Category: Heaven, eternity and glory

  • Time is slipping by

    Make the most of it

    Time seems to be flying. It’s already nearing the end of August, and the schools will be starting up in a few weeks. The robins and other birds are beginning to flock up in preparation for their migration south. 

    The fruit trees are heavily laden, and you can see windfall apples wherever there are apple trees. The yellow jackets are getting more aggressive and swarm around anything resembling food, making barbeques and picnics a bit more challenging. We are starting to see the early turning leaves on some trees.

    School supplies are back in stores now. The giant Halloween store that pops up yearly in a vacant spot has already opened. Good luck if you need to replace a piece of summer clothing. Heavy jackets, anyone?

    Time passes. It is a simple fact of this life. Sometimes, it seems to race by, and other times, it creeps ever so slowly, but the clock just keeps ticking. I saw a photo of a child I saw recently as a newborn; she’s a teenager! How is that even possible?

    Time is a priceless commodity, which means that over the years, I have squandered great wealth by unwise use of it.

    We are given very few days to live this life, and none know how many except the Lord (and He isn’t telling).

    Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James 4:13-14 ESV

    Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man! What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Psalm 89:47-48 ESV

    All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:24-25 ESV

    God has given us days to work and days to rest. He gives us seasons of great energy in our youth and seasons of less ability in our more senior years.

    The Lord has given us two incredible gifts. He has given us life itself and the opportunity to glorify God in that life.

    Make the most of it.

    Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    Watching the seasons turn reminded me how fast our days actually go, and how easy it is to waste time we can’t get back. Life is short and none of us know how many days we have — so let’s not waste the ones we’ve been given.

    TAKEAWAY

    The turning season — birds flocking, fading summer clothes, early leaves — is a vivid picture of how fast time moves

    Scripture (James 4:13-14, Psalm 89:47-48, 1 Peter 1:24-25) describes our life as a mist and grass that withers, while God’s word alone endures forever

    God has given us two gifts — life itself and the opportunity to glorify Him in it — so the call is to steward the days we’re given

  • Jesus: The Fountain of Living Water in Jeremiah and John 

    artists representation of the throne of God

    I was reading in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah yesterday when a pair of verses popped out and reminded me of something in the New Testament. God is confronting Judah’s sin with some serious warnings.

    A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. Jeremiah 12:13-14 ESV

    Those who have turned away are destined not to see His throne. That includes all of us sinners, except for His intervention and the gift of faith to accept Him by grace

    There isn’t a direct connection between the verses other than I see some parallels. Not enough to build a theology on, but enough to ponder.

    In John 7, Jesus makes it clear that He is the Fountain of Living Water. Jesus is our sanctuary.

    On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39 ESV

    In John 8:1-11, we find the account of the woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees bring her before Jesus to test Him and condemn the woman. The results aren’t what they expect.

    This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.  And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” John 8:6-11 ESV

    We don’t know what Jesus wrote in the dirt, but the parallel to the Jeremiah passage pops out. The self-righteous Pharisees and teachers of the Law are putting Jesus to the test, and He writes in the earth. They are rejecting Jesus, the Fountain of Living Water.

    The warning in Jeremiah was clearly for the people of Judah, yet its overtones carry on to everyone. Without Him, there is no way they will ever see the throne of God. That’s true of all sinners; none of us will see that heavenly throne unless we come to him in faith by grace.

    Heed the warning, and walk with Jesus by faith today.

    May God richly bless you today,

    Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    I was reading in Jeremiah when two verses stopped me and carried my mind straight into John’s gospel. I share how God’s warning to Judah about forsaking the fountain of living water echoes forward into Jesus’s own words and the story of the woman caught in adultery.

    TAKEAWAY

    Jeremiah 12:13-14 warns that those who forsake the Lord, the fountain of living water, will be written in the earth and never see His glorious throne.

    In John 7:37-39, Jesus stands up and declares Himself the fountain of living water, offering the Spirit to all who believe.

    In John 8:1-11, Jesus bends down and writes in the dirt before the woman caught in adultery, an image that echoes Jeremiah’s warning to those who turn away.

    Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)