How short is life?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04000640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><B>Church of God, In Truth</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>    |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church of God, In Truth"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> back to<B>  </B><A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Edification Articles"><B>Edification Articles</B></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="am_i_going_to_heaven.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Am I going to Heaven?">Am I going to Heaven?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="why_does_the_earth_have_a_mo.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Why does the Earth have a Moon?">Why does the Earth have a Moon?</A></div> <div> <A 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HREF="id336.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Righteous Judgment">Righteous Judgment</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id337.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The physical and spiritual blessings of ">The physical and spiritual blessings of submission</A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>HOW SHORT IS LIFE?</B></I></div> <bR> <div> "Go to now, you that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away. For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now you rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin"  (James 4:13-17). </div> <bR> <div>      Once in a while, each of us needs to sit back and look at our life in its entirety. How long and how short is life? What is it like? What is it for? Every now and then, we wrestle and ask ourselves one of the fundamental issues of our existence.</div> <div>      Have you ever heard the expression, "Life's too short for that"! Too short a time to be wasted the way so many of us do? People are born on this planet by the millions and by the millions they die. People come. People go! A few die before they are born. Many die by the time they are born. Death comes to us in his own mysterious ways. Some have nothing to eat while others reluctantly or even refuse to leave their love ones in the midst of plenty. To some death is slow in coming but it will arrive soon. And sooner than we think, most often at a time least expected. In this world, death becomes an ordinary occurrence everywhere, everyday.</div> <div> Remember the parable of the rich fool who expected to live for many years. He thought that he could retire and live in abundance taking it all easy. He died on the very day of his boast of a lifetime of plenty. "And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said. This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul thou has much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said unto him. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" (Luke 12:16-20). </div> <div>      When we think of the certainty of death to happen upon all men we can safely deduce that God never intended man to live permanently in the flesh. "It is appointed unto men once to die" said Paul in Hebrews 9:27, "and after that the judgment." So it would seem that man cannot get from here to there without dying in the process. Clearly, though we maybe in the flesh for the moment and knowing that flesh are never meant to last we can see that in the over-all plan of God, He intends that man, somewhere, sometime becomes permanent.</div> <div>       "Yes, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord" (2 Peter 1:13-14). </div> <div>      The word tabernacle in both the Old and New Testament simply means a temporary dwelling place - usually a tent designed for temporary shelter from the elements and intended for a short stay. Israel in the Old Testament was commanded to keep the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to remind them that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Apostle Peter showed us that by putting off his tabernacle like one taking off his garment or folding up a tent and putting it away. The human body, then, in a manner of speaking is like a tabernacle - a temporary shelter in which we live for a short time. </div> <div> Man is nothing! He was created out of the dust of the ground. The only value inherent in him while alive - and a priceless possession at that is his breath of life. Apart from the breath of life, man is a dead soul. Worthless, amounting to nothing "And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). </div> <div>      The first two humans created by God in His own image were warned of the certainty of death should they eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree. But Satan is tricky,  he cast doubts on their minds and introduced the first temptation of a lifetime. "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die"(Genesis 3:1-3).  From that day on, by their disobedience sin entered into the hearts of all men and death became an appointment which we all must keep"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). </div> <div>      Some people lose the battle for life by cooperating with the enemy. Today, many road accidents are alcohol and drug related incidents. Out there in the streets, a good number drive their cars with so much liquor in their heads. Others can hardly wait for death to come. They engaged themselves on hazardous habits like smoking and excessive drinking which would surely hasten their early departure. Incidentally, some people live to a ripe old age but it really amounts to nothing compared to the length of eternity.</div> <div>  Many loss of lives are  primarily the product of domestic violence and crimes. TV networks and major newspapers and tabloids around the world report of terrible plane crushes here and there, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, landslides and other natural calamities wherein people die. Hardly a day goes by especially in large urban centers but that our daily news is filled with the gruesome details of murders, suicides or kidnap for ransom victims and other heinous crimes that only sick and unstable minds of drug-crazed persons could perpetuate. And worst, every day, somewhere, the enemy also claims many more lives by the thousands through the insanity of war.         </div> <div> Death is certain. We all know that and we accept it as a normal course of life. For a little while, we just want to put it off for as long as we can. "Man that is born of woman," said Job: "is few of days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow; and continueth not"(Job 14:1-2).</div> <div>      Adam was the first person to die a natural death at the age of 930 years (Genesis 5:5 while Abel was the first murdered person to die at the hand of another (Geneses 4:8).  The longest man to ever live chiseled on the epitaph of biblical gravestones is Methuselah, son of Enoch, the man whom God did not mince in telling us to have walked with Him. Surprisingly, Enoch live only to about 365 years, too young for his age compared to the patriarchs of his time whose lifespan registered close to a thousand. </div> <div> "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night" (Psalm 90:1-4).  A watch in the night is four hours. To a military man, a four hour watch in enemy territory would seem like a long, long time. But for God a thousand years is like a watch in the night. </div> <div>       "Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep; in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth"(Psalm 90:5-6).  </div> <div>      In the natural scheme of things it would seem we are but a piece of grass, coming up in the morning, grow and flourish throughout the day. When the mower comes along and cut us off - before long we are lost even from the memory of men. How time flies, we often say. True, because we hardly take notice of the passing of time like a man sound asleep. He doesn't care what is happening around him.</div> <div>      "For we are consumed by thine anger," the Psalmist continued: "and by thy wrath we are troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath; we spend our years like a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten"(Psalm 90:7-10). God is so angry with us. Our continued display of arrogance to the point of ignoring His commandments has separated us from Him. While He decreed that the average amount of time man must live is three score years and ten and notwithstanding of the advancement in sciences and technology coupled with the inventions of modern facilities and medicines in hospitals still the average life span of man remains almost the same. </div> <div>      Our life is very short. Just like a weed that grows in the morning and wilts in the evening. But life - no matter how short it might be is also beautiful especially </div> <bR> <div> so if we have found the true meaning behind our temporary existence. The world at large may have no inkling idea of the awesome majestic plan God had set in motion since the foundation of the world but when their eyes will one day be opened to these staggering reality then they will love God the more and willingly submit to His divine authority knowing that death is meant for a higher purpose the reason of  which even transcends the immense capacities of the human mind. </div> <div> Rejoice and be glad! The spell of death has been broken! The empty borrowed tomb where Christ was laid on that fateful closing hours of the 14th of Abib established the fact that Christ rose from the dead and His resurrection three days after proved that truly there is life beyond the grave. His sufferings and death on the cross far worse than any man had ever experienced amply demonstrated His immeasurable love towards us. Whenever we meet trials and sufferings we can keep in mind that God love us beyond measure, and that he is filled with compassion, forever merciful and forgiving. </div> <div> Henceforth, we must come into terms that God has a hand in all of our everyday undertakings. It is God who decides how long we live. Simply put, we are living on "borrowed time." Make the most out of it! Live attuned to the will of God and "keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man". As the saying goes, "No one is fit to live until he is prepared to die" For it is in dying when the last enemy will finally be destroyed and gone forever. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"(1 Cor 15:26).</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Romeo Samudio</div> </td> </tr></table></body>