What Life Is About

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34).

Hey Gang:  Spending eighteen days in the desert of the Arava of Israel can be a time when you take a hard look at what is happening in your mind, heat and soul.  Unless you are an archeologist, a geologist and some other ”ist”,  there is not  a whole lot to think about.  But it is also a god time to walk through the desert, up to prayer mountain or just put your mind in neutral and let God speak.

Stop and think about your life for a minute.  God has given you a time to live but, regardless of how long it is, you will soon die.  According to the World Health Organization, about 150,000 people die every day.  All who were normal adults use their allotted days for two basic reasons – there are the faithful few who will be blessed with eternal life with Jesus, and those who said ‘no thanks, I will go my own way who will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.’

Life presents an ever increasing multitude of choices.  Many choices honor God; many do not.  Many can draw us closer to God, but many pull us father away from God. We will fill our allotted time in one way or another, but how do our choices hold up in view of God and eternity?

Our lives are not our own, but have been loaned to us for the purpose of glorifying God.  The Creator made Adam and Eve because He desired fellowship.  Today we still are privileged with the same call to fellowship with God.  What a marvel that such a high and holy God wants a personal relationship with His creation!   When we realize this, we feel compelled to live our entire life for Him.  Yet, we are very prone to get wrapped up in the cares of this life, and soon God is no longer our first priority.

As mentioned we were blessed to spend eighteen days volunteering at Tel Tamar, a Kibbutz in the Arava, south of the Dead Sea.  When asked what was the high point of your tenure in the desert, my response, “We were freed from the rhetoric, sick rhetoric of the presidential race.”  That is only partially true.  The truth- there are no bangles and beads in the desert and one learns how very vulnerable we are, living in the so called more civilized world, but nothing could be more miss leading. 

It was a time when you realize how very precious a class of water is and when all the so called important issues of the modern world are placed a way back on the back burner and, if you desire, there are few obstacles that blur hearing the voice of the Master. 

It renewed my commitment to “run the way of (God’s) commandments and place my hands in the hand of the One who stills the waters.”  My prayer for you this morning is that God will open your eyes anew to His word.  Remember that we’re called to be strangers here and to seek heavenly things.  Feed on His  Word by frequenting its living waters.  Let’s make God our reason for living today, and draw near for a closer walk with Him.

I have always been saddened that the merchant world has stolen the wondrous beauty of God’s messages of forgiveness and thanksgiving with what I believe is a tool of the evil one “Black Friday”.

I close this epistle with this thought for you do ponder, “God never stopped walking with man in the garden of life.  Where are you in that walk with Abba Father?

Blessing,  

Gramps