life forever. 

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR ONE DAY IN HIS COURTS.  God only needs a MOMENT to touch your heart and plant seeds there that will bless EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. that follows. 

God, we give you our ONE DAY.  Thank you for ONE DAY IN YOUR COURTS.

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The Rich Man.

The news is filled with the rich because the non-rich are intrigued by them.  Whether it is the Hebrew shepherd who wants to hear all about King Solomon, or today’s housewife watching documentaries about Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, “regular” people remain fascinated by rich people.

But what good are riches, really?  Wealth affords food, shelter, and necessities.  It can buy state-of-the-art medical care. It can buy houses, cars, and boats—toys for children of all ages. Money can pay for travel and adventures of every stripe.  It can even buy power and fame.  Is there anything money cannot buy?

Yes: money can’t buy peace, love, happiness, etc. 

And what about the obvious—money can’t even buy health. It can buy time, perhaps. But every rich man will die. Elon Musk, whose fortune recently eclipsed $300 Billion, will probably not make 100 years, no matter what he spends.  And 120 is so unlikely it is almost a joke.  No amount of money can buy the one thing rich people want most—to stay healthy forever.  And after death? Riches certainly cannot buy eternal life.

“They boast in their abundant riches, yet these cannot redeem a person or pay his ransom to God—since the price of redeeming him is too costly… For one can see that wise men die. Foolish and stupid men also pass away. Then they leave their wealth to others…. A MAN WITH VALUABLE POSSESSIONS BUT WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IS LIKE THE ANIMALS THAT PERISH.”  Psalm 49:6-10, 20.

Consider this inscription seen on a tombstone: 

Remember friends, as you pass by,

As you are now, so once was I,

As I am now, so you must be,

Prepare for death, and follow me.

How do you prepare for death? By trusting Jesus alone for salvation.  As Shakespeare’s Last Will & Testament put it: “I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting.”

Without God, the rich will die like animals.

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Wealth ≠ Credibility.

If a famous person endorses a product, we are more likely to buy it.  If a movie star talks about recycling, we are more likely to start sorting our trash.  This is even true with people like Paris Hilton and the Kardashians—celebrities who are famous for what?  For nothing.  They are famous for being famous, not for their achievements. 

Our values are mixed up.  Why do we listen to rich people? Unlike reality TV stars, most of the rich have actually achieved something, some level of business success.  But does that qualify them to speak on global warming, or trickle-down economics, or the future of space travel?  Should we choose our politicians based on how wealthy they are? 

No. 

“Do not be overly impressed when someone becomes rich, their house swelling to fantastic proportions, because when they die, they won’t take any of it with them.  Their fantastic possessions will not accompany them down under” Psalm 49:16-17.

I like the Message paraphrase of this passage:

“Don’t be impressed with those who get rich and pile up fame and fortune.  They can’t take it with them; fame and fortune will all get left behind. Just when they think they’ve arrived and folks praise them because they’ve made good, they enter the family burial plot where they’ll never see sunshine again.”

“The rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, will fade away” James 1:11.

Life is so much more than money, so much more interesting: master the word, become an expert on scripture.  Develop wisdom and good judgment.  Love people—RELATIONSHIPS ARE EVERYTHING.  Be a servant and store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth.  As Randy Alcorn writes about money:

“You can’t take it with you—but you CAN send it on ahead!”

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What is Your Joy?

With two older parents facing grim medical problems simultaneously, I catch myself having a stray thought: what if I lose them both at the same time? Could I weather that storm? 

Yes.  The answer is yes.  I would put one foot in front of the other and move forward.  But then I think about another question:

How long will it take me to be happy again?  How long will it take to find joy again?  Because without joy, life is terrible.  No—it really is.  There is too much suffering not to live your life surrounded by joy and hope and beauty every day.  And I do: I find joy in a great meal, great laughs, great family and friends, great work, great challenges, great accomplishments.  I find hope in children, young people, innocence, and good news.  And I am moved by the beauty of nature, whether the humble beauty around my tiny house, or the grandeur of mountains, beaches, deserts, the Mississippi, or a brilliant purple and gold sunset after a day of hard rain.

But where can you turn when you lose everything? 

“I will come to the altar of God, to God, MY GREATEST JOY…. Why am I depressed?  Why this turmoil within me?  I will put my hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God” Psalm 43:4-5.

I have not been there.  At 55, I am blessed to have both my parents, to have never lost a child, sibling, or best friend.  I know I am blessed.  But I have had a lot of practice with a lifetime of smaller disappointments, tragedies, and griefs.  I know Jesus is all that we need.  And when those moments come and we lean into Him, He will show us that He truly is all we need.  He truly is our JOY, HOPE, BEAUTY, and PEACE. 

Encourage yourself to find your hope in God.  He is your “GREATEST JOY.”  He truly is.

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The Fool.

Do you know any atheists?  Some have made significant contributions: Sigmund Freud (father of psychology), Stephen Hawking (physicist who wrote A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME), Ayn Rand (a libertarian/conservative writer), Karl Marx (inventor of Communism).  There are also famous agnostics: Thomas Edison (inventor of light bulbs, record players, motion pictures, and more), and Albert Einstein (physicist whose work led to the development of the atomic bomb which helped the Allies win World War Two).

These are NOT stupid people. These are geniuses, minds that come along once in a century.

So what do you make of these words from King David:

“The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” Psalm 14:1.

Consider other translations:

“Only fools think there is no God”; “That man is a fool who says to himself, ‘There is no God!’”; “Only a withering soul would say to himself, ‘There is no God’”; “A wicked and foolish man truly believes there is no God”; “The unwise man said in his heart, God is not.”

So was Stephen Hawking a fool?  Or Einstein?  Or Freud?  To persist in unbelief in spite of evidence is to be foolish. The writings of Freud, Rand, and Marx (three who would have agreed with each other on very little) seem animated by anger at authority, at rules, at structure.  Anger and pride will keep anyone from recognizing God.  A proud person could look right at God and fail to see Him.  And were God to reveal His existence in an undeniable way, some on this list would recognize His existence, yet refuse to bow to Him. 

Faith is NOT rooted in intelligence—not even genius. 

FAITH IS ROOTED IN THE HEART. 

If your heart is proud, you will always be a fool. 

Even if you accept God’s existence, you will spurn His love and be not only unwilling, but UNABLE to kneel to Him.

The fool does not need reasons or logic or proof of God’s existence.  Persuasive arguments, no matter how brilliant, will never be enough.  The fool needs a humble heart, knees that will bend and a head that will bow. 

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Journaling for Faith.

In high school I kept a “visual journal” full of pictures (that I often drew during down time in class). The pics illustrated my emotions that day. When I got home, I would put them in a binder and write something to explain them. And the more I wrote—analyzing my troubles—the more I felt compelled to “get it together” and find a Biblical answer. Why? Because I was so spiritual? No, because I had put my complaints in writing, and if anyone ever read them, I wanted them to know I had found an answer. I did not want a written record of whining without a solution. So I always found a spiritual answer. This led to a lot of spiritual growth.

King David does the same thing: he begins many of his psalms with complaints and tears, but ends by reminding himself of his faith—of His amazing God Who is the answer. Look at Psalm 6:

“I am weak. Heal me Lord, for my bones are shaking, I shake with terror. Rescue me, before I die! Because I can’t praise you from the grave! I am weary from my groaning; with tears I soak my pillow and drench my bed every night, my eyes are swollen from crying, they grow old because of all my enemies.”

And then suddenly, David remembers God and his attitude changes:

“Depart from me, evildoers, for the Lord has heard my weeping! The Lord has heard my plea and accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed. THEY will shake with terror! They will turn back and suddenly be disgraced.” Psalm 6 (edited).

“SELF-TALK” refers to the things you tell yourself, advice you give yourself. Make it positive! Tell yourself to cheer up, to have courage, and to TRUST GOD. Consider WRITING your self-talk in a journal, because the act of writing will make you more hopeful, more full of faith. And no matter how severe your problems, do like David and CHOOSE FAITH. Choose to believe and trust God. IT IS A CHOICE.

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