Tuesday, September 7, 2021
All of Our Lives Will
Eventually, Inevitably
‘Go Up In Smoke!’
So What Are You Going To Do and Be
Until That Day?
Deuteronomy 2:7
Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.
Matthew 16:18
I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Words of Grace For Today
Life is fragile, so eat dessert first.
The value reflected in this humour is that pleasure is all life has to offer, and life is going to end at any time, unpredictably, so grab all the pleasure you can while you still can.
God acts to free God’s people from slavery in Egypt, delivering them to 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Wilderness is not plentiful with the necessities of life, and even here God has been with the people, walking with them, and providing all the people need. They have lacked nothing.
God sends Jesus to be a living human, in the most understandable language for us humans. Jesus story is to teach and guide us to live lives worthy of God’s blessing given to us. Even as Jesus offers himself (in order to demonstrate God’s power in weakness, in forgiveness {not vengeance}, and God’s enduring unconditional love that graciously forgives us all our sins), and will no longer be present to the disciples as he has been, Jesus does not desert the disciples. He provides the Holy Spirit to guide them, and takes their ‘rock’, Peter (the one so zealous yet foolish and full of faults), and builds on that a church that will last and not succumb even to the power of the Devil.
How do we respond?
The popular concept that comes the closest to simply explain our appropriate response is ‘pay it forward.’ That is, give to others what God has given to us, namely abundant life (through gracious forgiveness and the renewal of life).
Pay it forward.
A concept that is easy to understand, and very exactly when we try to exercise it fully … since God has given us so, so, so much!
God’s value for our lives would have the humorous saying go like this:
Life is fragile, so give it to others while you still can.