WholeHearted Home: Our Time on Earth is Very Short

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Our Time on Earth is Very Short

Today, I will be sharing a post by Roy Daniel, evangelist and missionary to South Africa where he was raised. He is married to Jerusala Daniel and they have one baby son, Glen. You may read more about Roy HERE and HERE.

Our Time on Earth is Very Short

"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

~Ephesians 5:16~

Recently my wife and I were at a funeral in the USA. I have only been to a few funerals in my life. I was driven to tears. I suspect that there are those who have been to many funerals who may have become desensitized to what is really a very serious thing.

I afterwards discussed with a brother in Christ, what it would be like to know that you only had one month to live. "How would one treat your spouse, parents, or children if you knew either one would die soon?" was the questions we asked each other.

The sad thing is that to most people, death seems a distant future event. They treat other people as if they will be there forever.

I once cried in a car as I thought of what would happen if I died young. I thought of little Glen and wondered if he would follow God. I thought of how I would not be able to read him scriptures in the evening and tell him the story of Jesus. I thought of my wife and how she would miss me and wondered if she would struggle financially (etc.) as so many Christian widows have in the past.

I wondered:

How many children are rude to their parents?
I thought of wives who are rude to their husbands.
Husbands who do not lay down their lives in love for their wife.

They do not realize how precious and short life is.

Every small deed is recorded by God even when we give a Christian a cup of water. When we do good to other Christians we do good to Christ.

"Then shall he ('Jesus') answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."

~Matthew 25:45~

We should look at our treatment of our spouse, children or parents in the light of the fact that every good thing we do for them while resting in Jesus is a deed done unto the Saviour we love (if we are saved).

We should not be too proud to say sorry if we have failed.

We may not have a chance to say sorry if we die before we say it.

Our time on earth is short and it is a chance we have for the cross and resurrection of Jesus to be real in our lives towards the family that we will one day no longer be part of.

"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage,

but are as the angels of God in heaven."

~Matthew 20:30~

The only way for us to live the short life we have on earth unto God is NOT in our own strength, but in the strength of an old message which has never lost its power.

It is the message of the cross. Jesus did not only buy our pardon at Calvary, we were crucified with him.

Thus Paul said,

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;

yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:

and the life which I now live in the flesh

I live by the faith of the Son of God,

who loved me, and gave himself for me."

~Galatians 2:20~

This 'being crucified with Christ' and Him living through us towards others is not something we as Christians can "work up emotionally."

We do not say 'I believe I will be crucified' 100 times and then suddenly after a mountainous work of prayer receive a new box called, 'being crucified with Christ.' We cannot add to God's work at Calvary. It is a finished deed.

As Watch M Nee said, "It is like a person with 3 coins in his pocket. He does not say I believe I have a third coin 10 times till a third coin appears as the 3rd coin is already there." We were crucified with Christ 2000 years back and if we in faith rest in that fact then we experience the reality of the power of the cross and Jesus living through us by faith in Him. It is a resting in Jesus and his finished work rather than a reaching out to some new experience. This is so simple and yet it is the main key to living as we should towards others in light of the shortness of life and the uncertainty of death.

You may read more of what Roy Daniel shares over at: Roy Daniel's Blog

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