Take A Moment

“Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this city, spend a year there, do business, and make a profit; whereas you do not know what will be tomorrow.  For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”  Jacob 4:13-14

 

Plans…plans…plans, most Americans have some sort of plan, goal or objective.  Yet take a moment to realize that without Jesus as your Savior, it doesn’t matter whether you succeed at any such plans.

 

America is a busy place, one that is fueled by endless consumer spending, often time that spending is directly related to being busy.  Having been in restaurant management off and on for years, busyness results in jobs.  Handing out food on the other side of the counter to endless people could not be done if they all had the time to make a lunch or dinner at home.  Coffee shops would not be on every block corner if there was time for people to enjoy a cup in the morning.

 

Children take up time or at least should.  As they get older parents often consider activities that they would like their children to participate in and things that they would like their children to learn, such as instruments.  While there is nothing necessarily wrong with participating in such activities, just as there is nothing wrong with grabbing a bite to eat, which oftentimes can be very affordable if chosen wisely, there is once again the aspect of whether or not parents take the time to ensure that their children know about Jesus Christ and Salvation.

 

Yet any plans that an individual or family makes, no matter the ultimate outcome, whether successful or a failure, are part of the “vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”  What is our life without Christ?  What is the objective to living if we do not honor God who Created us?  What is the point of parenting and trying to avoid the trappings of evil if we do not instill in our children the precepts of His Word?

 

“Therefore you shall fix these words of mine in your hearts and in your souls, and shall bind them as a sign on your hands, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which Jehovah has sworn to your fathers to give to them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.”  Deuteronomy 11:18-21

 

“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  Proverbs 22:6

 

Jesus is not something that we add to our daily lives, but He is the center of our daily lives with everything else on the outside.  Every decision that must be made should be centered around a Believer’s life in Christ, yet for those who are unsaved, the entire point of existence is being lost.

 

Those who save for retirement, save so that they have enough money to be able to live what they consider comfortably until their death.  A man may gather much and hit those goals, but what has he stored up for eternity?

 

Many times people will work for a company for years and years, eventually taking advantage of retiring from them.  Yet should not our lives be spent serving the Lord Jesus Christ and entering into eternal retirement?  Has not God called those who are Believers to also be stewards to do His work?

 

“Go therefore and instruct all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.  Amen.”  Matthew 28:19-20

 

“Preach the Word.  Be ready in season and out of season. Convict, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”  2nd Timothy 4:2

 

What about those who haven’t accepted the free gift of Salvation?  Would you take a moment to consider the vanity of your life and understand that there is more to it then simply living, whether it is just making ends meet, being ‘successful’ or even affluent.

 

Every single person will stand before God Almighty, this is a fact, this includes you.

 

“And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away.  And there was found no place for them.  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.  And the dead were judged according to their works, out of the things which were written in the books.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.  And they were judged, each one, according to their works.  And Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire.  This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”  Revelation 20:11-15

 

When that time comes you will no longer have an option to rectify yourself or to change what it is you had done while on this earth.  While there might be great remorse and sorrow as you stand before your Creator, He is a just Judge who will do as He says.  A list of excuses will not be able to save you on that day, whether or not you consider them justifiable.

 

“God judges the righteous, and the Mighty God is angry with the wicked every day.”  Psalms 7:11

 

“O Jehovah, Mighty God, to whom vengeance belongs; O Mighty God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!  Be exalted, O Judge of the earth; restore recompense to the proud.  Jehovah, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?  They belch forth, and speak arrogant things; all the workers of iniquity boast in themselves.  They crush Your people, O Jehovah, and afflict Your heritage.  They slay the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, YAH does not see, nor does the God of Jacob perceive it.  Understand, you stupid ones among the people; and you fools, when will you be wise?  He who planted the ear, shall He not hear?  He who formed the eye, shall He not see?  He who chastens the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge?  Jehovah knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.”  Psalms 94:1-11

 

The lives of men focus on pleasing themselves, on doing what they decide they want to do.  Despite what the naysayers out there might say about the existence of God, understand that He does exist and He has given His Holy Scriptures as the source to learn about Him, what is expected and containing the words of life that you might find Salvation through His Son who died on the Cross for your sins and rose again nearly two thousand years ago.

 

Without Jesus as your Savior, what is your life?  What is the point of gathering up treasures or spending endless time enduring vanities?  Without Jesus there is nothing, no point, no hope, all is lost.  Jesus paid the penalty for your sins on the Cross and every man can freely partake of the gift from God, should he take a moment to consider his ways and understand that he is lost.

 

What Jesus did two thousand years ago still stands today.  Even in a society that is filled with techno-marvels, understand that the reality of our existence is still that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. (Romans 3:23)  Really it is quite simple, so simple a young child can understand it.

 

Man sinned, man is guilty.  You must realize that you are also guilty and that the wages of your sin is death.  With godly sorrow you come to repentance before your Creator, no longer wanting to do those things and realizing that Jesus paid the penalty for your sins on the Cross.  Understanding that God sent His own Son to die for your sins and through believing into Him you become a new Creature who is born-again, Saved.  Salvation is only through the Son of God who died and rose again, from Jesus, the only way.

 

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to every person, because everyone sinned.”  Romans 5:12

 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

 

“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was accounted to him, but also for us, to whom it shall be accounted, believing in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.”  Romans 4:23-25

 

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  2nd Corinthians 7:10

 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  2nd Corinthians 5:17

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone believing into Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  John 3:16-17

 

“But what does it say?  The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the Word of Faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Romans 10:8-9

 

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those believing into His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”  John 1:12-13

 

“For the love of Christ holds us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again.”  2nd Corinthians 5:14-15

 

“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying.”  Matthew 28:6

 

“Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  John 14:6

 

Take a moment, consider.