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Living It Up Without
God Of a good honest
sincere man it was said: He brushed his teeth twice a day with
nationally advertised toothpaste. The doctors examined him twice a year.
He wore overshoes when it rained. He slept with the windows opened. He
stuck to a diet with plenty of fresh vegetables.
He relinquished his tonsils and took his vitamins faithfully all year.
He golfed but not more than
18 holes at a time. He got at least eight hours of sleep every night. He
never smoked, drank or lost his temper. He always did his daily dozen
exercises. He was all set to live to be a hundred. The funeral will held
Wednesday. He is survived by ten specialists, four health institutes,
six gymnasiums, and numerous manufacturers of health foods and
antiseptics. He made just one mistake! He forgot God! He lived as though
this world were all there was to live, and he is now with those who say,
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
The millions of footprints left by humanity in every generation bear
testimony of the futility of seeking paths that lead only in this life.
Death becomes a dead-end for those who seek to find everything in life
and never find God. It is like a road that leads to nowhere. Jesus
warned, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed;
for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his
possessions” (Luke 12:15). Life is not about here; life is about
there.
Living life with God takes our journey beyond the vale of death. Our
path of life never ends but continues in the hope of eternal life.
Living with God brings peace and security in the answers men seek.
“Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever
mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are
my meditation. I understand more than
the aged, because I have observed Your precepts” (Psalms
119:98-100). The word of God guides us from where we came from, why we
are here and where we are going.
Living with God comes from knowledge of Jesus Christ. Man cannot live
without Jesus Christ. To acknowledge Him is to believe in Him as the Son
of God. This belief is what tenders our lives with the obedience of His
word. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one
comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have
known My Father also; from
now on you know Him, and have seen Him” (John 14:6-7). The reason
that men live without God is they will not accept the Son of God. There
is only one way to find life after death and it is through Jesus Christ.
The more we come to know the Son, the more we come to know the Father.
When you look at your life, what is the focus of your day to day living?
Do you spend endless hours pursuing the things of this world with its
glory and accolades of honor? Is life one achievement after another as
you move into retirement from work and plan for the golden years of
life? Does your road end in death or is there a bridge over the valley
of the shadow of death leading to a street paved with gold extending
throughout the eternal ages? Life is not about what we possess; life is
about what possesses us.
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a
city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a
vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead,
you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or
that’” (James 4:13-15). That is living with God!
--Kent Heaton
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