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Another day has come and gone
Colleen Simons What will your dying words be? For those who are able to utter anything before they die, very often what they do say sums up their whole character and reveals where their heart is. Some of the greatest historical figures have died uttering words of failure and regret. Sir Winston Churchill, recently voted one of the greatest Britons of all time, died a disappointed man. He wanted to leave behind him a Europe at peace and desperately tried to unite the USA and Russia, but failed miserably. His dying words were: “I’m bored with it all.” Contrast these words of miserable human failure with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross. The gospels record seven things that Jesus said as he poured out his life: 1. “Father forgive them” – Jesus forgave his enemies who hadn’t even said they were sorry for murdering him. And we have the challenge to forgive in the same way; 2. The Lord comforted the thief, “you will be with me in paradise”. An encouragement for us to continue to preach the gospel even when suffering acutely; 3. Jesus lovingly provided for the needs of his mother: “woman here is your son”. We too must provide for the needs of our families; 4. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In allowing himself to be separated from his father, by death, as our representative, Jesus loved us to the uttermost; 5. “I thirst” highlights Jesus’ complete trust that God would raise him from the dead, fulfilling the type of Samson (Judges 15:9- 6. “It is finished” – the victory shout of the only one who was totally obedient to God in all his ways. The completion of his fight against sin and the assurance of our redemption; 7. Finally, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” shows that Jesus died in full confidence of the resurrection. He died with dignity. He died willingly. He died with power. Little wonder that the centurion uttered those powerful words: “Truly this was the son of God!” Jesus was once asked how many people will be saved: would it be many or few? His answer challenges many of the assumptions held today by people who are hoping for the best. It is a widely held view that if there is a God in heaven – and a lot of people haven’t made up their minds about that – it is to be hoped that He is a benevolent being who will be kind to all those who try to live a decent life. I expect you have heard the argument that “I have never done anybody any harm”, where the inference is that such behaviour should be good enough for God, in the hope that He is not too demanding. View the full article at thebiblestudy.co.uk … We know that only running a car for infrequent short journeys, perhaps just round the corner to the local shops once a week, doesn’t do the car’s battery a whole lot of good. The battery charges when the engine is running, but using a car for only very short journeys tends to use more of the stored energy in the battery than what is put back through recharging. While the battery might be perfectly okay, after a while the negative balance of each journey begins to tell and the car becomes reluctant to start. A knock on the neighbours door and a set of jump leads might be required to get it going again, but this is only a quick fix. What the car really needs is an extended run, a long journey to recharge the battery fully. Our spiritual life can be like this. We need the Word of God continually to recharge our spiritual battery. The time we spend in church is only a small period of time each week, and while undoubtedly it can give us a great boost, much like the jump leads, it is only a quick fix for our spiritual well-being. We need more than just a Sunday morning to achieve our full spiritual potential, we can perhaps wait until later in the week for Bible study group, but again that’s just another short period of time. The key issue for us is whether when we leave the church after the service, do we take God with us, or do we leave him behind? To keep our spiritual battery fully charged we must be journeying with Christ continually, not just on a Sunday. Remember, it was said that where two or three meet together in Christ’s name, Christ is there with them, but what about later? Will we still be thinking of Jesus afterwards? Will he get pushed to the side? We will never fully recharge spiritually if we only spend a short time with God each week. The Psalmist said, “O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalms 119:97). We must do all we can to make those periods with God as long as possible and take Him wherever we go. Perhaps we should be praying more often, maybe reading our Bible more. We have so much to be joyful about and the Word of God should be burning within our hearts. So those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…. and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Act 2:41-47) The Word of God was certainly burning within the hearts of the early followers. We often make great efforts to include material and worldly things in our lives and become spiritually drained when we leave God behind… what can you do to keep your spiritual battery fully charged? Do you ever get a feeling when you are studying something that the more you study the more you realize you don’t know? Common sense tells you that your knowledge is increasing but you also become more aware of the vast breadth and depth of information on whatever topic you’re looking at. You end up feeling like you are just scratching the surface. Science in particular is like this. Think of the enormous strides that have been made in science in the last one hundred years, and yet everyday new discoveries are made which change current thinking. We humans can’t even decide how many eggs we should eat a day for optimal health. Just this week I read an article that states we may have finally found out what the point of the appendix is, after being told for years that it’s part of the body which does nothing at all. It seems it may be a receptacle for stockpiling good bacteria to top up the intestine in case of infection. So what’s my point? Firstly, relying on human knowledge, even with a suitable amount of skepticism, is not wise. Humans really don’t know everything. New knowledge changes the prevailing opinion from week to week. Secondly, it may feel that there are times in life when things are not clear. You may worry about the meaning of life, and what the point of it all is. No-one has an ultimate fail-safe plan. No-one knows all the answers to scientific questions. No-one can tell you exactly how life began, or how to eat for perfect health, or how to achieve a long life. What does this mean for us spiritually? It means that we can’t rely on our own minds and judgments to tell us how to worship God. We should be worshiping God the way He tells us to, not the way we feel inside is right. History tells us that in the long term we can’t rely on our intuition to get things right all the time. But how do we know what Gods way is? As Christians we believe that the Bible is the only true source of external knowledge from God, which was written by man under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If we read the Bible we will understand what God wants from us. This also solves my second point. God DOES know all the answers. So don’t worry that world leaders and scientists can’t solve problems or give answers because in fullness of time Gods plan for the world will come to fruition. God knew all along what the appendix did. It’s taken us thousands of years to find out. If you wait a while and trust in Him all will be made clear. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55 v 8-9) “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?…Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions?” (Job 38 v 2,4,5) Let us pray for greater knowledge and read the Bible for answers, knowing that soon Jesus will return to make all things new.
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