Realization of Solomon, son of David & wisest man that has ever lived under the sun -
And whatever my eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion and reward for all my toil. Then I looked on all that my hands had done and the labor I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it, and there was no profit under the sun.
Parable of Jesus Christ, an excerpt from the Gospel of Luke -
And He said to them, Guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness (the immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more); for a man’s life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs. Then He told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man was fertile and yielded plentifully. And he considered and debated within himself, What shall I do? I have no place [in which] to gather together my harvest. And he said, I will do this: I will pull down my storehouses and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain or produce and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many good things laid up, [enough] for many years. Take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself merrily. But God said to him, You fool! This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with the one who continues to lay up and hoard possessions for himself and is not rich [in his relation] to God [this is how he fares].
Teachings of Jesus Christ, an excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew -
Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting]. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life [his blessed life in the kingdom of God]? Or what would a man give as an exchange for his [blessed] [r]life [in the kingdom of God]?For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory (majesty, splendor) of His Father with His angels, and then He will render account and reward every man in accordance with what he has done.
Why do we all pursue the “rat race” of insatiable (never satisfied) and unquenchable (always wanting more) pursuit of stuff, things, and status upgrades when in the end they offer and result in so little? When you breathe your last breath, and gaze your eyes on this realm for the last time and open them in Eternity, what will all the things and status rankings you acquired and achieved but no longer have or possess mean to you? Gazing out at Eternity where you will spend for endless ions of timeless existence, what will you miss, long for, wish you had? Will you regret the fact that you didn’t acquire, accomplish, or achieve more or will you bemoan the fact that you wasted and spent so much time on such trivial things and did not pay enough attention to the essential more important things? Whatever the case, you live NOW and these are things that should be pondered before it is too late. I am sure anyone, everyone after they close their eyes on this world for the last time before facing eternity would give everything they have to have just 1 more day, one more hour, one more minute, even one more second if they really and truly realized what an Eternity without God apart from a personal relationship with Christ Jesus really entails. Most people chose to accept whatever they want to believe about eternity or have adopted the beliefs of someone else (which can’t be verified or corroborated) instead of submitting to the simple, undeniable, objective truth. And for what? What have chosen to submit to since they have decided to reject the truth? What are the consequences, ramifications, results of making this decision? Most people are concerned, don’t care or simply ignore this and choose to hold on to their personal beliefs about where they will spend eternity.
I was listening to a debate between a self proclaimed atheist or “Anti-theist” who he preferred to be referred as and an evangelical Christian apologist. If were to decide the winner of the debate based on who proclaimed truth based on logic and coherent and consistent points and precepts, you would have to say that the Christian’s argument and position far outweighed any arguments proposed by the “anti-theist” and even he at the end of debate agreed to this, but in his final statement he appealed to his audience. “Are we all to actually believe that we are all sinners, damned to an eternal Hell doomed to experience torture, darkness, and miserable conditions for all eternity apart from faith in Christ? If this is true, why aren’t we all running to Christians and churches and professing faith in Christ in droves all around the world to escape such a horrible and certain fate? The reason is you and I both know that none of this is true.
That was his final argument. Not an appeal to logic, reason or truth, but the so called fact that the ideas of original sin, the FALL of mankind, guilt before a Holy God, judgment, and damnation based on the righteous requirements of a Holy God, sacrifice of Holy God as a provision for a sinful state, resurrection from the dead, gift of eternal life (apart from works) , grace, mercy and Unconditional love and acceptance - could never be true. Therefore there is no need for a place of Eternal Damnation (created for a “satan and the fallen angels that submitted to him instead of God, not for mankind) to house those for all eternity who have chosen to live for themselves apart from God. They have chosen to not submit their will to God, but chose to live their lives according to their own will. As Frank Sinatra put it “I did it my way”!!!. God did not condemn these people to Hell. They chose to reside there for all eternity by choosing not to have anything to do with the true God while on earth and having no desire to spend eternity with him after death. They would love to and are hoping to just fall into a deep sleep and never awake from it or perhaps have their soul placed into another being and have a “do over” experience. There is no evidence that either of these alternative viewpoints are true and must be believe solely by faith, ironically. The same faith that God requires us to have for His existence, provisions, will, and sovereign plan for us and all mankind.
None of this means anything to those who are perishing and aren’t concerned with this fact. Imagine walking down a busy street in one of popular cities, NY, LA, Dallas for example. Throwing someone, anyone a life preserver or a parachute and screaming to them “Save Yourself Before it’s too late!!” What do you think their response would be? Do you think they would instantly began to get into the life preserve or fitting themselves with the parachute? What a ridiculous thought… They don’t feel they need to be saved from anything, so they would more than likely refuse the offering and perceive you as a nut case or a mentally challenged individual. They may even make fun of you or have a laugh thinking this must be some of a joke and began looking for cameras. However if they have been ejected from a cruise ship an plunge into ice, cold, turbulent waters or given the message over the intercom that the plane that they are in is going to crash and a limited number of parachutes are available, the situation changes and the value of the life preserve and parachute changes.
This is our challenge. We must realize and accept our state and condition before a Holy, Righteous God. How could we appear anything but sinful in His presence? Even if from the moment we realized our sinful condition before God, if we managed the impossible feat of living a Perfect life (according to Him and not others) until we breathed our last breath, we would not be acceptable in His sight based on His righteous standard. We would have had to be perfect from birth and birthed by someone perfect from birth who was also birthed by someone perfect from birth….who was born of God perfect from birth and never sinned any of their days on earth. This will, can, and never happened. Simply look in the mirror and see if perfection is looking back at you. This is not and will never be the case. Considering this why is it so hard to humbly accept the free gift of God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by Faith? Are we not willing? Are we not willing to humble ourselves before God? Or Are we just too prideful, arrogant, wise in our own eyes and desire to live for ourselves and all that entails instead of choosing to live for God.
How long can you live for yourself? 70 years?, 80 years?, 90 years? What if you could live for yourself – pursuing your own pleasures, desires, etc. for 1000 years!!! Would you be willing to suffer eternal damnation for all eternity when it finally came to end? Believe me all of our lives will eventually come to end…..Then What? Something to consider while there is still time.
Have a Blessed Day..
May God Richly bless you and continue to reveal to you (personally) the extent of His Love, Provision, Grace, Mercy, and Acceptance.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
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