Time
Time by Joe La Bianca
I saw an interview with a famous actor. He was afraid of wasting any time. He is 44 now. He sees his life moving toward its end, and it scares him. Time is all he has. After his life, according to his belief, there is nothing. Ingrid Bergman used to be like this. Toward the golden years of her life, she couldn’t waste any time. She would walk out on movies if they weren’t good. She couldn’t waste her time, just like this actor.
The belief that this life is all there is, with no after life, causes stress, anxiety, and fear in all those who believe it. Even people who believe in the after life, if they are not sure of their acceptance with God, are fearful. Some people block it out altogether.
I remember one time I saw a very old man in his car. As he made the turn he looked at me, gave a great big smile and waved. He had time to do all this because he was only driving three miles per hour. I said to myself, “how can he be so happy when he only has a few short years to live?” I concluded that he was either a true believer in Jesus who had the peace of Christ, or he was totally deceived.
How is it possible to believe in what comes after? Plenty of people believe in what came before. I mean prehistoric things. Lots of folks have no problem believing what they admit is before history. If it was before history, it was before our ability to know. But people still believe in prehistoric things without any real evidence. Why do you so easily believe in what came before, and have a hard time believing in what comes after?
Well, people, we are all dying and we must face up to it. Let me tell you the way to be happy now, and accepted later.
There is an inexhaustible supply of time called eternal life, which will cause you to realize that the best is yet to come. This will keep you from feeling that your time is fading away. Jesus said that if you believe He is the Resurrection, you will never die. Do you believe this? Do you want to believe in Jesus, but can’t? That’s good. Keep on that track and you will come to believe. Jesus will make sure.
If you like the idea of the Savior, if it sounds good to you that God has taken care of you in Christ, then that is half the battle. Ask Jesus to help your unbelief and He will. Believe me, there is proof that Jesus is Savior. You just haven’t seen it yet. The problem is that most people are not interested enough to look closely at Jesus. A lot of times people reject Jesus because of bad representations of Him by over-zealous or religious Christians. But when they finally come to seek the Lord, they are convinced of the Lord through real evidence. Put all the burden on Jesus, for He wants to bring you through this trying world. How do you do this? By letting Jesus be the Savior of your life. Many think they must make Jesus the Lord of their lives to make it to Heaven, but this is not true. We don’t make Jesus Lord. He already is Lord of all those in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth. We must make Jesus Savior, by believing in His mission. Then He will save us and bring us to Heaven.
His mission is well known but ill believed. He was sent from God to live the only good life, and then give that life as a ransom, to buy us back. We were captive to sin and Jesus paid the price to release us. It is required that we pay for sin with death, so Jesus died our death for us and the debt was canceled. After three days He rose from the dead. If you believe this story you have eternal life. If you reject it, then you had better live it up now, like that actor. Because when time is over, your sad eternity begins.
I saw an interview with a famous actor. He was afraid of wasting any time. He is 44 now. He sees his life moving toward its end, and it scares him. Time is all he has. After his life, according to his belief, there is nothing. Ingrid Bergman used to be like this. Toward the golden years of her life, she couldn’t waste any time. She would walk out on movies if they weren’t good. She couldn’t waste her time, just like this actor.
The belief that this life is all there is, with no after life, causes stress, anxiety, and fear in all those who believe it. Even people who believe in the after life, if they are not sure of their acceptance with God, are fearful. Some people block it out altogether.
I remember one time I saw a very old man in his car. As he made the turn he looked at me, gave a great big smile and waved. He had time to do all this because he was only driving three miles per hour. I said to myself, “how can he be so happy when he only has a few short years to live?” I concluded that he was either a true believer in Jesus who had the peace of Christ, or he was totally deceived.
How is it possible to believe in what comes after? Plenty of people believe in what came before. I mean prehistoric things. Lots of folks have no problem believing what they admit is before history. If it was before history, it was before our ability to know. But people still believe in prehistoric things without any real evidence. Why do you so easily believe in what came before, and have a hard time believing in what comes after?
Well, people, we are all dying and we must face up to it. Let me tell you the way to be happy now, and accepted later.
There is an inexhaustible supply of time called eternal life, which will cause you to realize that the best is yet to come. This will keep you from feeling that your time is fading away. Jesus said that if you believe He is the Resurrection, you will never die. Do you believe this? Do you want to believe in Jesus, but can’t? That’s good. Keep on that track and you will come to believe. Jesus will make sure.
If you like the idea of the Savior, if it sounds good to you that God has taken care of you in Christ, then that is half the battle. Ask Jesus to help your unbelief and He will. Believe me, there is proof that Jesus is Savior. You just haven’t seen it yet. The problem is that most people are not interested enough to look closely at Jesus. A lot of times people reject Jesus because of bad representations of Him by over-zealous or religious Christians. But when they finally come to seek the Lord, they are convinced of the Lord through real evidence. Put all the burden on Jesus, for He wants to bring you through this trying world. How do you do this? By letting Jesus be the Savior of your life. Many think they must make Jesus the Lord of their lives to make it to Heaven, but this is not true. We don’t make Jesus Lord. He already is Lord of all those in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth. We must make Jesus Savior, by believing in His mission. Then He will save us and bring us to Heaven.
His mission is well known but ill believed. He was sent from God to live the only good life, and then give that life as a ransom, to buy us back. We were captive to sin and Jesus paid the price to release us. It is required that we pay for sin with death, so Jesus died our death for us and the debt was canceled. After three days He rose from the dead. If you believe this story you have eternal life. If you reject it, then you had better live it up now, like that actor. Because when time is over, your sad eternity begins.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mark Steven Archambault on -
At forty six, I can say I have never worried about birthdays or other events that mark the passage of time. They do not make me regret lost time or oportunities. Even before knowing Jesus as Christ and Savior, I had an understanding that my day will have so many hours and I will have so many years and that is it. When I step outside this thinking into worry, life becomes unbalanced and God has a way of reordering things for me.
This past year I was blessed with not one, but two new jobs. I love them both. With a new blended family to boot, the extra income was a Godsend. By six months into it, I was burning out fast. The better paying of the two is very high stress and involves much travel. The other is as Pastor of Worship & Arts at a wonderful church here in Tucson AZ. My health began to fail under the stress ansd soon I was overly emotional, tired and begging God to help me cope with "success". I finally snapped in August. Now I am enjoying life, my congreagtion and my family. I am also rebuilding my health and trying to figure out how to make ends meet with a much reduced income.
In all and everything, praise God from whom all mercies flow,
Pastor Mark Archambault
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