Category: Job

  • A Mist- Our lives pass quickly

    Mist on Eagle Mountain, Abbotsford BC

    One of the fantastic things about living in the Fraser  Valley, so close to the coast, is the mist. Mists come and go, never the same from moment to moment or day to day.

    They can conceal part of the landscape, only to open up or move on, leaving it again. Late Saturday morning, I snapped today’s image with my phone.

    A layer of foggy mist covers most of the hill. The cell phone tower reminds me of a castle turret atop an island floating in the clouds, with nearby treetops appearing like more little islands.

    A few moments later, it was all concealed from my view. Several minutes passed, and the entirety of the hill was visible again. It was as if the clouds were causing the scenery to play peek-a-boo with us.

    Our lives have a lot in common with the mist. Our life may seem long in comparison to the entirety of time. It’s just a little blip on the radar. Our sixty, seventy, eighty, or more years color and shape things briefly, and then we’re gone, and things change.

    It is by relatively few for a short season if we are remembered at all when we’re gone. People go to great lengths to ensure their legacies, endowing schools and libraries, buying stadiums, and more. Sooner or later, someone replaces them, and even that legacy disappears into the mist of time.

    Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. Psalm 144:4 ESV

    For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Job 8:9 ESV

    For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. 1 Chronicles 29:15 ESV

    I’m not writing to depress you about the shortness of life. Instead, I want to remind you what a precious gift each and every moment is. Life, like a mist passes quickly

    Every breath we take is a gift from God. For believers, it is an opportunity to magnify the Lord and prepare for the blissful eternity of glory. For non-believers, this life is the closest they will ever come to paradise. Unless they turn to Christ before their passing, their eternity will make the worst days of their lives seem wonderful.

    Cherish each moment. It truly is a gift for the believer. Even our hard times strengthen and shape us to be more like Jesus. A faith that has not been tested is only a wish.

    I don’t know the specifics of what your day will bring. You might be on the mountaintop of joy and wonder, deep in the valley of pain and the shadow of death, or most likely somewhere in between.

    If you know Jesus, rejoice because He will use your circumstances for good. If you don’t yet know Him, take the time today to surrender and be reconciled to God.

    Whatever the day brings, know that God loves you and desires you to spend forever in Paradise with Him.

    Kevin

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  • Pondering – Thoughts on the dangers of sin

    Natural gas woodstove/fireplace

    We have a gas fireplace in our living room, similar to the one in the photo. I was sitting in my recliner very early this morning, watching the flames and thinking.

    Some of my thoughts were possibly profound, but most were of the “look at the pretty flames” variety or I wish I could sleep.

    At one point, I was thinking about sin. Nothing can burn you as quickly as sin.

    Sin is an unpopular topic in today’s world. We like to think that we are victims and somehow not responsible for our actions and want to blame others. Here are a few random examples, 

    I have a terrible temper because I have red hair.

    I am miserable with others because someone treated me unkindly.

    I took that because I needed it, and you didn’t.

    Justify and blame. It’s been that way since God confronted Adam and Eve in the Garden. Adam blamed Eve, but he was really blaming God. Eve blamed the serpent. The formula has stayed the same since then.

    Let’s look at what the Bible says about sin.

    We all do it.

    …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God  Romans 3:23

    “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. … If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:8,10

    It isn’t God’s fault.

    In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.  Job 1:22

    When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. James 1:13

    Sin is never instantaneous. It grows in us until it gives birth.

    …but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14-15

    It brings death and separation from God.

    For the wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23a

    Even believers will wrestle with it.

    I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20

    There is much more that I could say, but that is plenty to chew on for now. I confess I have sinned far too often, blamed others, and even blamed God at times. I am grateful for His faithfulness when I have been unfaithful.

    Because of sin, the world is lost in chaos. If left to its own devices, it is doomed, as is every person.

    God is perfectly holy and cannot abide sin in any form. His very nature separates Him from any form of evil.

    However, there is good news for sinners (that means everyone.)

    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

    That is the reason for the Christmas miracle. Jesus humbled himself to come as a person and pay the penalty for sin on our behalf. God hates our sin, but He loves us despite our sin.

    The Lord cleans up our mess if we only trust and submit to Jesus by faith. No other faith, religion, worldview, or philosophy promises anything like that.

    To reject His testimony and gift is to drift further into sin because God promises us redemption if we believe and He does not lie.

    When you stop to think of the Christ child in a manger, pause and reflect on why He had to come; then give him praise and glory.

    Be blessed

    Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

    Kevi

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