The community grocery store near our first home had an automated coin sorting machine the size of a smart car. My husband took our children there periodically to cash in the pocket change he’d saved up for special adventures. The kids loved the clanking and flashing that followed their upturned paper sack being emptied into the hopper, but they were less impressed by the paper bills that appeared when the machine ground to a halt. What they’d come to anticipate had taken less time than the argument on the car ride over about whose turn it was to help carry the bag.
We burn through most things in life that we dread or anticipate like a short sparkler on the Fourth of July. The build up is much more traumatic than the actual event and it’s over in a flash. We’re left standing with singed fingertips watching the smoke trail disappear on the breeze. Scripture warns us of life’s brevity.
“O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them?
For they are like a breath of air; their days are like a passing shadow.”
Psalms 144:3-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.144.3-4.NLT
“Look here, you who say,
“Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”
How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?
Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.
What you ought to say is,
“If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.””
James 4:13-15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.4.13-15.NLT
We are more divided at this moment in our world’s history than possibly ever before and every social media post or news flash offers another filter to further polarize us. We allow our thoughts like coins to be dumped into the media hopper and we accept the paper bills that come to us in the form of opinions as fact. Maybe we trust the fact checkers. Maybe we don’t. Either way, we pay the price in the same way that the company who owned the coin machine collected their fee- off the top.
There is a reliable filter for our thoughts that stands the test of time. God’s Word has survived thousands of years worth of conflict unscathed, its wisdom unchallenged and its Truth unchanged. Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6) prayed,
“I have given them your word.
And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.
Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.
And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.”
John 17:14, 17-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.17.17-20.NLT
Romans 1:11-2:16 means that we cannot be surprised by the world because we’ve been warned again and again by the prophets and apostles.
“Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.
All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time!
Amen.”
Jude 1:24-25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jud.1.24-25.NLT
“Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood— may he equip you with all you need for doing his will.
May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him.
All glory to him forever and ever!
Amen.”
Hebrews 13:20-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.13.20-21.NLT
“What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret.
We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!
It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown.
For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever.
And we who are living will also be transformed.
For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
But thank God!
He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.
Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”
1 Corinthians 15:50-58 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.15.50-58.NLT
“May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.
All glory to God forever and ever!
Amen.”
Galatians 1:3-5 NLT
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