Our Days Are Numbered

 It does not give me any great pleasure to write this, but it is true nevertheless, we all have an expiration date. Our days were numbered from before we were born. I am pleased to shepherd three people in our flock who are still active in their 90's. Each still lives independently. They are all here most Sundays. One still worked until about a year ago. One lady still mows her own yard of over two acres. The third just recently stepped down from teaching a Bible study class. I have heard of a 93 year old preacher who drives 35 minutes each Sunday to preach to a small flock. Those are all pretty amazing feats to me. As beloved as those people are to those around them, they would be the first to admit that they will not live forever. 

I know of an 81 year old lady who is passionate about missions, and labors to serve food to high school students for lunch weekly. She is flanked by other senior citizens doing  their part to express the love of the Lord to teenagers. They cut, chop, mix, cook, and dish out delicious students for free each Tuesday morning. They inspire me to do more and not less. They do not use their age as an excuse. Yesterday I saw multiple senior adult men constructing a fence around our playground. Some are in their mid 70's. Some of those men serve on disaster relief teams on chainsaw crews when natural disasters strike. They are an inspiring bunch. The fact remains each of them have numbered days remaining like the rest of us. 

We can bemoan the fact that we will not live forever on this planet. We do not get to choose the way we leave this earth. Like the 90 year old people in our church, I would prefer to live independently in relatively good health able to serve the Lord until my last day on this planet. I think most of us would. The reality is some people require care in the twilight of life. Some have to live with family members, others must have home health care, and sadly some are forced to go into a care facility to live out the last chapters of their life. 

Such was the case for my friend brother Bob Harper. He was a preacher I served with when I was still i youth ministry. He outlived one of his sons and his beloved wife Patsy. Each time I would go visit him, we talked about books we loved to read and things of the Lord. He never failed to tell me when I left, "If I don't see you again down here, I will see you up there in heaven." He told me that for several years. Then his health began to fail. He was in and out of the hospital and rehab facilities. It became apparent the end was near. He could no longer get up. The last few times I visited him he was incoherent. The last time I saw him he was curled up in the fetal position struggling to breathe. I knew he would not be around much longer. He died that night. He reached his last numbered day. I told him that day I was envious he was getting to heaven before me. 

People do not like to think about or talk about death. They avoid it. Many do not even like to use the word death. It is just as much a part of life as a new baby being born. Ecclesiastes 3:2 states that there is a time to give birth and there is a time to die. Ps 90:12 exhorts us to be taught to number our days that we present to God a heart of wisdom. Nobody lives forever on this planet. The oldest person alive today is a woman who is 113. One day she will reach her allotted number of days from God and die. 

We can focus on the morbid thought of death. I only mention it for two reasons. People must be warned that after death they will face the judgment of God according to Heb 9:27. Those who have trusted Jesus for salvation, and received forgiveness from their sins through His shed blood on the cross, will graduate to eternal life. Those who stubbornly rejected the grace and love of God will  receive eternal damnation. I write in hopes that maybe one person might read this, and turn from their sin to Jesus for salvation before it is too late. 

The second reason I write this is not to focus on dying, but to focus on living while we still have life. No matter our age, we can still live and make the most of the days we have left. We can still learn. We can still worship God and seek Him. No matter how limited our bodies become, our soul can still soar to new heights in our relationship with God. We can still pray believing God to move mountains. We can still talk about Jesus to others. There is so much we can do. Let us live out our days like Jonathan Edwards did when he wrote his 70 resolutions. One of them simply stated, "I resolve to live with all my might while I live." Even though our days are numbered, may we live each remaining day with all our might. 

Wrestling with the Word of God

 Have you ever wrestled with the word of God? You read Bible truth, but your experience and your prayers  resulted in a different reality. You wrestled with God over His word. What He promised He would do it appeared He did not do. You did mental gymnastics trying to  reason your way through the discrepancy of your experience and God's truth. Does God keep His word? Is He a promise keeper or a promise breaker you may have wondered? These are legitimate questions. 

Is there one single verse in the Bible that is not true? Can people really stand on God's word and His assurances to us? Have you ever wrestled with the word of God?

You may read verses like Matt 7:7-8. You may have asked, sought, and knocked, but you did not receive, you did not find, and the door was not opened for you. Maybe you  read and prayed Mark 11:23-24, but your mountain did not move. You might have read Jn 14:14 and asked in Jesus name, but you did not receive what you asked for? There are multiple other verses that could be cited and the out comes be the same. What is the answer? Is it some preacher double talk making excuses for God's failures? Is there some other insight that has not been considered?

Walk with God long enough and you will come upon an experience when it appears God did not keep His word. What do you do then? John the Baptist faced such a moment. He doubted Jesus was the Messiah. He sent people to get an answer to his question. Jesus answered in a mysterious way that the blind received their sight, the lame walked, but blessed are those who did not stumble on account of Him. To put that another way, Jesus responded by saying blessed is the person who does not understand Him, but trusts and follows Him anyway. 

There is a tiny part of many Christians who read God's word and apply it in prayer while thinking they know the best way for God to answer. They figure out in their minds the way they think God ought to work to give them the desired result. Be very careful and repentant if such thinking enters your mind. You are in essence saying, "God I know how to run the affairs of my life better than you do." That is blasphemous. Sovereign God knows what He is doing. There will be many times when it appears He failed and let His people down. Trust Him anyway. 

I cite two old testament and one new testament example. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and eventually put in prison for a false accusation by a lustful woman, whom Joseph rejected her sexual advances. Sitting in prison recalling his freedom, it must have felt like God failed him. Fast forward. In one day God promoted Joseph from prison to the palace second in command over the land. God did that to preserve His covenant people Israel from perishing in a drought. That would not have happened if Joseph did not get sold into slavery. 

After Joseph died and Pharaoh died, another ruler reigned in Egypt. When he saw the swelling population of Israel he feared. The people of Israel became slaves. Generation after generation begged God for deliverance but still died slaves. Did they feel God let them down? Eventually God raised Moses to deliver them from their bondage. It seemed like God was not keeping His word to Abraham about making him the father of a great nation. In reality, God kept His word. During the slavery years, the Israelites multiplied into millions of people. It was then that God brought them out slavery in miraculous fashion as a whole nation of people. God did just what He promised Abraham He would do. 

In Acts 8, after Stephen was stoned to death, persecution hit the church. This caused Christians to scatter to the surrounding regions outside of Jerusalem. Saul was arresting Christian men and women and hauling them to prison. It did not appear that what God promised in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8 were true. The reality was God scattered His people so the gospel could be taken to Judea, Samaria, and the far parts of the world. God kept His word after all. 

You may wrestle with God's word compared to your experience. You only see in part while God always sees the whole picture. He knows what He is doing, and therefore can be trusted. In your wrestling with the word of God, put this in the back of your mind. You only see part of the puzzle with several key pieces missing. You cannot make out the whole picture from your vantage point. God holds those missing pieces and knows WHERE and WHEN to place them in the puzzle so that it makes sense and it glorifies Him. Don't judge God too hastily or harshly. You just have not seen the full picture yet. Give God time and watch what He does. He will always vindicate His faithfulness when given time.