Article: Your life on this earth is short, but your life in Christ is eternal | Jacob Varghese

James 4:14 says “You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? You are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away”
Billy Graham once told in his Sermon like this “If someone had told me when I was 20 years old that life is very short and would pass just like that I would not have believed it and if I tell you today that you don’t believe it either. I cannot get young people to understand how brief life is and how quickly it passes.” Living knowing that our life is a vapor is different than just living. Things here are passing away. You have got to hold on to what will stand and taste what matters. What is our life? It is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. What a thing it is when you think that you have just one short life to spend and it will soon be over. We need to write down our priorities in life and get committed to certain priorities in our life. Now is the accepted time for the things we ought to do. Remember what it says in Hebrews 3:15 “Today when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did it in the rebellion.” There may not be a tomorrow for you and for me. Time is running out for all of us, time is too short. Do not halt between two opinions. Life is Short but Eternity is Long. Live like that you will exist forever. You and God are both in the universe to stay—either as friends on His terms or enemies on yours- which will be proven in this life. And this life is a vapor for a few seconds and we will be gone.

Time is precious and we are fragile, so every minute counts. Be a faithful steward of the breath God has given us. We need to redeem the time and it is required of us to be stewards that every one of us is found trustworthy”. Ephesians 5:16 says “make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” 1 Corinthians 4:2 says “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 says “But by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” Paul said, “In the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain” Philippians 2:16 says “as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain”. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

God did not want people to give up, accept defeat, live with regret, or waste time pursuing things that have no eternal value. But God wanted people to embrace the opportunity to change, develop, evolve, improve, and receive more and more of the goodness, the abundance, the favor, the life, the peace, the joy, the fulfillment, the success, and the blessings that He has to offer. So, God made eternal life possible. Eternal life comes as a result of God’s grace. It is His gift, unearned and undeserved on humanity’s part, freely imparted to man. And the fact is, being saved means exchanging your finite, limited, constrained, flawed, and terminal existence for the eternal life that God has in store for you. In the gospel according to Luke verse 18, Jesus’ very first message that launched His public ministry was delivered at a synagogue in Galilee, in the town of Nazareth where he had grown up as a boy. He started by reading from the prophet Isaiah chapter 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come”. And then, after reading this quote Jesus said, “The Scripture you have just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Yes, Life is short. Life is hard. You will face challenges, obstacles, hard times and opposition. The enemy will seek to stop you in your tracks and turn you back from discovering everything that God is offering you. The powers of darkness, disease, and death will seek to convince you that there is nothing more than that here right now and it is rapidly coming to a close because they have already won the battle and the field is theirs. It can be easy to listen to the many prophets of doom, disaster, fear, and violence and think that hope, faith, love, and truth are in retreat or are nowhere to be found. And yet, God is speaking into your life right now telling you that the time of the Lord’s favor has come. Yes, the time of God’s favor has come. Life is too short to be depressed, hopeless, defeated, and confused. God designed you with a purpose. God commissioned you specifically to bring value into this world. God planned you individually to make a difference right where you are, when you are, and how you are because of who you are and what you are. You are a child of God. You are the chosen. You are the blessed, the empowered, the inspired, and the strong. You are the enabled, the prepared, the equipped, and the connected. God wants you to realize that the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because God has anointed you to bring Good News to the poor. God has sent you to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of God’s favor has come. This is the truth. This is the fact. This is reality. You may deny it, you may reject it, you may ignore it but you cannot change the truth, the fact and the reality. You were born on earth for a purpose and you have a mission and calling that no other person living now can accomplish. Don’t wait any longer. It’s time to start investing for eternal returns. It is time to start receiving an eternal life. It is time to start experiencing eternal blessings. It is time to start living in the eternal favor of God. Life is short but you prepare yourself to enjoy it eternally!

Jesus came to give His followers an abundant life, full of purpose, potential and joy. But Christian living has challenges. How do we live the life Jesus wants? The Christian way of life is the best way of life possible! Jesus said He came so His followers “may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” John 10:10 says “ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” God’s way of living has great benefits for this life and offers “pleasures forevermore”. 1Timothy 4:8 says “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Psalm 16:11 says “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” That doesn’t mean that Christian living is easy. The challenges and difficulties of this way of life are designed to help us grow to have Jesus Christ’s mind and the character of God. We are to learn to think and act like God because He wants us to be His children forever! God gave us the Bible to teach us the best way to live and to give us examples of others to learn from.

Fools say the time is long. The Bible says redeem the time because the days are evil and the days in which we are living are very evil. If there was ever a time for the gospel that can transform the human heart, it is now. Jesus said in John 9:4 “as long it is day, we must do the work of him that sent us, the night is coming when no man can work.” The night is going to come in our life. Yet there was calmness about the work of the Lord Jesus. It is the quality of life, not the length. Jesus only had 33 years and it ended on the cross. To the world he was a failure yet that moment, yet at the end of his life, Jesus said I finished the work that you gave me to do. In John17:4 we see Jesus said “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do”

Let me conclude with a story I read. There was a foolish hunter who was wandering in the forest by the side of a river. He found some fine stones there on the side of the river. He picked it up but being unaware of their real value, he put then one after another in his sling and began to pelt them at the birds perched in the tree on the river bank. Thus, he threw them all except one in to the river, which he could never recover. Finally, the one which he had, he showed to a jeweller later as he was passing through the market of his city. When the jeweller saw it, he explained that the stone was a valuable diamond, for which he might get thousands of rupees. When the man heard this, he began to cry in sorrow and of his foolishness of not knowing the value of it. Not knowing the value of those stones, he pelted many diamonds into the river to scare the birds from off the tree; otherwise he might have become a rich guy. At least one has been preserved and that is something. So, every day of our life is like a precious diamond and though you might have lost many precious moments of your life, if you take advantage of what remains and make good use of that you may gain spiritual wealth. Many lose their eternal life and reward through carelessness by wasting the precious life given to serve the Lord. If you are one of such persons, even now it not too late, wake up and make good use of the remaining days of your life. Put Jesus first in your life. When you wake up in the morning put Him first, when you are tired by the end of the day put him first. When you have so much going on and it is so busy and there is so much to do put him first. The reality is that you can make it without the things that stressing you out, but you cannot make it without Jesus. You have got to put Jesus first. Yes, before your job, before your desires, before your dreams put Him first. Put Him first in your schedule; put him first in your finances. Yes, put Jesus first in your life. When we put Jesus first, He is able to do a sudden, radical and complete change in our life. Yes, when we put Jesus first, He is able to affect a fundamental change in our life. He is able to overthrow certain powers that rule the decisions in our way of thinking, in our direction. Spend time with God, put Him first in everything that you do and you know what some of the upside-down things in your life will turn right side up. Your life on this earth is short, but your life in Christ is eternal.
JACOB VARGHESE

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