At my current age, my life
expectancy from the Social Security life expectancy
calculator is 85.5 years.
For my wife, at her current age, it is 86.1 years. If she lives to be my
current age, her life expectancy will change to 88.0 years. I teasingly say to
Debbie that we men are just overworked. I then get the “look,” and she replies
with, “Yeah, right.” She knows I’m joking, and I know she isn’t. That makes it
even funnier, and we both have to laugh.
Whether any of us live to be
80, 90, 100 or 100+ years of age, life really is short. It doesn’t seem that
way when you’re young, but believe me, the older you get, the faster the train
moves. We older folks can vouch for that.
Think about those things in
your life you said you would do, but time ran out. As Christians, the Lord lays
certain callings upon our heart. Some folks jump right in and get to the task,
while others procrastinate.
Since I was a very young boy I’ve
always wanted to be a writer, but I never followed through with it until seven
years ago. I had never written anything before, but decided to write an article
and send it in to Rapture Ready in hopes Todd would post it. I’m still sending
in articles today, as the Holy Spirit leads me.
My point is, maybe the Lord
is calling you for a specific task that you still haven’t even started. Think
about this. If you are going on a 100 mile trek on foot, it will never be
accomplished until you take the first step. We can think about it, pray about
it, and plan it, but until we take the first step, we will never do it. Take
the first step.
Many in life attempt to put
off making any decision about Jesus Christ. They avoid the fact that they need
to be born again. All need to come to Jesus for forgiveness of sins and to
receive eternal life by placing our life in His hands through faith. My
question is what is going on in their minds? I suspect they are thinking; “I
have plenty of time, or I’m young and I’ll take care of that later.”
Unfortunately, “later” never comes for many people.
It’s very hard to “wrap our
minds” around the thought of eternity since eternity never ends. We have an
ending. It is called death, as far as our body is concerned. Most don’t realize
though the soul lives for eternity. It never dies. Once our body dies, we will
either be in Heaven with the Lord if we are a Christian, or we will be in hell
without Him if we are not a Christian.
By the way, all mankind will
receive a resurrected body, the saved (1 Corinthians 15) as well as the lost
(Matthew 10:28; 25:46; Luke 16:19-31).
Have you ever known someone
who can talk incessantly? I mean they don’t even stop for a breath and go on
and on and on. You keep looking for a pause in the one-sided conversation so
you can move on, but it never comes. I think about eternity a lot during those
times.
Have you ever thought about
the lifespan of a flea? The adult flea only lives 2-3 months. An ant is around
90 days, except the Harvester ant, and it lives from 2-6 months. A domestic
cat’s lifespan is 12-15 years. While a dog’s lifespan is 10-13 years. (Keep in
mind these are averages.) An elephant may live 60-70 years. A pet turtle may
live 10-80 years and larger species 100 years. According to Guinness, sea
turtles have the longest lifespan of 152 years. Did you know that the Alaska
red cedar tree can live up to 3,500 years?
Again, what is the point?
Nothing on earth lives for an eternity, except the soul of man, either in
Heaven or hell. As far as our body is concerned, most of us will outlive the
flea and none of us will outlive the Alaska red cedar tree, but when it
concerns our soul, there is no end to our life.
Many believe that when our
body dies we are no more. There is just nothingness. That is not what God tells
us in His Word. The Bible is very clear that once we die, after that is the
judgment.
“And as it is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Hebrews 9:27)
Eventually, at some point in
our life, we all need to consider the future, the eternal future. To decide against Christ will result in eternity in
hell. To decide to remain neutral has the same result. There must be an actual
act of genuine faith by each of us placed in the person of Jesus Christ to
inherent eternal life. Otherwise, there is nothing but eternal death that awaits
us.
At any time, the door will be
shut and locked, the lights turned out, and God will say to the Son, “It’s
time.” For many, “time” will have run out. Don’t be frivolous with the short
life you have been given upon this earth.
Grant Phillips
Email: grantphillips@windstream.net
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready: http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html
