Tag: passing away

How are you living?

 

Mat 24:6-7  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Mat 24:8  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Mat 24:37  For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Mat 24:38  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,

Mat 24:39  and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Mat 24:10  And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

Mat 24:12  And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Mat 24:32  “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

Mat 24:33  So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

Mat 24:36  “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Mat 24:37  For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Mat 24:38  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,

Mat 24:39  and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Amos 6:3-6   O you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence?  “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall,  who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,   who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

 Luke 12:19    And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’

 Luke 14:18   But they all alike began to make excuses.

 Luke 17:26-28    Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.  They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.  Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,

2Ti 3:1-5  But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

 Luke 21:34   “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.

 Romans 13:14  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

 1 Corinthians 7:29    This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short.

31  and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

Mat 24:42  Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

 Mat 24:44  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

 Mat 24:46  Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

The world  will be found in the same condition that it was in the day of the flood. When the flood came, men were found “eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage,” absorbed in their worldly pursuits, and utterly regardless of Noah’s repeated warnings. They saw no likelihood of a flood. They would not believe there was any danger. But at last the flood came suddenly and “took them all away.” All that were not with Noah in the ark were drowned. They were all swept away to their last account, unpardoned, unconverted, and unprepared to meet God. And our Lord says, “so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Ryle)

The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. His return could be today. Are you looking for it? Are you living like He is coming within the next hour? Or, are you just living each day as if tomorrow will be the same as today, buying, selling, eating, working, etc…?

What is the application of these verses to our lives today? Surely we eat, sleep, work, buy, and sell as normal living requires. Imagine knowing the exact year, month, day, and time of the return of Jesus. Would you live differently than you are now? Would you stop neglecting the Word of God? Would you be less complacent in holy living? Would you think about what it means to live so that all of your thoughts, words, and actions honor and glorify Jesus Christ? Would you think different thoughts, speak different words, and would your actions be different? As the day approaches would you eagerly be telling others about its coming? Would you be giving less and less thought to worldly and fleshly desires? Would you be more kind, generous, loving, patient, humble, honorable, thankful, joyful with anticipation, rejoicing, praising, longing, and all in preparation for the return of Jesus your redeemer and savior?  

If any answer to these questions is yes, are we living awake? 

Think about how much of our time is consumed by cell phones, texting, Instagram, Twitter, Google, FaceBook, Rumble, ESPN, CNN, CMBC, etc…., not to mention what we consider leisure time. How much of this time is conducted with the ever-present thought that Jesus’s return could be within the next second?  

It is so easy to be consumed with the busyness of living and the worries of today that the eyes of our hearts and minds are blind to living and eagerly watching and waiting for the return of Jesus. 

Will He find you watching and living in such a way that reveals this anchored in your heart and mind?

Oh, that the Holy Spirit’s leading would be desired and listened to in our lives and guide us in how to live so that Jesus Christ is honored and glorified in all of our thoughts, words, and actions should Jesus’s return be within the next second or 100 years. There should be no difference.

He who has an ear, let him hear?

27.c. “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance”

 

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 1 Corinthians 6:11    And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 2 Timothy 4:10    For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

 James 4:4     You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

 1 John 2:15-17    Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

 Isaiah 30:1    “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

 1 John 5:4   For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

 1 Peter 1:14   As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

 John 8:44   You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

 1 John 5:19   We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

 1 John 3:10    By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil

Though, as Christians, we are now alive, we must never forget where we came from. We were dead in trespasses and sins. There are many kinds of life: vegetable life, animal life, mental life, moral life, and spiritual life. A being might be alive in one sense but dead in another. To be spiritually dead does not mean that we are physically dead, socially dead, or psychologically dead. Yet it is a real death, a “dead death” nonetheless. “The most vital part of man’s personality – the spirit – is dead to the most important factor in life – God.” (Wood) “Not in a moral sense, nor a mental sense, but in a spiritual sense, poor humanity is dead, and so the word of God, again and again, most positively describes it.” (Spurgeon) We err if we think that dead in trespasses and sins says everything about man’s lost condition. It is an err because the Bible uses many different pictures to describe the state of the unsaved man, saying he is: Blind,  A slave to sin, A lover of darkness, Sick, Lost, An alien, A stranger, A foreigner, A child of wrath, and Under the power of darkness.

Every single person was born out of and into sin. All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. Everyone ever born has been born into sin.  Through birth, we have were born into death and destruction and if God’s righteousness was a line we not only have crossed it, but we continually challenge its boundaries. We are born on the other side of God’s perfect, holy, and righteous standards through our sinful birth. We lived in sin, we embraced it and did not even give it a second thought.  We followed after the course of this world and the prince of lies, Satan.  We followed after it and sought it and its pleasures, wants, and desires. Granted we were born into sin, inherited from Adam, but Satan adds to this sinful nature the temptations and influences through deception and lies to do even more ungodliness. He influences and convinces us that pride, self-worth, self-centeredness, self-reliance, lust, worldly satisfaction, worldly pleasures, and immoral things are not only right but through them, we will gain purpose and meaning in life.  Such is the life of the “dead in their sin” mankind. Those born again must never forget where they came from. Those who are made alive must remember that we were very comfortable in this old life just as a dead person would be comfortable in a coffin. We are alive in Christ and there ought to be a strong urge to escape the confines of the coffin and leave it behind. We used to respond to Satan’s temptations, influence, and guidance.  We ought to be growing and maturing in things of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.  We ought to be able to discern the things of God and the lies of Satan.

One of Satan’s lies is that he would have us believe that all are children of God, hell is only reserved for really bad people, and as children of God, all good people go to heaven, confusing what it means to be a child of God.  In one sense we are, He is our common creator.  Satan will throw clouds of doubt over the need to be born again, the need for Jesus Christ, the coming judgment, heaven, and hell.  There ought to be a big difference, a change, a new way of thinking, living, and doing when we are born again.  The problem is we are continually tempted to choose the worldly and fleshly over the things of God.  We choose to seek what the world has to offer more than desiring to honor and glorify Jesus Christ. 

Another of his lies is that there is no God and all there is to life is what we take from it. We live, we die, the end. Believing in either one of these lies has eternal consequences, eternal hell.  We are to remember this is not only how we once lived, but this is what we have been saved from through the grace and mercy of God.  What manner of person ought we to be in light of this?

20.w. “Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!”

 

 

 

Romans 12:2   Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

J.B. Phillips translates this vs, Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the Plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

 Leviticus 18:30    So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”

 1 John 5:19     We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

 1 John 4:4-5   Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

 1 Corinthians 3:19    For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”

 1 John 2:15-17    Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

 Ezekiel 18:31    Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!

 Ephesians 4:22-24   to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,  and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,  and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

 Colossians 3:10   and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

 Psalms 34:8   Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

God’s word warns us that the “world system” – the popular culture and manner of thinking that is in rebellion against God – will try to conform us to its ungodly pattern, and that process must be resisted. The battleground between conforming to the world and being transformed is within the mind of the believer. Christians must think differently.  “I don’t want to be conformed to this world. I want to be transformed. How do I do it?” By the renewing of your mind. The problem with many Christians is they live life based on feelings, worthy are only concerned about doing. The life based on feeling says, “How do I feel today? How do I feel about my job? How do I feel about my wife? How do I feel about worship? How do I feel about the preacher?” This life by feeling will never know the transforming power of God, because it ignores the renewing of the mind.  The life based on doing says, “Don’t give me your theology. Just tell me what to do. Give me the four points for this and the seven keys for that.” This life of doing will never know the transforming power of God, because it ignores the renewing of the mind.  God is never against the principles of feeling and doing. He is a God of powerful and passionate feeling and He commands us to be doers. Yet feelings and doing are completely insufficient foundations for the Christian life. The first questions cannot be “How do I feel?” or “What do I do?” Rather, they must be “What is true here? What does God’s Word say?” “How do I apply this or how does it apply to my life.” “What is in my heart and mind?” “How do I discern the intents and purposes of my actions?” “What things in this world are contrary to things of God?”

God’s Word must be more than do’s and do not’s.  This would never transform a person from the inside.  Meditation on God’s Word, however, will transform us.  The problem is that we too often fall into the trap of only listening to what others have meditated on.  We listen to our pastors on Sunday. We listen to radio preachers throughout the week.  We may form opinions based on what they have said.  We may even try to remember the three or four points they tell us are important.  When is the last time we spent in God’s Word, asked God to give us wisdom and understanding, and meditated upon it?  I must admit, very seldom, when our pastor is preaching, am I fully listening.  I read the passage from which he is preaching. I cross-reference to other verses.  I think about what God is revealing to me and then I give thought to this throughout the day.  Some thoughts will stay throughout the week with me while I think about it and try to make sense of it.  At the end of the day we are renewed and transformed in how we think, act, and do, by our thoughts and meditation on God’s Word.  It is a shallow commitment to God when we spend no time meditating on His Word.  

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits

“man breathes his last, and where is he?”

Psalms 103:15  As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.

Psalms 90:5-6     You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:  in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

Isaiah 40:6-8     A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

James 1:10-11    and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.  For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Job 14:1-3     “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.  He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.

Job 20:9     The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.

1 Timothy 6:17     As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

1 John 2:17     And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

James 4:14     yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

What do we strive for?  What is it that we are trying to obtain?  What is our end game?  I imagine: some sort of recognition, enough money to live without worry, health, sound mind, known for some skill or accomplishment, beauty, know for something tangible that we own, know for something we have written or said…etc.  When you think about this and the scripture above, how important is it really?  All of the time we spend alive in this body is but a flower that blooms and then is gone.  We have little wisdom understanding eternity (time without end) and this side of eternity (time with end).  Do you think it is possible that our end game is only focused on this side of eternity?  What should our end game focus be: honoring, glorifying, serving, following, obeying, proclaiming, believing, trusting, relying on, clinging to, loving, praising, worshiping, listening to, and meditating on, God.     Our endgame should include wanting others to pass from death to life rather than death to judgement and damnation.  Jesus Christ is our savior, redeemer, and is coming again to gather His own into forever presence with Him.  I love the hymn that has a verse: Turn your eyes to Jesus, look full into His wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

Chasing after wind

“and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

“yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.“

Psalms 39:6  Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

Ecclesiastes 1:14   I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:17  So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.  I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me,

Ecclesiastes 2:20  So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,  because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Ecclesiastes 6:11  The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?  For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 12:13   The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Isaiah 55:2   Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Luke 12:20  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

1 Peter 5:6”Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

What are you doing with your life?  Where are your priorities?  Are they on things above or on things of this world?  It is hard to say isn’t it.  We know we are not to be foolish and we need to plan but in the end I think we get lost in the plan.  The goal seems to consume our focus and we loose sight of God and our purpose here on earth.  Keeping all of this in balance requires a commitment, choice, and desire to humbly serve honor and obey God in all that we say, think and do.  One thing is for certain – we need to stay in His word routinely and with purpose.  Chasing after wind seems foolish and who at the end of their life would want to look back and see this is all that had been accomplished. However, seeking God and His purpose has wisdom and eternal  reward.  Choose that which is eternal.