the time is short and eternity is long

The service yesterday was a real blessing ... so hard to see a casket that small ... yet what a testimony that little girl had of love for God and for others.

This little girl knew she was right with God. Her obituary described the events of Friday afternoon as her "stepping off the gravel and into the presence of the Lord."

It prompts me to ask ... gentle-reader ... what if it had been you?

Today you're sitting today in front of that computer ... breathing.

What if tomorrow, you're not?

One of us in this little e-community will be the next one of us to die.

It's the ultimate statistic ... one out of every one dies.

We'll stand before our creator, and no matter how many good things we've done, we'll be faced with the truth that it's not enough.

The Bible is clear that there is a way to be right with God. But it's also clear that the answer isn't found in anything we can accomplish on our own.

Romans 3:23 says that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."

So we're all standing on common ground ... good people and murderers; hypocrites and humble.

What does that common ground earn us?

Romans 6:23 says, "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

So, my wages ... what I've earned by my sin (ANY sin), is death.

BUT

So thankful for that "but" ...

God offers sinners the gift of eternal life - not on the basis of our merit (thankfully), but rather through Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

God's gift of freedom from the penalty we earned by our sin did not come cheap.

The penalty had to be paid, and only One sacrifice would be sufficient -- His own Son.

A gift only belongs to me if I accept it, right? If I leave that bouquet of roses sitting on the front steps, they're never really mine. It's the same with this gift God offers us.

Romans 10:9-11 says, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

This is the whole theme of the Bible summed up in a neat package -- we are incapable of making ourselves worthy of God's attention ... yet He loves us, and desires to make a way for us to come to Him.

The one Bible verse that almost everyone knows sums it up so beautifully! John 3:16 -
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Interested in learning more about these things? There's a great, easy-to-read book called The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus by John R. Cross (it's available from Amazon at - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890082147/103-4775512-5355038?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

End of preach for today.

Exercise-related accountability - I got to the gym over the weekend, and have been walking. Last night was ladies' Bible study, and so nothing else got done after work.

Trinka