When you’re young you
normally don’t think much about the future, but before you
know it, it’s there.
Little children live in the
moment. Their greatest concern is what they’re doing at the moment they are in.
There is one date on the calendar that will get them looking toward the future
however, and that is December 25th, Christmas day. The closer that
special day gets, the greater their anticipation. When it arrives, they settle
down for that one moment again.
Teenagers are another breed
altogether. Their hormones are kicking in, and they start looking outside the
moment. The opposite sex (at least I pray it’s the ‘opposite’ sex) starts
looking pretty good. Dates with these interesting parties are planned and
eagerly anticipated. Driving a car becomes another interesting part of those
years, but to contemplate way out there in the future, hmmm, not thinking much
about that just yet.
Then come the college years,
young adulthood and starting a family. Here are the beginnings of opening the
mind to the pathway of life. Ah! There is something besides the “here and now.”
Where am I going in life?
All of us are on a journey in
our respective lives. We can crash and burn, so to speak, or we can look back
and say, “Thanks Lord, how would I have made it without you?”
What we make of this journey
is pretty much up to us. I’m referring specifically to the decisions we make,
especially the one concerning our faith or lack thereof in Jesus Christ. For Christians,
we can rest assured that even from our bad decisions, and there will be many,
the grace of God is there for us.
Speaking to Christians, the
life we live now will determine our service with the Lord during the Millennium
and throughout eternity. In other words, we are preparing now for what we do
then.
The younger you are (earthly
age) as a Christian, the more time and opportunity you have to make your life
count for Christ. Conversely, if old age has crept up on you, time is running
out, but it’s never too late to be fully committed to your Savior and Lord. At
this point, let us take a very brief look at three of God’s followers from the
Bible.
ABRAHAM
God called Abraham out to
leave his homeland of Ur and go to a land chosen by God for him, his family and
his progeny. Abraham was a man of deep faith and was even called a “friend of
God.”
“And the scripture was
fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.”
Even so Abraham made one
colossal blunder. Her name was Hagar. The world is still reeling from the
ramifications of that wrong decision.
DAVID
David served the Lord God
from his youth, and we relive his deep faith in God every time we read of his
going up against Goliath, the Philistine. Everyone, including Saul, was scared
to death of Goliath, but David was a man after God’s own heart.
“And when he had removed him,
he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony,
and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart,
which shall fulfil all my will.” (Acts 13:22)
The one thing we normally
remember about David though is his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her
husband.
PETER
What do we instantly remember
about Peter? The first thing that comes to mind is his denial of Jesus, exactly
as Jesus foretold. But have you ever read Acts chapters three through five?
What a transformation! This isn’t the same man after the cross as before the
cross.
SUMMARY:
All three of these men made
wrong decisions I’m sure they would have liked to change. Sometimes our
decisions effect the short-term future and sometimes they are long-range, going
on for centuries, as Abraham’s. The important thing to remember is that despite
their failings, and ours, God is always in charge, and will bless those who get
back up and obediently follow Him.
If you’re a young person you
have a long life ahead of you to glorify the Lord in the way you live for Him.
If you’re much older, don’t look back, but serve Him with deep devotion in the
time you have remaining.
For the elderly especially,
many have come to Christ in their later years and become a Christian. Many
Christians have finally gotten the fire going in their soul and become a
devoted servant of the Lord later in life. We can’t change the fact of, “If I
had just made the right decisions when I was young, I would have so much more
to show for my Christian life.” Forget the past, or you’ll just keep making the
wrong decisions. Deal with the present.
I mentioned earlier that how
we live our Christian life on earth will determine our service for Him during
the Millennium and throughout all eternity. That should encourage us to take
advantage of the here-and-now by making decisions based upon the leadership of
God’s Spirit and not our own desires.
Matthew 25:14-30 is the
Parable of the Talents. Faithfulness is what God expects from each of us as
Christians. All who are His will be faithful to some degree, but the one who
has nothing to show for what he claims to have is a hypocrite, and will be cast
into outer darkness. His journey through life is a total failure.
The lesson to learn from
Abraham, David and Peter is that even though they made some pretty bad
decisions, they didn’t dwell on them. They continued going forward with the
Lord God. Let us aim for the right decisions by listening to God as we travel
our journey, but if we do make a bad decision let us not stop and quit. Let’s
move on and run the race.
“Therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that
hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter
of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
“Do you not know that in a
race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to
get the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)
Grant Phillips
Email: grantphillips@windstream.net
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html
