Life is Brief

It is estimated about 107 people die each minute in the world. That’s over 154,000 people every single day.1 One of these days, it will be you. In the blink of an eye, you will join the billions of souls that have lived out their life and come to the end of the road. That’s it. Death is final. Period. There’s no coming back from it. You are on a fast one-way street, never to pass this way again. In less than 100 years it will all be over; you will likely be long gone and scarcely remembered. Are you spending your journey wisely? Are you on the right road? What is your life’s ambition? What is the real purpose of your life?

Pleasures

You say your goal in life is PLEASURES, to “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” You aim to enjoy all you can, to eat all you can, drink all you can, shoot all the drugs you can, have all the sex you can, and laugh all you can. But look down the road a ways. Will your life’s ambition hold in the wheel chair? No. Burn out is sure. You’ve spent your youth and energies. Your toes have curled, your teeth have rotted, your skin has wrinkled, and your lusts have withered like your body. What are left but a few fading, empty memories whispering, “what was the use?” The tombstone will be your stop sign and the judgement of God will display all you have done in your body like an open closet door for all the world to see. God says, “It is appointed for men to die, and after this comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

Possessions

You say your goal in life is POSSESSIONS, to get all you can, to live for loads of cash and cars and clothes. But I invite you to show me the house that hasn’t rotted, the car that hasn’t rusted, the clothes that haven’t worn out or haven’t been eaten by moths. Many are the old folks whose estates have been reduced to but a few sticks of furniture in a nursing home. Howard Hughes, once one of the wealthiest men in the world, came to the end of his career holed up in a hotel room, collecting his urine, eating only ice cream, with fingernails like bird’s claws. What can mere things do for you when gaping for your last breath? The grave will even strip you of your precious wife and children.

Popularity

Is your goal POPULARITY, fame, reputation, being the big shot? This boastful ugly show of self-life will see the curtains too. Again, take a tour of the cemetery. Where are the successful? Gone. Someone else quickly took their place, and their accomplishments are a distant memory. Truly, as someone said, “Death will always be the one signal failure of man.” Furthermore, in two or three generations your name will be lost forever from the faceless, forgotten, multitudes who have gone before. To what purpose, ultimately, is your supposed, “influence for good” on mankind, when mankind itself will soon wink out of existence? God will surely close the world history book and burn the list of “Who’s Who” at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory.

The One Valid Goal

Listen, there is only ONE VALID GOAL in life – to live for God and love Him supremely. Isn’t He worthy of the glory? God made us for Himself, not for ourself. A life spent for Him and with Him is fulfillment at its best, yielding righteousness, peace and joy unspeakable. Your plans, ambition and wishes are hollow empty idols; throw them in the trash can. Take your splendid sins and ambitions and cast them by faith on the mighty Savior, trusting that He died to pay your sin-debt. You may be freely, fully, forgiven forever! Get a Bible. Saturate your mind with it and find it to be a manifesto of the mind of God, an operator’s manual for your soul, a blue print for building character, a rule book for the race of life, a road map to heaven. Invest everything in God Himself. He alone has eternal life and those in union with Him through Jesus Christ will rise in the last day with a brand new body and live forever. Will you repent and believe, or will you press on and perish?

What Does God Say?

“All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh (pleasures) the lust of the eyes (possessions) and the boastful pride of life (popularity) is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:16, 17). Make the will of God your career and ambition in life. Who are those who enter heaven at last? Those who trust in Jesus alone and do the will of God (Matthew 7:21).

Bob Jennings

Hwy M Chapel