Redeem your
time
........I’m about to phone a young girl who’s very ill
with a terminal disease. She wants to talk to me and I’m very honoured. As I
prepare my heart to speak to her, I’m thinking about life and death.
The Bible tells us that life is but a vapour, here
today, gone tomorrow. We tend to spend too much time preparing for this brief
life we live on earth and no time at all for eternal life. As I speak to this
young girl, obviously I’ll be believing for a miracle in her life, that God
will heal her.
But if God chooses to take her Home, then she needs to
be ready. I know she’ll have thought about this many times. When you aren’t
well you have lots of time to think about the ‘hereafter’.
But we all need to be thinking along the same lines.
We need to start counting the cost, and ask ourselves a serious question: where
are we putting our effort? Jesus says very clearly: “Where a man’s heart is,
that is where his treasure lies.” I challenge you to speak more about eternal
life and about our Heavenly Home. The Bible also tells us not to say that there
are four months and then the harvest, but that we must ‘lift up our eyes and
look at the fields which are white unto harvest.’ John 4:35. We need to
be more passionate in telling people about Jesus Christ. Unless someone is born
again, they’ll never see the Kingdom of God.
I had the privilege of conducting a funeral service a
short while ago in our church on the farm. I preached the gospel and gave
people the opportunity to get their lives right for eternal life. A week or two
later, I received a letter from a person who accused me of ‘hijacking’ the
service for my own benefit. My heart weeps for people who, like this soul, are
in fact searching for the truth. The crux of the matter is that the only way to
the Father and our eternal life is through Jesus John 14:6 You and I can
never convert a person, only the Holy Spirit can do that. However, we have to
preach the gospel and give them an opportunity to put their lives right because
life is so short. Redeem your time.
......................................................................................................................
When we change our priorities we’ll see life has a lot
more meaning and is alot more exciting. When I phone this young lady in a few
minutes, I’ll ask her about her relationship with Jesus and then I’ll pray for
her and encourage her with the scripture in Philippians 1:21: “For me to
live is Christ, but for me to die is but gain.” You cannot frighten a Christian
with heaven.
