Friday, February 2, 2024

You Will Leave This World How You Entered, With Nothing

1st Timothy 6:7-12, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”

I was listening to Pastor J. Vernon McGee (1904-1988) today in my car as I drove to go walking at Community Maritime Park in Pensacola. I wore my 20 pound weight vest, which I hadn’t worn since 2021 on Guam. I’ve been losing a lot of weight lately (24 pounds in just 3 months). Today I weighed 178.2 pounds on my digital scale. Amen! In September of 2023 I weighed 202 pounds. I’ve been taking prescription Mounjaro since late October, which is an amazing drug. I really like it. It’s a one week injection from a pen. I get 4 pens at a time. I started with 2.5 mg pens the first month; then 5.0 mg pens the second month, and now 7.5 mg pens. 15 mg is the highest dosage, but I don’t think my doctor will be raising my dosage any higher than 7.5 mg, because the drug is working well to control my glucose level.

Anyway, I was listening to Pastor McGee teach from Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and 6. He said that the rich man can only eat 3 meals a day, the same as the poor man. The rich man can pay for all the doctors he wants, but he won’t live any longer than the poor man. The rich man cannot enjoy seeing a sunset any more beautiful than the poor man can. The rich man eats food that grows from the same field as the poor man does. The rich man can own 15 houses in different countries, but he can only sleep in one bed at a time. He can only live in one home at a time, while the rest sit idle uninhabited by him.

Dear reader, this life is very short in lieu of eternity. When a man or woman is at their prime at age 35 and they feel on top of the world, just 40 years later they are 75 years old and well beyond the age that one is considered a senior citizen. My point is that if you are a young person, you’ll grow old before you know it; then like me you’ll look back over your life and wonder where the years went so quickly. Lord willing, I’ll turn 57 on March 5th, 2024. I feel like a teenager in my soul. My body feels about 80 sometimes due to my chronic neck pain. God is so good and I love Him as my dear Savior, Friend and Lord!

I follow a handful of preachers on X (formerly known as Twitter). I also follow Paul Stanley of the rock band KISS. I don’t support their wicked lifestyles, nor do I approve of their demonic rock music. I follow him out of curiosity, to see what he promotes and how he thinks. Paul is now in his 70’s, as is also his band peer Gene Simmons (real name: Chaim Witz). Today on X Paul shared a post of himself holding a $1,000 bottle of expensive wine that he was drinking. He said that he worked hard and deserved it. Sadly, Paul is Jewish in his religious beliefs and a Christ rejecter. Unless he repents of his unbelief and trusts Jesus alone as his Savior, he will go to Hell when he dies.

Paul is living large, having a net worth of $200,000,000. His food doesn’t taste any better than mine. His bed is no softer than mine. He can only sleep in one bed at a time. He cannot eat any more food than I do. He may be able to travel the world, buy more expensive possessions, enjoy massive fame, et cetera. But he is living on borrowed time, just like everyone else on the planet. I thank God for the precious blood of Jesus that washed away all my since when I was 13 years old in 1980. I simply knew that I was a sinner, and I trusted Jesus as my personal Savior; believing that He died on a cross to pay for my sins, and that He was buried, but then resurrected from the dead three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4).

You will leave this world exactly how you entered into it, with nothing. I like the following Bible verse from 1st Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” That is very interesting. We know that we were born into this world with nothing, and we know that we will die taking nothing out of this life with us.

The Apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold on eternal life. That means to make the best use of our remaining time here on earth as saints. We already have eternal life through faith in Christ. Paul is saying to lay hold on our eternal life, so that we can be used of God for the cause of Christ. Every believer should be a soulwinner. We all have a duty to share the Gospel with lose sinners. Tragically, less than 1% of Christians today care about sharing the Gospel. This is primarily the fault of pastors for not teaching and inspiring their church congregation to share the Gospel. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

Dear reader, are you born again? If not, you need to take care of that immediately, because today could be the last day of your life. And if you are saved, you should be serving God. When is the last time you shared the Gospel with a lost sinner? I witnessed to my doctor and her physician’s assistant.

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