Life is a Temporary Assignment!

For we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow. Job 8:9

Dear old Job, he had a gloomy outlook didn’t he? What about Solomon? Read his book lately…. “What is the profit to a man in all his labor which he labors under the sun? 

A generation passes away, and a generation comes; but the earth remains forever. Ecclesiastes 1:3-4

King David had his melancholic moments as well… “Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” Psalm 39:4

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4.18

 

Most of us forget the truth of these verses, and live as if this motley life is the whole deal! We make our decisions based upon events as we see them, as if there are no eternal consequences to what we decide. There is a poster that reads “Life is a test. It is only a test. Had this been a real life you would have been instructed where to go and what to do.”

Whoever penned those words must have been experiencing a “bad hair day” and had obviously never read our Master’s words giving clear instructions about living this game we call life.

And answering, he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Jesus said that this statement contained the two “commandments” upon which all of the Law and every inspired word of the Prophets were built upon. Without agapaō (social or moral) love, everything else was worthless. We could do all the good works in the world, but if we are motivated by anything other than love of humanity, then we are wasting our time.  

Millions of people live as if life was some kind test, living each significant moment as if it resulted in rewards being gained or lost. While a casual reading of scripture will support that view, life is much more. Our earthly existence is more than simply a time of testing or a period of stewardship. It is part of an eternal time line and a season during which we can grow in our love and fellowship with our Lord and Savior.

Countless others live as if they must experience every sensation and thrill, cramming them all into 70 or 80 short years, before they expire and join their equally disillusioned friends in the cemetery.        

                           

It's only when they pass through death’s portal that they discover the truth. Death is not leaving home; it’s going home!

Our life is a (very) brief period in our (future) everlasting existence when we begin a glorious “forever” of enjoying fellowship with the Creator of the universe and a time during which we are also uniquely privileged to proclaim and exhibit His grace and glory to the world. 

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age-- and Sarah herself was barren-- was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.  All these people were still living by faith when they died.

They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11: 11-16