1. When we first moved into our current home back in November of 2000, the previous owner-builders had a couple of flower beds around the house. Nothing big. Certainly far from elaborate. Across the course of the next few years my wife planted new flower beds ... quite a few of them. At first I didn't mind too much. Less grass to cut! But then I realized that every spring brought with it the ritual of the mulch! But, at the end of the day, I enjoyed all the flowering plants my wife had planted and so went with the flow. But as both us us have aged a bit in the past 17 years ... "the flow" is getting harder to keep up with! So this year, we hired a landscaper to remove two large flower beds my wife had planted in our front lawn and planted grass seed in their place. In part, due to the warm October, the lawn is now looking pretty good! But it does look odd to see all that green grass where before a variety of plants had grown! All this reminds me that we go through seasons of life. When we moved into our house in 2000, my wife was in the season of life in which she found a lot of joy in working in her gardens. Now, that season is quickly (and I do mean QUICKLY!) passing. Energy levels for both of us are not what they once were. And so we are learning we must allocate our energy to the more important activities in life (for my wife that means running around after our grandkids! Not much energy left for gardening after a day with grandchildren!).
The day is coming for us all when we will enter the final season of life. As I look ahead (with most of my life now behind me ... and I don't think I will be living until I am 123!), I am praying two things for myself. First, I pray that I will finish well! Finish well in loving my Lord. Finish well in loving my wife, children, and grandchildren (and maybe even great-grandchildren). Finish well with whatever God calls me to do in the remaining years of my life. I simply want to be able to say what Paul the Apostle said has he reflected on his life: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7). Secondly, I pray that as I grow older I will grow older graciously vs. become a grumpy "old guy!" I had a former bus driver recently tell me one reason he quit driving was because he could never please older people. Now I understand how easy it would be to become grumpy in one's old age (after all ... so many parts of the body just don't work the way they used to ... and that brings pain, inconvenience and a lot of sitting in doctors' waiting rooms). So as you move thru the seasons of life, I would encourage you to pray that God would help you to finish well and to do it graciously!
2. Speaking of finishing well, Jesus Christ certainly did just that. In his next to last recorded words of his earthly life, He said, "It is finished." In speaking these words, it was not his earthly life he was referencing, but the mission of his earthly life. In Mark 10:45 he declared that mission to be the giving of his life as "a ransom for many." Also, in Luke 19:10 he stated his life mission as being to "seek and save those who are lost." So when Jesus said, "It is finished" he was saying the ransom he came to pay for us rebels who were lost and estranged from the Father had been paid in full! This means there is NOTHING we can (or need to) add to what he has already done for our salvation! Jesus paid it ALL!
Last May, I traveled to Parkeside Church for their 2017 Basics Conference for pastors. For two and half days we feasted on Scripture as we heard sermons by Alistair Begg, Al Mohler and Sinclair Ferguson. Below is a quote by Ferguson on this concept of our getting right with God through faith alone:
"Remember that you are not saved by increased levels of holiness, however desirable it is that you should reach them. ...It is Christ who saves us-through faith. Your faith is a poor and crumbling thing, as is your spiritual service. Jesus Christ alone is qualified and able to save you because of what He has done."
If you have any questions about whether or not you are right with God ... please take a moment to view, Two Ways to Live: The Choice We All Face.
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