USELESS, UTTERLY USELESS

If I were as young as you, my prospective would be 

entirely different.  But, mine is different for this reason.

I had lived out a full life span, then got sick and should

have died.  That would only have been the normal routine.

BUT GOD.  When he enters the picture, everything changes.

But God in his mercy choose to restore a measure of health

to me.  So a number of years latter I am still "plugging" along.

Now when you are living on "borrowed" time things look a 

lot different.  And nearly everything is now viewed from a 

different prospective.  The prospective that everything I do,

think, or use is something that I use for my "eternal reward" 

and will have to give an account of, or it will be squandered.

This causes me to be overwhelmed by the squandering of 

time and resources I see by people who should know better.

Present time and resources that could be used for their own

eternal benefit, but instead squandered for the fun or pleasure

of the moment.  The reality is, that makes their time and 

resources - useless, utterly useless - when it could have been

better for them used other ways.

A little different thought.  But over a full life time of seeing

many people receiving "inheritances" I have notice that 

nearly all of them get squandered.  Dad and mom should have

used the inheritance on themselves because the kids are just

going to throw them away anyway.

God gives everyone of us; life, time and some resources,

no matter how meager.  Am I using them for God's purposes

and my eternal benefit or for the moment?

If I am using them only for the present time I am turning 

them into something that will be "useless, utterly useless.

PERSPECTIVE

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This morning I again had to reflect on how facing death

can change a person's view point.

Up until we are faced with death, we only think of the

things we can acquire and our own comforts and pleasures.

But having faced death a few years ago I see that these things

are meaningless.

  What I face after death is far more important than the fame,

fortune or accumulations I might now acquire.

Is it any wonder that Solomon [The wisest man who ever lived.]

said:

"It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher.

Life is useless, all useless."

(Ecclesiastes 1;2 GNT)   

 And of course this is true of the "natural" or normal person.

But Solomon does come to the point when he concludes:

"After all this, there is only one thing to say:

Have reverence for God, and obey his commands,

because this is all that we were created for.  God

is going to judge everything we do, whether good

or bad, even things done in secret."

(Ecclesiastes 12:13,14 GNT)   

USELESS BURDENS

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Why do those of us who are Christians insist on carrying

useless burdens?

Those who belong to this old world do not know any better.

They think that the more they have to carry through life,

the better off they are.

It is interesting that when Jesus called Simon Peter and

his fishing buddies to go with him,

"They pulled the boats up on the beach,

left everything, and followed Jesus."

And when Jesus called Levi the tax

collector,

"Levi got up, left everything and

follow him."

(Luke 5:11 & 28 GNT)

I know a certain woman, who I will not name for 

my own personal safety,  who decided to clear 

out her "excess" clothing.  She donated it to 

a homeless shelter and a battered women's

shelter.

I am not exaggerating, I helped load it, I know.

It was three SUV loads.  It would have filled 

my little pickup.  Now how can one woman

wear that much in just one lifetime?

[Did you notice, I did not say anything about

how much I might have passed on?]

"What did we bring into the world?

Nothing!

What can we take out of the world?

Nothing!

So then, if we have food and clothes,

that should be enough for us."

(1 Timothy 6:7,8 GNT)

RELIGION

"The Lord said, 
'These people claim to worship me,
but their words are meaningless,
and their hearts are somewhere else.
Their religion is nothing but human
rules and traditions which they have
simply memorized.
So I will startle them with one unexpected 
blow after another.  Those who are wise
will turn out to be fools, and all their
cleverness will be useless.'"
(Isaiah 29:13,14 TEV)

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AM I USELESS ENOUGH FOR GOD TO USE?

Moses "...was taught all of the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in words and deeds."

-Acts 7:22 (TEV)

This is outstanding. Here is God's chosen man;

educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,

a great man in words,

a great man in deeds.

He is in the prime of life, forty years old (v.23).

And he knew what his God given mission was (v25).

I have read that Josephus gives an account of Moses even being general of an Egyptian army.

Wow! What a man to lead God's people out.

But God could not use him like that.

God had to send him to the desert for forty more years to get all the wisdom of the world out of him.

And as God does with all his outstanding saints,

Break him.

After forty years we see in the account of the burning bush, (Exodus ch. 4)

that Moses could not even talk well any more.

We see a man whose self esteem was shattered.

[Sorry, but even self esteem can get in the way.]

Moses is finally a "nothing".

Now God can use him.

Remember Peter?

Bold and confident. Going to follow Christ to death it's self.

But with his denial of Christ it broke him.

He cried like a baby and then went back to fishing.

Or the apostle Paul.

A proud Pharisee trained at the feet of Gamaliel.

But on the road to Damascus busted, brought to nothing.

Now that you have all of your degrees,

titles,

abilities

and experience.

Are you read to serve God?

It might hurt.

Let's learn from the apostle Paul.

"But to keep me from being puffed up with pride because of the many wonderful things I saw, I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud. Three times I prayed to the Lord about this and asked him to take it away. But his answer was; 'My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are week.' I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

-2 Corinthians 12:710 (TEV)