By John Stallings
When I was in the 9th grade I remember a coach/gym teacher named Coach Luck.
Coach Luck was 6’4 & pretty much all muscle. Once in a while he would substitute for one of my regular teachers. We all dreaded it when coach Luck substituted because he was very serious minded & opposed to any form of goofing off.
Coach Luck had a large paddle, I think at least an inch thick & he wielded it with great efficacy. He would, so to speak, “apply the board of education to the seat of knowledge,” if you broke too many rules. Things were different in those days in regards to corporal punishment. I’m sure that during your school days, when your regular teacher was sick or otherwise incapacitated, you also had the experience of substitute teachers.
Did you know that God sometimes calls on the Devil to be a substitute teacher for Him. Sounds odd doesn’t it? There are several reasons for this, some terribly frightening, some not so bad. With God’s help I’ll endeavor to explain.
Listen to Paul in 1 Timothy 1:18;
Timothy my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith & a good conscience. Some have rejected these & so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus & Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
Notice in this passage that Paul has “handed over” Hymenaeus & Alexander to Satan to be taught a special lesson. These two men had rejected faith & a good conscience & had suffered shipwreck. The living Translation reads,--For some have deliberately violated their own consciences ….
Think about this; God has provided a built in “truth-detector” called our conscience. The danger is that over a period of time, the conscience can be silenced, beaten into submission & replaced by a monster. This replacement is an awful & perverted force that welcomes wrongdoing, calls black white & white black, calls good evil & evil good. This is indeed a sobering thought.
Hymanaeus & Alexander had rejected what was right & true, which means they had some knowledge of it in the first place. This is the reality of the human condition; our hearts can become unable to handle or tolerate truth so we create surrogate wisdom. When this happens to a person they’re on dangerous ground.
These two men had no doubt been a part of the Church in Ephesus & at one time they enjoyed the sweet fellowship of the saints & had seen the work of the Holy Spirit. But at some point, due to unbelief & deceit, they struck out on their own & set a course that would doom them to spiritual shipwreck. Whatever they had absorbed of real faith it had morphed into something else & they ended up apostates. This condition could perhaps be explained by Jesus’ parable of the four types of soil in Mark 4; the seed of the gospel is always good but if the soil isn’t good no fruit will be forthcoming.
SO THAT THEY WILL BE TAUGHT NOT TO BLASPHEME
To blaspheme is to speak about someone in such a way as to harm their reputation. Other expressions of it would be “Speak against,” “dishonor, “malign,” & “hurling abuse.”
Acts 13: 44-45 says;--The next Sunday nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord, but when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy & began contradicting the things spoken by Paul & were blaspheming.
Later Paul explains that Hymenaeus & Alexander were teaching that the general resurrection of the dead had already occurred, & it occurred when a Christian became ‘alive in Christ.” That was a subtle attempt to undermine the gospel Paul preached; - that there was in our future a physical resurrection waiting for us. Paul’s answer was,
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. 1 Cor. 15:19
Listen to Paul in 2 Timothy 2:16-18--But shun profane babblings; for they increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker; of whom is Hymenaeus & Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
False teaching if left unchecked will spread like a cancer through the body of Christ. We’re told to use discernment in identifying false teachers & false doctrine & God’s Word is clear as to the steps needed to deal with them. Paul set the example here by “nipping this false teaching in the bud,” & handing these men over to Satan.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAND SOMEONE OVER TO SATAN?
I’ve been involved in ministry for more than fifty-five years, & I’ve never done this nor observed anyone “handed over to the devil.” Very few sermons are preached on it. The “pop theology” that exists today doesn’t seem to encompass this Biblical truth & not much is ever written about it. In a case like this, I can only use scripture to explain scripture, which is a good way to do things anyway, wouldn’t you agree?
Now & then we hear of a minister/ leader whose been caught in some sort of heinous sin. As a rule when confronted with their failure, these individuals will submit to their brethren, stand down, show repentance & seek rehabilitation. As far as I can see, this isn’t being turned over to the devil.
In 1 Corinthians 5:4-5, there’s an ugly situation that Paul has to deal with concerning a man who was sleeping with his step-mother& sadly it was being tolerated by the rest of the church. Paul chastises the church, reading the riot act to them for allowing this wickedness to fester. Listen to Paul’s instructions;
When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus & I am with you in spirit, & the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed & his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. [NIV]
Paul is concerned here with moral & doctrinal purity & so demands that this man be put out of the church. An example of how an action like this, the administering of tough love can come full-circle is evidenced in 2 Corinthians 2:7-7 when Paul again writes to the church telling them that signs of the man’s repentance have been witnessed. His instruction to them at that point was to reach out & show love & forgiveness to the man, -lest he be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
Listen to Paul in 2 Cor.11:2-3—For I am jealous for you with a Godly jealousy for I betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray from the simplicity & purity of devotion to Christ.
The man in Corinth & the false teachers in Ephesus were contaminating the churches & the filth was spreading. Christians are supposed to strive to live holy lives, but certainly we’re capable of sin. Now the church can’t be expected to throw out everyone who sins or makes a serious mistake. What people are supposed to do in such a case is repent. “Herein is the rub;”---when an individual refuses to repent & persists in their sin after they’re confronted, then they’re to be separated from the body of believers. If this isn’t the case & the person is allowed to remain, it isn’t merely that their own soul is at stake, they become a danger to the body as others follow in their footsteps. Contagious diseases infect & sicken others who are nearby.
WE MUST BE CAREFUL HERE
We should always look inward before we approach another about their sin, lest we also be tempted. Gal.6:1. Paul tells the Corinthians that they should have mourned the presence of sin in their midst. Everything that is done must be done in the spirit of humility, striving to win over our erring brother or sister. Certainly this process must start in private. The love level must be high & love should always rule. However it isn’t love when we allow a wayward person to have a false illusion that they’re doing fine, when in reality they’re “looking down the gun-barrel” of spiritual destruction.
WHY HAND THEM OVER? WHY NOT JUST EXPUNGE THEIR MEMBERSHIP?
Turning someone over to the devil seems a bit extreme doesn’t it? To be a Christian in New Testament days was to be in a local church. In our day, it’s more & more fashionable to be in the “un-churched” community. Some folk feel that to be independent of the church is what Jesus intended. In the New Testament, the Church was considered the umbilical cord of Christian life. The church nourished & protected the believers.
Hymenaeus & Alexander were put out of the church because they rejected the faith & invented their own. As a result of their continual sin they were removed from the church in Ephesus, released from fellowship & handed over to the Devil.
To be put outside the church was to be cut off from spiritual life & blessing, exposed to the devil & the world without the loving protection of elders & fellow believers. To a follower of Christ this was a horrific turn of events & when you take all this into consideration, it made perfect sense for Paul to consider it as handing someone over to the devil. This also served to make crystal clear the spiritual state of the individual. The Apostle John tells us that—One who makes a practice of sinning is of the devil-& conversely- No one born of God makes a practice of sinning.
We could say that God has called Satan in to do some substitute teaching & there is the possibility that the person could benefit from being chastened, pruned & purified, although it would be accomplished sitting in Satan’s class room.
JOB
Sometimes God will temporarily take away His hand of protection & allow the Devil to test a true believer for reasons tied to His sovereignty. Job was a good man, the best of men & he was also the most prosperous man in the East. One day the Devil came before God & asked to be allowed to test him.
Satan was allowed to destroy all Job’s family & his possessions, even to bring about terrible illness in his own body. Before Satan got finished, the richest of men was sitting on the curb scraping his boil infested skin with pieces of broken pottery. And Job never really understood why this happened. Even at the end of the book he wasn’t sure specifically why God brought it other than the fact that God had revealed Himself to be a sovereign God. Job summed it all up by saying, -Though He slay me yet will I trust Him.
At the end of the book of Job we see God giving him back more than he had in the beginning. This story shows us the Lord in His sovereign purpose may choose to deliver one of His own to Satan to underscore & make clear a great truth.
SAUL
The spirit of the Lord had been on Saul to help him lead the nation of Israel but the time came, because of his ego, impatience & pride that Saul turned into a very wicked man. He despised the authority of Samuel, wanted full control of everything & he flaunted injustice all over the kingdom. This belligerence almost caused him to execute his own son for eating honey. He took the role of a priest & he tried to hide his disobedience under a cloak of spirituality. David was becoming more & more popular with the people of Israel & an ego-maniac like Saul is never going to be able to handle that.
So we’re told that-“The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.”When God’s spirit departed from Saul-“an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Now this man is demon terrorized & he goes from bad to worse. This bothers some people that the evil spirit could come from the Lord. This obviously doesn’t mean the Lord is evil it just means that even the demons can’t function unless the Lord allows it.
God had turned Saul over to a hellish power & Satan dispatched some very powerful demons to become the constant companion of Saul. He had known the presence of the Lord as king but now he’s thrust out. Now Saul has been abandoned to the kingdom of Satan & this leads him into the occult, to mass murder & ultimately to commit suicide. Suicide is a rare act in all the annals of Israel’s history but not rare among those who are delivered to Satan.
JESUS
In Matthew chapter 4 we learn that Christ was also turned over to the devil to be tempted. God put His own beloved son in the hands of the devil to show that He wouldn’t waver or break & that He would stand true as the perfect God-man. This chapter tells us that Jesus’ temptation went on for 40 days & 40 nights. During this time Jesus fasted, & we know what a physically weakening experience fasting can be.
First of all the devil tempts Jesus with bread. If He could make bread for a multitude why couldn’t He make bread for Himself? Then He’s tempted to dive off the temple & be hailed as the Messiah. And then He was tempted to take over the kingdoms of the world but Christ resisted in the midst of weakness & aloneness & all of the temptations. Then we’re told the devil left Him & the angels came & ministered to Him. Think about it; God put His own Son in the hands of the devil & then blessed Him for having passed the test.
PAUL
In second Corinthians chapter 12, Paul tells us—There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I be exalted above measure.
I’m not going to try to guess what Paul’s thorn was because I don’t know but I do know that God sent Paul into Satan’s classroom to be buffeted. God allowed the devil access to Paul so he’d be humble not proud. Now Paul was a praying man & he asked God in prayer three times to take the thorn away but God said- “I’m not going to take it away, no, I won’t take the thorn away but my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness & this weakness will allow my strength to be manifest in you.
So Paul says, gladly, happily I will boast in my infirmities. Why? “Because the power of Christ rests on me. I take pleasure in my infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distresses for Christ’s sake for when I am weak, then I’m strong.”
So God turned Christ over to Satan to prove His purity & He turned Paul over to Satan at least in one area so that Paul would be kept humble & know where his strength was & therefore be more effective.
PETER—SIFTED FOR SERVICE
In Luke 22, we see Simon Peter being subjected to Satan the substitute teacher. Jesus told Peter that Satan desired to have him for awhile so he could sift him like wheat. Satan wanted to throw Peter up in the air like wheat & let his confidence, usefulness & trust in God all blow away. Satan wanted Peter big time. But Christ was only going to allow it to continue for a short time. He was only going to let the devil go so far & no farther.
Why was Jesus going to allow this to happen to Peter? Because Peter was a key man, a crucial man in the development of the church. He was going to be the great preacher God would use during those founding years.
Jesus told Peter, -I’m going to let you go & I’m going to pray for you while you’re gone that you don’t fail the test. But when you return from the class, I’ve got an important job for you—strengthen the brethren.
Peter was going into this classroom to learn to strengthen others. Jesus allowed Peter to be put into a situation that he could learn some profound lessons. He wanted him to learn humility & dependence on God. He wanted him to be able to tell others how it felt to be in the clutches of Satan. When you’ve “bought the experience” you can come back & strengthen others. One thing is sure; Peter would never deal with his brethren puffed up with pride again.
After all, it was Peter who said, “I’ll never forsake you Jesus. I’ll stand with you, I’ll die with you, and I’ll go to the very end with you Jesus. I’m ready to go with you to prison & to death.”
Of course when Peter had the chance he denied Christ three times & then went out & wept bitterly. But after this class, after Peter was sifted by Satan for God’s service, he repented & got his heart right with God. History shows that Peter learned his lesson well.
THE FINAL ANALYSIS
What does all this really mean? I believe the bottom line is this; whether it be men like Hymenaeus & Alexander, Old Testament men like Job, New Testament men like Paul & Peter or Jesus Christ Himself, God in His sovereignty can & will, for the purposes of remedial instruction, refining, correction & training, & for the purposes of illustrating great truths, allow his very own to be turned over to Satan for greater effectiveness. Whether we can see it or not God receives the glory in all these things.
My prayer is;- “God, if you chose to allow me to be refined & sifted for greater usefulness, for the purpose of proving the genuineness of my faith to a watching world, then do in my life what is needful that you might receive the glory & I by your grace will count it a privilege.”
Blessings,
John
Monday, May 29, 2017
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Stability In Unstable Times
By John Stallings
If you follow sports, chances are you will recognize the name Cal Ripken Jr.
Born August 24, 1960, Cal played short-stop & third base for the Baltimore Orioles from 1981 to 2001. On September 6, 1995, Cal played his 2,131st consecutive major league baseball game, making him a legend for his amazing consistency. In that feat he broke Lou Gehrig’s record.
Cal was nicknamed Iron Horse for doggedly remaining in the lineup despite numerous minor injuries & for his ability to “show-up” to work everyday. He, during that time was the winner of two most valuable player awards & played in twelve consecutive All-star games, hitting more runs than any other major-league shortstop.
As for money, Cal has that. But more than money, he rightfully has a tremendous sense of accomplishment. By his own words, --all he ever wanted to do was play baseball & do his best in every game.
His consistency has also showed up in his family life, for his wife & children are the most important thing in his life to this day. On Cal’s night of breaking these records, he was honored by world famous people, big corporations & even the President of the United States. And think about it; all this for just showing up and doing what he loves to do; all for being consistent & stable. Cal Ripken jr. is a man of unique stability, one of the rarest qualities found in an individual; the ability to not only start but finish well.
James 1; 8 says” A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Men like Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, & Thomas Edison all had a rough time in route to success but they all had the determination & stability to endure. They experienced many failures but weren’t defined by them. Ask yourself; how do you react to your own failures? Are you frequently tempted to give up, or do you push on and work your socks off to actually test the mettle of your faith? Do you go the distance or do you retire, wounded from the race? Do you lean on God or just follow the path of least resistance & end up with a fizzle instead of a sizzle?
Look at your circle of acquaintances & ask how many people you know who are truly consistent. How many people are generally the same every time you see them, & can always be counted on to not allow their moods to affect the way they treat people. I’m not asking if they’re sweet, lovable and fun, I’m asking only how they would rate in stability. I will hazard a guess that you don’t know that many stable folk & neither do I.
In Luke 9: 51 Luke records --“Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem.” This clearly indicates that Jesus was staunchly determined to go to the city & pursue the course that would finally culminate in his arrest, trial & Crucifixion. He had come to earth with an assignment & that was to die for the sins of mankind & He had the stability of heart & mind to accomplish it. Through his agony in Gethsemane, His betrayal by Judas, His fake trial, & subsequent lashing & final Crucifixion, He steadfastly taught & lived out one all consuming fact; that he would die for our sins
I’m always challenged by the testimony of the three Hebrew boys in the first chapters of Daniel. They along with Daniel were captives and schooled in the ways of their heathen captors, but never allowed these false teachings to penetrate their minds.
I’m a big believer in home schooling and Christian schools for our children for I believe they are far superior to today’s public schools. However, a Christian young person should and will be able to stand for Christ anywhere they go & under any conditions. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego asked politely to not eat the food the others ate but to eat their own special diet of herbs & water. Later when they were compared to those on the king’s diet, they had a fair, shiny countenance, & were ten times smarter than the other men. Imagine that; ten times smarter.
Young Daniel and these three Hebrew boys were subjected to some terrible pressures. They were subjected to Lion’s dens and fiery furnaces but they steadfastly stood for God & were miraculously preserved. Through it all they never let their emotions get the best of them, lashed out at their captor’s or got angry with God. In other words, they stood like mighty oaks in the face of persecution & danger. It’s no wonder these four men got into God’s favor & rated mention in his word. God honored them for their stability.
I believe the greatest threat to the Church today is lack of this mature quality called stability. Paul tells the Ephesian church in the forth chapter, beginning at verse 11 that God gave the several ministries to the church to perfect the saints & in verse 14 he says:
“That we henceforth be no more children- tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.” In this passage stability is equated with maturity; God desires that we not be tossed around & wishy washy, but stable.
James 1; 6&7 says that if we waver we needn’t expect to receive anything from God. The facts are obvious; unstable folk won’t do the basics and continue doing them day in and day out, rain or shine until they see success. They’ll just quit and start something else. They make bad decisions. They won’t show up at the right times. They won’t do their homework. They are often good people in many ways but when the chips are down, they just can’t endure.
Though it may sound trite, my Dad used to tell me that one of the greatest traits a person can have is to show up on time & leave when it’s time to leave. Lack of stick- ability costs people jobs, relationships & financial rewards. I have seen folk who had stability & very little else, but they did more in life than extremely gifted, talented people who were up one day and down the next. One of the greatest gifts of the spirit is "the gift of showing up." Unstable folk never see success in anything and even if they happen to stumble on it they can’t sustain it.
STABLE PEOPLE ACT-THEY DON’T REACT!
Unstable people are like ping-pong balls bouncing back & forth on a table. When you & I are reactive we put far too much power in the hands of others.
Did you ever consider that it’s easier to control your actions than it is your reactions? It’s true. We have very little trouble with our actions. We can go along smoothly & nicely for days, weeks & months with no real problems. But then let somebody say or do something that rubs us the wrong way, & before we know it we’ve thrown a conniption-fit.
Often times we blame the one who upset us for causing us to do or say things we shouldn’t have said. But the truth is nothing ever comes out of us that isn’t already in us. For example, if I am holding a cup full of liquid & someone comes by & jostles the cup and some of the liquid spills out, the reason it came out is that it was in there. Nothing will ever spill out of us that we aren’t full of.
We will blame the mailman, the policeman, the teacher, our spouse or kids for causing us to explode, but the truth is they only furnished the jostle. What came out was what we were already brimming full of. Reactive people are constantly at the mercy of those who push their buttons. None of us will always be consistent and stable in all of our life situations. Part of what brought us to God was our recognition that we, on our own are failures. That’s why we need to pray that the Holy Spirit will grant us courage, perseverance & wisdom, not only to seek God’s mercy & forgiveness but to get up & began again.
STABLE FOLK DON’T WEAR THEIR HEART ON THEIR SLEEVE.
Stable people don’t depend on people flattering & encouraging them but go along pretty much independent of what people do or say. It’s not that they don’t have feelings or need & appreciate compliments; they enjoy that as much as anyone. But they have an inner strength about them that just keeps clicking no matter what. As David did, they “Encourage themselves.”
The people who have impacted me most in life have been stable people. Somehow I draw strength from their example of just being there day in and day out, doing their duty. Stable people have been mentors to me who never knew it but I keyed off their example of strength and consistency.
I certainly don’t mean to convey here that I see myself as the soul of stability. Not at all! What I can say is that I aspire to and have always coveted in my life Paul’s attitude; “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, in Christ.” Haven’t you ever been inspired by people who just took a licking & kept on ticking? If they have bad days or bad moods they don’t show it, they are always the same. That’s stability. We all need people like that in our lives.
Someone has said that life mainly consists of a few great high moments held together by vast stretches of tedium, with not a lot happening. If that’s true, and I think it is- how importance it is to have the quality of tough stability, built for the long haul.
Job was a man like that. [Here I go again with Job.] Most everything he held dear had been swept away. He certainly had a right to be mad at God but he had patience. In Job 1; 22 we read “In all of this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.” The book of Job is a 42 chapter delay, dragging this man through every kind of disappointment you can conceive of. But the Bible says; -And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Talk about God rewarding the stable man, there you have it. And when you read the whole book of Job you see that he had almost no help from others. His wife Matilda [Oh I don’t know her name] was certainly no help. She told him to curse God and die. But Job decided that if he could curse God & die he could also bless God & live.
Job’s friends just made his nightmare worse but Job never allowed people to cause him to give up. They probably often got on his last nerve but Job didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, nor need people to pat him on the back. Consequently today we know Job as perhaps the greatest paragon of stability, not only in the Bible but in all of literature.
STABLE PEOPLE AREN’T SHALLOW & EMOTIONAL.
I’ve often said that I wouldn’t give a nickel for someone who had no emotions, but I also wouldn’t give a nickel for someone controlled by their emotions. Stable folk have an ability to discern between the pressing &the necessary. They are plodders. Usually they don’t buy into fads or get carried away by the new & flashy trends coming down the pike.
Joseph is another, I believe, perfect example of stability & balance. His inspiring story is in the book of Genesis chapters 37-50. I believe God put his story in the Bible for some big reasons.
Can you imagine how shattering it would be to be literally sold out by your brothers & know that they despised you & wished you dead? And despite this, be willing to shower them with love & forgiveness, never allowing their misdeeds to make you bitter. Because of these brothers, Joseph ended up away from his home & family, in the far off land of Egypt to be put to work as a slave in a powerful man’s home, be falsely accused of raping his wife & thrown in jail.
To be able to stand strong the way Joseph did, you must take your eyes off what folk have done to you and put them on God. A vicious, nasty lie was told on Joseph & he was thrown in jail yet he never allowed bitterness to unhinge him. And it’s amazing that he never tried to escape. Joseph just wasn’t that kind of man. The way he saw it, they put him in jail so he’d make the best of it until God turned it around for him. Then he’d be in a position to do something constructive with his life.
Joseph understood that they meant it for evil but God meant it for good. For thirteen years not much good happened to Joseph yet his maturity & stability caused him to not see the bars of his prison but to look above the bars & see a God he knew would be faithful to him. That jailer must have realized there was something different about Joseph because he put him in charge of all the other prisoners.
Even in prison God blessed everything Joseph did. Joseph asked the baker & the butler who were in the prison with him to please remember him when they stood before the king. He knew if he was faithful, someday his moment would come, & he was right.
One night Pharaoh had a dream he couldn’t understand. Then the dream recurred & he called his best men in and they couldn’t help him with the interpretation. The butler spoke to the King about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams so Joseph was brought in. It’s no surprise that Joseph was able to give the meaning of the King’s dream for Joseph himself had always been a dreamer.
Eventually, God showed that old heathen Pharaoh, through Joseph what to do to save Egypt in a coming time of famine. Think of the poise and self possession Joseph had in this moment. He not only told the King what the dream meant, he went on & told him how to put the information of the dream to practical use to save his land in coming famine. Because he was prepared to seize opportunity when it came, Joseph was given favor and ended up second in command in Egypt & had the inscription numeral 2 on his license plate.
Often we don’t have the patience to see the fruits of our right doings, but Joseph did. When the story was just about over in Genesis 50, - “Joseph remembered his dream.” Frankly, when you look at all Joseph went through, his emotional and mental condition should have been shot by this time. It’s a wonder he isn’t howling at the moon. But again he shows awesome stability. Even as he was dying he was pouring out his love to his family that had done him so wrong. He assured them,” God will surely visit you and bring you back to the land He has promised to you.”
And then, a man who could have died so young, died at the ripe old age of one hundred & ten. It’s interesting to me that while I’m sure Joseph wasn’t a perfect man; God wouldn’t allow one negative thing to be recorded about him in the entire Bible. A tribute, I believe, to a man of great love & rock- hard trustworthiness & stability. Also,
STABILITY DOESN”T TRY TO LIVE ON MOUNTAIN PEAKS BUT SPECIALIZES IN THE DAILY WALK.
If we try to live our lives from one great moment or experience to another, the times in between will become drudgery to us & we are sure to end up wavering and wobbling through life.
In Acts three, there’s the wonderful story of Peter & John going up to the temple at the hour of prayer. This is the day after Pentecost. This is the day after they had both been in the upper room and been filled with the Spirit along with the rest of the one hundred and twenty who waited there.
Let’s walk beside them for a moment and see if they’ll speak to us. We approach by saying, “excuse me, aren’t you Peter and John? Weren’t you two men in the upper room yesterday when the tongues of fire sat on people and all of you spoke in languages you never learned in school”? “Yes,” -we hear them answer, “you’ve got the right men, we were there. It was a glorious experience and we’ll never be the same again.” “Well” we continue, “Where are you going now?” They answer, “We’re going to the temple. It’s the hour of prayer, it’s our custom to go up and pray.” “But “we say,” “we just checked at the temple and there are just a few people there. Are you sure, after what you experienced yesterday that you want to go to that kind of small meeting? After all, there won’t be tongues of fire and you probably won’t see the same outpouring you saw yesterday.”
Finally they stop and turn to us and say, “Oh- you have us wrong, we know this is a small meeting, we don’t really expect it to be like yesterday. We expect to meet God in the service but not in the same way we met him yesterday. You see, this isn’t the same thing, we aren’t expecting a shaking today. Shakings are good but this will no doubt be a small moment. To be frank with you we are going for one reason and one only; it’s our duty to go to the temple & pray. This is our everyday walk with God.”
The spiritual experience these men had at Pentecost didn’t destroy their appreciation for the small moment, the ordinary, & the everyday walk with God. They were showing stability & Christian maturity in their actions the very next day after one of most miraculous events of their lives.
Furthermore, we read that there was a lame man who had been laid daily at the gate of the temple & as they walked by they saw him. If I’m reading right, this is the first time Peter and John had really seen this man who had been there for years. The story says that they ministered to the man and he was healed & went walking & leaping into the temple praising God. There are many great truths here but what I want you to see is that the magnificent experience of Pentecost gave these men a more dead level perspective than obviously they’d ever had before.
All the mountain top experiences we might have with God are worth little to us if they result in making us less able to see the needs of those around us. The Holy Spirit baptism, in its true reality will allow us to walk in a more consistent way, and will give us power to be stable witnesses for Christ as were Peter and John in this story.
STABILITY IS SYNONYMOUS WITH FOCUS AND SINGLE MINDEDNESS.
Stable people aren’t trapped in the past and won’t allow baggage from the past to affect their present lives. Unwillingness to let go of past hurts is a major cause of instability in a life. How could we be living in stability when our focus is constantly being broken by past hurt & disappointments? I have known people who brought past wounds into their present relationships & destroyed the relationship they were trying to build. The only way we can live balanced lives is to forgive where forgiveness is needed, even if it’s forgiving ourselves & then get on with the business of living.
To be successful in what we are endeavoring to do, we can’t be looking in the rear view mirror all the time. That will only result in broken focus.
Stable people see a big picture and allow nothing to divert their mind from it. They realize that what they focus on becomes the dominate force in their lives. Athletes won’t allow anything to stop them from their training programs for they know the key to their victory is embedded in their everyday schedule. Their victorious outcome isn’t going to be realized by what they do once in awhile but by what they consistently do each & every day of their lives.
Professional golfers will practice sometimes until their hands bleed. Football players will often get their wounds wrapped and go back into a game with blood soaked bandages on. These qualities of stamina and stability in an athlete are what make them heroes to their fans, & are much revered virtues in our culture.
STABLE PEOPLE REALIZE THAT IT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE FIRST HALF OF LIFE THAT’S IMPORTANT- BUT THE SECOND HALF.
I’m sure you remember O.J Simpson. He was born a natural athlete & proved his abilities in College then in the National Football league. He was perhaps the most successful running back in all of professional football.
He obviously made it to the top in sports & then went on to capture Hollywood. His face was constantly seen on movie & T.V screens around the world. He was accepted in the highest social circles & at one time was one of the most recognized & respected men in the world. But none of those things will be remembered about O.J. He will be remembered for allegedly killing his estranged wife & her male companion, & one of the most famous trials of the twentieth century. O.J knew from his football days that the second half is always the most important. As for his life, he lived the first half well but all of that will be overshadowed by what he did in his second half.
The writer of Hebrews urged to a failing Christian community to -Run with patience the race that is set before them their eyes fixed on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross scorning its shame” Hebrews 12:1-2.
If we are to rise to meet the challenge of being what God wants us to be we must know that it can’t be done with a half hearted commitment, only a stable effort will be triumphant.
Blessings,
John
If you follow sports, chances are you will recognize the name Cal Ripken Jr.
Born August 24, 1960, Cal played short-stop & third base for the Baltimore Orioles from 1981 to 2001. On September 6, 1995, Cal played his 2,131st consecutive major league baseball game, making him a legend for his amazing consistency. In that feat he broke Lou Gehrig’s record.
Cal was nicknamed Iron Horse for doggedly remaining in the lineup despite numerous minor injuries & for his ability to “show-up” to work everyday. He, during that time was the winner of two most valuable player awards & played in twelve consecutive All-star games, hitting more runs than any other major-league shortstop.
As for money, Cal has that. But more than money, he rightfully has a tremendous sense of accomplishment. By his own words, --all he ever wanted to do was play baseball & do his best in every game.
His consistency has also showed up in his family life, for his wife & children are the most important thing in his life to this day. On Cal’s night of breaking these records, he was honored by world famous people, big corporations & even the President of the United States. And think about it; all this for just showing up and doing what he loves to do; all for being consistent & stable. Cal Ripken jr. is a man of unique stability, one of the rarest qualities found in an individual; the ability to not only start but finish well.
James 1; 8 says” A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Men like Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, & Thomas Edison all had a rough time in route to success but they all had the determination & stability to endure. They experienced many failures but weren’t defined by them. Ask yourself; how do you react to your own failures? Are you frequently tempted to give up, or do you push on and work your socks off to actually test the mettle of your faith? Do you go the distance or do you retire, wounded from the race? Do you lean on God or just follow the path of least resistance & end up with a fizzle instead of a sizzle?
Look at your circle of acquaintances & ask how many people you know who are truly consistent. How many people are generally the same every time you see them, & can always be counted on to not allow their moods to affect the way they treat people. I’m not asking if they’re sweet, lovable and fun, I’m asking only how they would rate in stability. I will hazard a guess that you don’t know that many stable folk & neither do I.
In Luke 9: 51 Luke records --“Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem.” This clearly indicates that Jesus was staunchly determined to go to the city & pursue the course that would finally culminate in his arrest, trial & Crucifixion. He had come to earth with an assignment & that was to die for the sins of mankind & He had the stability of heart & mind to accomplish it. Through his agony in Gethsemane, His betrayal by Judas, His fake trial, & subsequent lashing & final Crucifixion, He steadfastly taught & lived out one all consuming fact; that he would die for our sins
I’m always challenged by the testimony of the three Hebrew boys in the first chapters of Daniel. They along with Daniel were captives and schooled in the ways of their heathen captors, but never allowed these false teachings to penetrate their minds.
I’m a big believer in home schooling and Christian schools for our children for I believe they are far superior to today’s public schools. However, a Christian young person should and will be able to stand for Christ anywhere they go & under any conditions. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego asked politely to not eat the food the others ate but to eat their own special diet of herbs & water. Later when they were compared to those on the king’s diet, they had a fair, shiny countenance, & were ten times smarter than the other men. Imagine that; ten times smarter.
Young Daniel and these three Hebrew boys were subjected to some terrible pressures. They were subjected to Lion’s dens and fiery furnaces but they steadfastly stood for God & were miraculously preserved. Through it all they never let their emotions get the best of them, lashed out at their captor’s or got angry with God. In other words, they stood like mighty oaks in the face of persecution & danger. It’s no wonder these four men got into God’s favor & rated mention in his word. God honored them for their stability.
I believe the greatest threat to the Church today is lack of this mature quality called stability. Paul tells the Ephesian church in the forth chapter, beginning at verse 11 that God gave the several ministries to the church to perfect the saints & in verse 14 he says:
“That we henceforth be no more children- tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.” In this passage stability is equated with maturity; God desires that we not be tossed around & wishy washy, but stable.
James 1; 6&7 says that if we waver we needn’t expect to receive anything from God. The facts are obvious; unstable folk won’t do the basics and continue doing them day in and day out, rain or shine until they see success. They’ll just quit and start something else. They make bad decisions. They won’t show up at the right times. They won’t do their homework. They are often good people in many ways but when the chips are down, they just can’t endure.
Though it may sound trite, my Dad used to tell me that one of the greatest traits a person can have is to show up on time & leave when it’s time to leave. Lack of stick- ability costs people jobs, relationships & financial rewards. I have seen folk who had stability & very little else, but they did more in life than extremely gifted, talented people who were up one day and down the next. One of the greatest gifts of the spirit is "the gift of showing up." Unstable folk never see success in anything and even if they happen to stumble on it they can’t sustain it.
STABLE PEOPLE ACT-THEY DON’T REACT!
Unstable people are like ping-pong balls bouncing back & forth on a table. When you & I are reactive we put far too much power in the hands of others.
Did you ever consider that it’s easier to control your actions than it is your reactions? It’s true. We have very little trouble with our actions. We can go along smoothly & nicely for days, weeks & months with no real problems. But then let somebody say or do something that rubs us the wrong way, & before we know it we’ve thrown a conniption-fit.
Often times we blame the one who upset us for causing us to do or say things we shouldn’t have said. But the truth is nothing ever comes out of us that isn’t already in us. For example, if I am holding a cup full of liquid & someone comes by & jostles the cup and some of the liquid spills out, the reason it came out is that it was in there. Nothing will ever spill out of us that we aren’t full of.
We will blame the mailman, the policeman, the teacher, our spouse or kids for causing us to explode, but the truth is they only furnished the jostle. What came out was what we were already brimming full of. Reactive people are constantly at the mercy of those who push their buttons. None of us will always be consistent and stable in all of our life situations. Part of what brought us to God was our recognition that we, on our own are failures. That’s why we need to pray that the Holy Spirit will grant us courage, perseverance & wisdom, not only to seek God’s mercy & forgiveness but to get up & began again.
STABLE FOLK DON’T WEAR THEIR HEART ON THEIR SLEEVE.
Stable people don’t depend on people flattering & encouraging them but go along pretty much independent of what people do or say. It’s not that they don’t have feelings or need & appreciate compliments; they enjoy that as much as anyone. But they have an inner strength about them that just keeps clicking no matter what. As David did, they “Encourage themselves.”
The people who have impacted me most in life have been stable people. Somehow I draw strength from their example of just being there day in and day out, doing their duty. Stable people have been mentors to me who never knew it but I keyed off their example of strength and consistency.
I certainly don’t mean to convey here that I see myself as the soul of stability. Not at all! What I can say is that I aspire to and have always coveted in my life Paul’s attitude; “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, in Christ.” Haven’t you ever been inspired by people who just took a licking & kept on ticking? If they have bad days or bad moods they don’t show it, they are always the same. That’s stability. We all need people like that in our lives.
Someone has said that life mainly consists of a few great high moments held together by vast stretches of tedium, with not a lot happening. If that’s true, and I think it is- how importance it is to have the quality of tough stability, built for the long haul.
Job was a man like that. [Here I go again with Job.] Most everything he held dear had been swept away. He certainly had a right to be mad at God but he had patience. In Job 1; 22 we read “In all of this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.” The book of Job is a 42 chapter delay, dragging this man through every kind of disappointment you can conceive of. But the Bible says; -And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Talk about God rewarding the stable man, there you have it. And when you read the whole book of Job you see that he had almost no help from others. His wife Matilda [Oh I don’t know her name] was certainly no help. She told him to curse God and die. But Job decided that if he could curse God & die he could also bless God & live.
Job’s friends just made his nightmare worse but Job never allowed people to cause him to give up. They probably often got on his last nerve but Job didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, nor need people to pat him on the back. Consequently today we know Job as perhaps the greatest paragon of stability, not only in the Bible but in all of literature.
STABLE PEOPLE AREN’T SHALLOW & EMOTIONAL.
I’ve often said that I wouldn’t give a nickel for someone who had no emotions, but I also wouldn’t give a nickel for someone controlled by their emotions. Stable folk have an ability to discern between the pressing &the necessary. They are plodders. Usually they don’t buy into fads or get carried away by the new & flashy trends coming down the pike.
Joseph is another, I believe, perfect example of stability & balance. His inspiring story is in the book of Genesis chapters 37-50. I believe God put his story in the Bible for some big reasons.
Can you imagine how shattering it would be to be literally sold out by your brothers & know that they despised you & wished you dead? And despite this, be willing to shower them with love & forgiveness, never allowing their misdeeds to make you bitter. Because of these brothers, Joseph ended up away from his home & family, in the far off land of Egypt to be put to work as a slave in a powerful man’s home, be falsely accused of raping his wife & thrown in jail.
To be able to stand strong the way Joseph did, you must take your eyes off what folk have done to you and put them on God. A vicious, nasty lie was told on Joseph & he was thrown in jail yet he never allowed bitterness to unhinge him. And it’s amazing that he never tried to escape. Joseph just wasn’t that kind of man. The way he saw it, they put him in jail so he’d make the best of it until God turned it around for him. Then he’d be in a position to do something constructive with his life.
Joseph understood that they meant it for evil but God meant it for good. For thirteen years not much good happened to Joseph yet his maturity & stability caused him to not see the bars of his prison but to look above the bars & see a God he knew would be faithful to him. That jailer must have realized there was something different about Joseph because he put him in charge of all the other prisoners.
Even in prison God blessed everything Joseph did. Joseph asked the baker & the butler who were in the prison with him to please remember him when they stood before the king. He knew if he was faithful, someday his moment would come, & he was right.
One night Pharaoh had a dream he couldn’t understand. Then the dream recurred & he called his best men in and they couldn’t help him with the interpretation. The butler spoke to the King about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams so Joseph was brought in. It’s no surprise that Joseph was able to give the meaning of the King’s dream for Joseph himself had always been a dreamer.
Eventually, God showed that old heathen Pharaoh, through Joseph what to do to save Egypt in a coming time of famine. Think of the poise and self possession Joseph had in this moment. He not only told the King what the dream meant, he went on & told him how to put the information of the dream to practical use to save his land in coming famine. Because he was prepared to seize opportunity when it came, Joseph was given favor and ended up second in command in Egypt & had the inscription numeral 2 on his license plate.
Often we don’t have the patience to see the fruits of our right doings, but Joseph did. When the story was just about over in Genesis 50, - “Joseph remembered his dream.” Frankly, when you look at all Joseph went through, his emotional and mental condition should have been shot by this time. It’s a wonder he isn’t howling at the moon. But again he shows awesome stability. Even as he was dying he was pouring out his love to his family that had done him so wrong. He assured them,” God will surely visit you and bring you back to the land He has promised to you.”
And then, a man who could have died so young, died at the ripe old age of one hundred & ten. It’s interesting to me that while I’m sure Joseph wasn’t a perfect man; God wouldn’t allow one negative thing to be recorded about him in the entire Bible. A tribute, I believe, to a man of great love & rock- hard trustworthiness & stability. Also,
STABILITY DOESN”T TRY TO LIVE ON MOUNTAIN PEAKS BUT SPECIALIZES IN THE DAILY WALK.
If we try to live our lives from one great moment or experience to another, the times in between will become drudgery to us & we are sure to end up wavering and wobbling through life.
In Acts three, there’s the wonderful story of Peter & John going up to the temple at the hour of prayer. This is the day after Pentecost. This is the day after they had both been in the upper room and been filled with the Spirit along with the rest of the one hundred and twenty who waited there.
Let’s walk beside them for a moment and see if they’ll speak to us. We approach by saying, “excuse me, aren’t you Peter and John? Weren’t you two men in the upper room yesterday when the tongues of fire sat on people and all of you spoke in languages you never learned in school”? “Yes,” -we hear them answer, “you’ve got the right men, we were there. It was a glorious experience and we’ll never be the same again.” “Well” we continue, “Where are you going now?” They answer, “We’re going to the temple. It’s the hour of prayer, it’s our custom to go up and pray.” “But “we say,” “we just checked at the temple and there are just a few people there. Are you sure, after what you experienced yesterday that you want to go to that kind of small meeting? After all, there won’t be tongues of fire and you probably won’t see the same outpouring you saw yesterday.”
Finally they stop and turn to us and say, “Oh- you have us wrong, we know this is a small meeting, we don’t really expect it to be like yesterday. We expect to meet God in the service but not in the same way we met him yesterday. You see, this isn’t the same thing, we aren’t expecting a shaking today. Shakings are good but this will no doubt be a small moment. To be frank with you we are going for one reason and one only; it’s our duty to go to the temple & pray. This is our everyday walk with God.”
The spiritual experience these men had at Pentecost didn’t destroy their appreciation for the small moment, the ordinary, & the everyday walk with God. They were showing stability & Christian maturity in their actions the very next day after one of most miraculous events of their lives.
Furthermore, we read that there was a lame man who had been laid daily at the gate of the temple & as they walked by they saw him. If I’m reading right, this is the first time Peter and John had really seen this man who had been there for years. The story says that they ministered to the man and he was healed & went walking & leaping into the temple praising God. There are many great truths here but what I want you to see is that the magnificent experience of Pentecost gave these men a more dead level perspective than obviously they’d ever had before.
All the mountain top experiences we might have with God are worth little to us if they result in making us less able to see the needs of those around us. The Holy Spirit baptism, in its true reality will allow us to walk in a more consistent way, and will give us power to be stable witnesses for Christ as were Peter and John in this story.
STABILITY IS SYNONYMOUS WITH FOCUS AND SINGLE MINDEDNESS.
Stable people aren’t trapped in the past and won’t allow baggage from the past to affect their present lives. Unwillingness to let go of past hurts is a major cause of instability in a life. How could we be living in stability when our focus is constantly being broken by past hurt & disappointments? I have known people who brought past wounds into their present relationships & destroyed the relationship they were trying to build. The only way we can live balanced lives is to forgive where forgiveness is needed, even if it’s forgiving ourselves & then get on with the business of living.
To be successful in what we are endeavoring to do, we can’t be looking in the rear view mirror all the time. That will only result in broken focus.
Stable people see a big picture and allow nothing to divert their mind from it. They realize that what they focus on becomes the dominate force in their lives. Athletes won’t allow anything to stop them from their training programs for they know the key to their victory is embedded in their everyday schedule. Their victorious outcome isn’t going to be realized by what they do once in awhile but by what they consistently do each & every day of their lives.
Professional golfers will practice sometimes until their hands bleed. Football players will often get their wounds wrapped and go back into a game with blood soaked bandages on. These qualities of stamina and stability in an athlete are what make them heroes to their fans, & are much revered virtues in our culture.
STABLE PEOPLE REALIZE THAT IT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE FIRST HALF OF LIFE THAT’S IMPORTANT- BUT THE SECOND HALF.
I’m sure you remember O.J Simpson. He was born a natural athlete & proved his abilities in College then in the National Football league. He was perhaps the most successful running back in all of professional football.
He obviously made it to the top in sports & then went on to capture Hollywood. His face was constantly seen on movie & T.V screens around the world. He was accepted in the highest social circles & at one time was one of the most recognized & respected men in the world. But none of those things will be remembered about O.J. He will be remembered for allegedly killing his estranged wife & her male companion, & one of the most famous trials of the twentieth century. O.J knew from his football days that the second half is always the most important. As for his life, he lived the first half well but all of that will be overshadowed by what he did in his second half.
The writer of Hebrews urged to a failing Christian community to -Run with patience the race that is set before them their eyes fixed on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross scorning its shame” Hebrews 12:1-2.
If we are to rise to meet the challenge of being what God wants us to be we must know that it can’t be done with a half hearted commitment, only a stable effort will be triumphant.
Blessings,
John
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Grumpy Old Men
By John Stallings
…Don’t turn me out to pasture when I’m old, or put me on the shelf when I can’t pull my weight…… Psalm 71:9-The Message
Two elderly men had been friends all their lives. Over the years they’d shared all kinds of activities & adventures & were actually closer than brothers.
One day they were sitting opposite each other at a card table when one looked at the other & said, “Now don’t get mad with me. I know we’ve been friends for over 80 years but I just can’t remember your name. I’ve thought & thought about it but your name has slipped my mind. Can you please tell me what it is?”
The other man sat & glared at him. For at least 3 minutes he just stared & glared back at his old friend. Finally when it looked like he wouldn’t speak at all he asked, “How soon do you need to know?”
There are two stories I love about hearing aids. The first one is true & it happened to me. I met an old gentleman in his 90’s at the Mall where I often walk. As we walked along he began to tell me about the new hearing aide he’d just purchased. He raved about how good this hearing aide was & finally bragged it was the absolute best that could be purchased anywhere in the world.
I knew he was a very wealthy man & could certainly afford the best of everything. Finally I asked him “What kind is it?” He answered, “Eleven-thirty.”
An older gentleman had a serious hearing problem for a number of years. Finally he went to the doctor & was fitted for a set of hearing aides that allowed him to hear well. About a month later he went back to the doctor for another check-up & the doctor said, “Your hearing is almost perfect. Your family must be pleased that you can hear so well.” The gentleman replied, “ Oh, I tell them my hearing aides don’t work & I can’t hear a thing. I just sit around & listen to the conversation. I’ve changed my Will three times.”
Now days we hear the concept of aging expressed in many different ways. We talk about, “The Senior Years,” and, “The Golden Years.” I like one I recently heard about where the senior club in a church is called The J.O.Y Club, for older folk, or the “Just Older Youths” club.
Comedian George Burns had a definition of old age. He said, “Old age is when you don’t have to own antiques to sit down on something that’s over 80.”
People are living longer today. The life expectancy in 1900 was 49 years. In 1999, the average life expectancy was 76 years. Since more people are alive today in their 80’s & 90’s or even 100 years old, some make the distinction between the “young-old” for those between 60-75 while the “old-old” are 75 plus. I’m not saying I agree with this, I’m only quoting.
In our society, youthfulness is held up as an ideal while in other cultures; old age is accepted as a natural part of the life cycle. We do all we can to stay young & the cosmetic industry is booming because of it. In many cultures older people are revered & looked on as a source of wisdom while in ours, the elderly are sometimes just tolerated or even scorned.
One reason for this is the information explosion. In years past young people learned from the older folk how to do things, now with the booming technology, it’s grandpa going to his grandchild to learn how to operate a computer. This is all part of the big picture of being an older person in the United States today.
LOSS OF HEALTH
As we get older the body begins to wear out & we have aches & pains we never had before. Many older people are faced with chronic illness or physical limitations.
As for me, I can do anything now that I could do at age 21. This gives you an idea of how pathetic I was at 21. Seriously, the only real question I have about aging is what in the world happens at night? When I go to bed I’m walking perfectly, not an ache or pain on the horizon. But too often when I get up, I feel like someone worked me over with a two-by-four during the night. And I have a Sleep Number bed. I guess you just have to walk it off.
Also with age, our memory may start to go. As a matter of fact I was going to put another story in right here but I forgot it.
Many in their older years lose a spouse & this means adjusting to a whole different life without husband or wife. We may start to lose many of our friends. I remember how one of my grandmothers used to remark how strange it felt to lose so many of her friends.
Also, older folk may lose their independence & we can imagine the loss of self-esteem associated with that. There can also be the loss of one’s home because of lack of ability to maintain it & also a reduction in financial resources. All these losses can trigger sadness & depression in the elderly.
Of course there are blessings & benefits associated with the senior years. We might have more free time to travel & do things we never had time to do when we were employed or raising our children. Also enjoying grandchildren or younger children in our family can add a joyful dimension to this stage of life.
Older people are living healthier more active lives. In reality a 65 year old man has on average an estimated life expectancy of over 15 years while a woman that age has a life expectancy of 20.5 years. I find it interesting that old age is a stage of life that now lasts almost as long as youth. It seems that age 40 is the old-age of youth while age 50 is the youth of old age. There, didn’t that make your day?
A FEW FACTS ABOUT OLDER PEOPLE
1. Senior adults have over $1.6 trillion in spending power. [I couldn’t help but think about Austin Powers when I wrote trillion.] That’s nearly twice the U.S average.
2. They buy 41% of all new cars.
3. They purchase 25% of all toys—think grand kids.
4. Account for 80% of all luxury travel.
5. Spend $7 Billion online annually.
6. Spend more time online than teenagers, and
7. Own more than three-fourths of the nation’s wealth.
The “golden years” aren’t called golden for nothing.
PSALM 71 IS A PRAYER WRITTEN BY AN ELDERLY MAN
The whole Psalm is the prayer of an aged man of faith who has lived an honorable life & now seeks God’s deliverance from enemies, sickness & shame.
It begins:
In you O Lord I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me & rescue me; incline your ear to me & save me. Be to me a rock of refuge a strong fortress, to save me for you are my rock & my fortress. Rescue me O my God from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust & cruel.
[Psalm 71:1-4]
He goes on to pray,
Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent. [vr.9]. Whatever we face in our senior years whether fears, losses, loneliness—God will not forsake us! The writer of this psalm knows God as his rock & fortress: Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me. [ver.3] Prayer can & should be the way we get in touch with the power to sustain us.
I think we can say that many old people are grumpy but all of them aren’t; this psalmist certainly isn’t grumpy. Hollywood even made the movie-GRUMPY OLD MEN. Of course there are lots of young grumps & middle-aged grumps also. We can spend our years complaining, or bitter, or nit-picking. We can have a negative attitude or we can praise the Lord.
HERE ARE TEN ATTITUDES TO HELP US AS WE GROW OLDER.
1. Don’t think of yourself as old, think of yourself as experienced.
Job said; -Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?-Job 12:12
We can tell if we’re getting old if;
We feel old,
We often say, “I’m too old to do that.”
We feel the future holds no promise.
We’d rather talk than listen.
We long for the good old days. [I don’t know about you but the good old days nearly killed me.]
Proverbs 23:22 says,--Listen to your father who gave you life, & do not despise your mother when she is old.
This speaks of the wisdom & understanding of older parents.
When I was pre-teen, people would often comment about how smart I was. I knew they were wrong but didn’t really want to argue with them. Teachers would say what potential I had & would remark to my parents what a smart boy they raised. Of course they’d always add, “If Johnny would only apply himself...”
Not to be falsely humble, but I knew I wasn’t as smart as many of my schoolmates because I had the evidence & I often wondered how I could have so many people fooled. Then I figured it out; I used bigger words than most kids my age. The reason for that was, I had two parents that were preachers, [my father matriculated Mercer University in Macon Georgia] & they used big words a lot. Without really trying, just listening, I picked up their words & that made me sound smart.
This is the reason other cultures in the Far East like Japan, honor & revere their parents & grandparents & keep them as close as they can; they know wisdom resides in them. They know the elderly have forgotten more than they’ve yet learned. The trick is not to forget too much.
2. Stay engaged in meaningful activities.
If there is a “youth potion,” its meaningful work. It can be continued work in the “Market Place” or some other meaningful duty such as volunteerism, nonetheless work.
Look at Jack Lalanne. He’s, I think, 92 & still fit as a fiddle & when he takes a notion he’ll swim & pull a barge across San Francisco bay with a leather strap between his teeth, which I’m sure aren’t false. Jack does nothing because he has to but because he knows it keeps him alive.
One of my grandmothers ran a boarding house almost until she went to heaven & was in her late eighties when she passed. I know I’ve shared this before but her sense of humor was in tact on her death bed. Among her last words were; “In just a moment an elevator is going to come down to the foot of my bed, open up, & two angles are going to get out & escort me onto it. They’re going to push the up button & we’re going to heaven.” Then with a twinkle in her eyes she remarked, “I sure hope they don’t push the wrong button.”
Things like skill sharing, delivering meals-on-wheels, visiting shut-ins, & hospital visitation & Sunday school teaching are all things elderly folk can be involved in.
3. Continue to grow & look ahead.
Remember Caleb, the 85 year old man in Joshua 12:13 who asked; Give me this mountain? At that advanced age he still knew exactly what he wanted.
When the well-known Christian industrialist R.G Le Tourneau was asked to name the best ten years of his very productive life, his answer was always the same; “The next ten.”
Psalm 92:12-14 says, --But the godly shall flourish…even in old age they shall produce fruit & be vital & green.
Paul the Apostle noted that even though the outward man grows weak, the inner man can be renewed day by day.
4. Be courageous
Courage is very importance in this process.
The other day I heard a wise lady speaking on the radio about the present fiscal crisis we’re going through in America. She was scolding the purveyors of doom about the economy & she remarked, “You know, often times the patient is killed by fear.”
I couldn’t agree more. Although she was speaking first & foremost about the economy, certainly fear has killed more people than cancer has ever killed.
There is nothing so powerful in old age or for that matter, any age, than a deep abiding faith in God. When we are weak he is strong. Praise His name!
Joshua 1:9 says,--Have I not commanded you? Be strong & of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
5. Understand the power of positive life patterns.
I had several uncles who were very successful in the Insurance business. I’ll never forget the advice one of them gave me when I was in my early twenties. He said, “The young John has got to put some money in the old John’s pocket.” In other words, if the young John spends all he has & arrives in his sunset year’s dead broke; the old John is going to be broke.
The same is true in matters of the disposition. I can look at some younger people & just know they’ll have a hard time growing older. They are fractious & ungracious, without a modicum of the ability to laugh off things they can’t change. Getting older for them will be a horrible experience. Many of them do nothing to cultivate friendships & even alienate their own kin.
Rarely do we find “Grumpy old men” who weren’t grumpy young men. Conversely, rarely do we find “dear sweet old ladies” who were not “dear sweet young ladies.” The attitudes & habits we develop as we grow tend to stay with us & become all the more embedded as we age.
6. Develop a sense of humor.
Good humor is the secret to good aging. If you can’t think of anything to smile about let me help you. Here are a few benefits of growing old;
# Kidnappers aren’t very interested in you.
# In a hostage situation you’re likely to be released first.
# No one expects you to run into a burning building.
# You’ve probably sown all the wild oats you’re going to sow.
# There’s very little to learn the hard way.
# You’re too old to die young.
# When you have a party the neighbors never realize it.
# You can compare notes when talking about operations.
# You have better weather forecasters in your joints than the national Weather Service.
# Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.
An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house. The wives left the table after eating & the husbands were talking. One said, “Last night we had a meal at a great restaurant & I can highly recommend it.” The other man said, “What was the name of the restaurant?” The first man thought & thought & finally said, “What’s the name of the flower you give to someone you love? You know…the one that’s red & has thorns?” “Do you mean rose?”
Yes,” the man replied. He turned toward the kitchen & yelled, “Rose, what’s the name of the restaurant we went to last night?”
7. See the older years as rich, full, productive years.
# Two-thirds of the worlds most creative people are over 60.
# More than two-thirds of the men & women in medicine, education, science, government & the arts are over 60.
# Roughly 10% of those attending college are over 50.
# Strom Thurmond was a U.S Senator at his death at 100.
# David Ray of Franklin TN. learned to read at 99.
# Paul Spangler completed his 14th marathon at age 92.
# Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel lying on his back on a scaffold when he was almost 90.
#At 91, Hulda Crooks climbed Mount Whitney the highest mountain in the Continental United States.
# Will Durant finished his five-volume History of Civilization at age 89.
# Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote “Crossing the bar” at 83.
# Ben Franklin was still working in the government at 78 & wrote his autobiography when he was 80.
# John Glenn went into space aboard the space shuttle when he was 77.Many of those who led the Kingdom of God forward in Scripture were older people;
# Noah
# Abraham & Sarah
# Caleb
# Job
# Anna
# The Apostle Paul
8. Never quit.
We never know when the Lord will call us home. All of us know someone who was supposed to die & lived on well past that date. I’ve learned not to bury people until they’re dead & ready to be buried. God loves to pull surprises & He does so regularly.
Keep in mind that no matter your age you may wind up living 10 or 15 more years, who knows. In fact some people actually live a quarter of their life after retirement. Wouldn’t it be a shame, maybe even a sin if we wasted 25% of our lives here on earth sitting on our differential?
Several years ago the Associated Press ran the story of Andre Raffray. Thirty years prior to that time at the age of 47 he worked out a real estate deal with Jeanne Calment age 90. He would pay her $500 each month until her death, in order to secure ownership of her apartment in Arles France. She could continue to live in her house until she passed away, however when she eventually did die the apartment would then belong to Raffray.
Unfortunately for Raffray, Jeanne Calment became the world’s oldest person. At the time the AP published this account Calment was still alive at the age of 120. She outlived Raffray who died in December 1995 at the age of 77. He paid $184,000 for an apartment he never lived in. According to the contract, Raffray’s survivors had to continue payment until Mrs. Calment’s death. Here’s a very good piece of wisdom; retire if you must, just keep on living.
9. Share your faith in Jesus Christ.
Nothing is as powerful as an older person who's successfully walked the road of faith through the trials of life.
I’m sure I’ll have little to leave to my children but I can leave them a good name, a name that bears no reproach. I would want them to know that I prayed regularly for them & be assured of my love for them. I would also want to leave them a strong witness of my faith in God.
10. Be ready for death.
By the way, you might find it interesting to know that the health club memberships for those over 65 & older are up nearly 150% since 1988. Older folk are taking better care of themselves & it’s paying off in longer life spans.
Nevertheless, the Bible says death will eventually come to us all or Christ will come for us by way of the rapture. You may not believe in rapture, or catching away of the saints, but if you’re saved, you’ll be leaving anyway.
Paul once called himself “Paul the aged.” It was as an old man that he wrote, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.
He also made it clear that though he was willing to continue living in this life, he much preferred going home to be with the Lord. God wants us to live life to the full but He also wants us to live eternity to the full as well. He not only wants us to grow old, he wants us to grow old in the Lord.
If you haven’t spent time in Psalm 71, I urge you to go back & read it for it’s a template for aging. The Psalm ends with a prayer for revival. Life for the aged man now has only one meaning & that’s to bring praise to God & extol His mighty works.
Growing old doesn’t guarantee we make & keep friends, nor that there won’t be times when we feel very much alone. But the writer of this Psalm has come to the final stage of his life prepared in the best possible way.
Hear what he says; -- For you, O Lord are my hope my trust O Lord from my youth. Upon you have I leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. [Vs. 5-6]
Blessings,
John
…Don’t turn me out to pasture when I’m old, or put me on the shelf when I can’t pull my weight…… Psalm 71:9-The Message
Two elderly men had been friends all their lives. Over the years they’d shared all kinds of activities & adventures & were actually closer than brothers.
One day they were sitting opposite each other at a card table when one looked at the other & said, “Now don’t get mad with me. I know we’ve been friends for over 80 years but I just can’t remember your name. I’ve thought & thought about it but your name has slipped my mind. Can you please tell me what it is?”
The other man sat & glared at him. For at least 3 minutes he just stared & glared back at his old friend. Finally when it looked like he wouldn’t speak at all he asked, “How soon do you need to know?”
There are two stories I love about hearing aids. The first one is true & it happened to me. I met an old gentleman in his 90’s at the Mall where I often walk. As we walked along he began to tell me about the new hearing aide he’d just purchased. He raved about how good this hearing aide was & finally bragged it was the absolute best that could be purchased anywhere in the world.
I knew he was a very wealthy man & could certainly afford the best of everything. Finally I asked him “What kind is it?” He answered, “Eleven-thirty.”
An older gentleman had a serious hearing problem for a number of years. Finally he went to the doctor & was fitted for a set of hearing aides that allowed him to hear well. About a month later he went back to the doctor for another check-up & the doctor said, “Your hearing is almost perfect. Your family must be pleased that you can hear so well.” The gentleman replied, “ Oh, I tell them my hearing aides don’t work & I can’t hear a thing. I just sit around & listen to the conversation. I’ve changed my Will three times.”
Now days we hear the concept of aging expressed in many different ways. We talk about, “The Senior Years,” and, “The Golden Years.” I like one I recently heard about where the senior club in a church is called The J.O.Y Club, for older folk, or the “Just Older Youths” club.
Comedian George Burns had a definition of old age. He said, “Old age is when you don’t have to own antiques to sit down on something that’s over 80.”
People are living longer today. The life expectancy in 1900 was 49 years. In 1999, the average life expectancy was 76 years. Since more people are alive today in their 80’s & 90’s or even 100 years old, some make the distinction between the “young-old” for those between 60-75 while the “old-old” are 75 plus. I’m not saying I agree with this, I’m only quoting.
In our society, youthfulness is held up as an ideal while in other cultures; old age is accepted as a natural part of the life cycle. We do all we can to stay young & the cosmetic industry is booming because of it. In many cultures older people are revered & looked on as a source of wisdom while in ours, the elderly are sometimes just tolerated or even scorned.
One reason for this is the information explosion. In years past young people learned from the older folk how to do things, now with the booming technology, it’s grandpa going to his grandchild to learn how to operate a computer. This is all part of the big picture of being an older person in the United States today.
LOSS OF HEALTH
As we get older the body begins to wear out & we have aches & pains we never had before. Many older people are faced with chronic illness or physical limitations.
As for me, I can do anything now that I could do at age 21. This gives you an idea of how pathetic I was at 21. Seriously, the only real question I have about aging is what in the world happens at night? When I go to bed I’m walking perfectly, not an ache or pain on the horizon. But too often when I get up, I feel like someone worked me over with a two-by-four during the night. And I have a Sleep Number bed. I guess you just have to walk it off.
Also with age, our memory may start to go. As a matter of fact I was going to put another story in right here but I forgot it.
Many in their older years lose a spouse & this means adjusting to a whole different life without husband or wife. We may start to lose many of our friends. I remember how one of my grandmothers used to remark how strange it felt to lose so many of her friends.
Also, older folk may lose their independence & we can imagine the loss of self-esteem associated with that. There can also be the loss of one’s home because of lack of ability to maintain it & also a reduction in financial resources. All these losses can trigger sadness & depression in the elderly.
Of course there are blessings & benefits associated with the senior years. We might have more free time to travel & do things we never had time to do when we were employed or raising our children. Also enjoying grandchildren or younger children in our family can add a joyful dimension to this stage of life.
Older people are living healthier more active lives. In reality a 65 year old man has on average an estimated life expectancy of over 15 years while a woman that age has a life expectancy of 20.5 years. I find it interesting that old age is a stage of life that now lasts almost as long as youth. It seems that age 40 is the old-age of youth while age 50 is the youth of old age. There, didn’t that make your day?
A FEW FACTS ABOUT OLDER PEOPLE
1. Senior adults have over $1.6 trillion in spending power. [I couldn’t help but think about Austin Powers when I wrote trillion.] That’s nearly twice the U.S average.
2. They buy 41% of all new cars.
3. They purchase 25% of all toys—think grand kids.
4. Account for 80% of all luxury travel.
5. Spend $7 Billion online annually.
6. Spend more time online than teenagers, and
7. Own more than three-fourths of the nation’s wealth.
The “golden years” aren’t called golden for nothing.
PSALM 71 IS A PRAYER WRITTEN BY AN ELDERLY MAN
The whole Psalm is the prayer of an aged man of faith who has lived an honorable life & now seeks God’s deliverance from enemies, sickness & shame.
It begins:
In you O Lord I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me & rescue me; incline your ear to me & save me. Be to me a rock of refuge a strong fortress, to save me for you are my rock & my fortress. Rescue me O my God from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust & cruel.
[Psalm 71:1-4]
He goes on to pray,
Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent. [vr.9]. Whatever we face in our senior years whether fears, losses, loneliness—God will not forsake us! The writer of this psalm knows God as his rock & fortress: Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me. [ver.3] Prayer can & should be the way we get in touch with the power to sustain us.
I think we can say that many old people are grumpy but all of them aren’t; this psalmist certainly isn’t grumpy. Hollywood even made the movie-GRUMPY OLD MEN. Of course there are lots of young grumps & middle-aged grumps also. We can spend our years complaining, or bitter, or nit-picking. We can have a negative attitude or we can praise the Lord.
HERE ARE TEN ATTITUDES TO HELP US AS WE GROW OLDER.
1. Don’t think of yourself as old, think of yourself as experienced.
Job said; -Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?-Job 12:12
We can tell if we’re getting old if;
We feel old,
We often say, “I’m too old to do that.”
We feel the future holds no promise.
We’d rather talk than listen.
We long for the good old days. [I don’t know about you but the good old days nearly killed me.]
Proverbs 23:22 says,--Listen to your father who gave you life, & do not despise your mother when she is old.
This speaks of the wisdom & understanding of older parents.
When I was pre-teen, people would often comment about how smart I was. I knew they were wrong but didn’t really want to argue with them. Teachers would say what potential I had & would remark to my parents what a smart boy they raised. Of course they’d always add, “If Johnny would only apply himself...”
Not to be falsely humble, but I knew I wasn’t as smart as many of my schoolmates because I had the evidence & I often wondered how I could have so many people fooled. Then I figured it out; I used bigger words than most kids my age. The reason for that was, I had two parents that were preachers, [my father matriculated Mercer University in Macon Georgia] & they used big words a lot. Without really trying, just listening, I picked up their words & that made me sound smart.
This is the reason other cultures in the Far East like Japan, honor & revere their parents & grandparents & keep them as close as they can; they know wisdom resides in them. They know the elderly have forgotten more than they’ve yet learned. The trick is not to forget too much.
2. Stay engaged in meaningful activities.
If there is a “youth potion,” its meaningful work. It can be continued work in the “Market Place” or some other meaningful duty such as volunteerism, nonetheless work.
Look at Jack Lalanne. He’s, I think, 92 & still fit as a fiddle & when he takes a notion he’ll swim & pull a barge across San Francisco bay with a leather strap between his teeth, which I’m sure aren’t false. Jack does nothing because he has to but because he knows it keeps him alive.
One of my grandmothers ran a boarding house almost until she went to heaven & was in her late eighties when she passed. I know I’ve shared this before but her sense of humor was in tact on her death bed. Among her last words were; “In just a moment an elevator is going to come down to the foot of my bed, open up, & two angles are going to get out & escort me onto it. They’re going to push the up button & we’re going to heaven.” Then with a twinkle in her eyes she remarked, “I sure hope they don’t push the wrong button.”
Things like skill sharing, delivering meals-on-wheels, visiting shut-ins, & hospital visitation & Sunday school teaching are all things elderly folk can be involved in.
3. Continue to grow & look ahead.
Remember Caleb, the 85 year old man in Joshua 12:13 who asked; Give me this mountain? At that advanced age he still knew exactly what he wanted.
When the well-known Christian industrialist R.G Le Tourneau was asked to name the best ten years of his very productive life, his answer was always the same; “The next ten.”
Psalm 92:12-14 says, --But the godly shall flourish…even in old age they shall produce fruit & be vital & green.
Paul the Apostle noted that even though the outward man grows weak, the inner man can be renewed day by day.
4. Be courageous
Courage is very importance in this process.
The other day I heard a wise lady speaking on the radio about the present fiscal crisis we’re going through in America. She was scolding the purveyors of doom about the economy & she remarked, “You know, often times the patient is killed by fear.”
I couldn’t agree more. Although she was speaking first & foremost about the economy, certainly fear has killed more people than cancer has ever killed.
There is nothing so powerful in old age or for that matter, any age, than a deep abiding faith in God. When we are weak he is strong. Praise His name!
Joshua 1:9 says,--Have I not commanded you? Be strong & of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
5. Understand the power of positive life patterns.
I had several uncles who were very successful in the Insurance business. I’ll never forget the advice one of them gave me when I was in my early twenties. He said, “The young John has got to put some money in the old John’s pocket.” In other words, if the young John spends all he has & arrives in his sunset year’s dead broke; the old John is going to be broke.
The same is true in matters of the disposition. I can look at some younger people & just know they’ll have a hard time growing older. They are fractious & ungracious, without a modicum of the ability to laugh off things they can’t change. Getting older for them will be a horrible experience. Many of them do nothing to cultivate friendships & even alienate their own kin.
Rarely do we find “Grumpy old men” who weren’t grumpy young men. Conversely, rarely do we find “dear sweet old ladies” who were not “dear sweet young ladies.” The attitudes & habits we develop as we grow tend to stay with us & become all the more embedded as we age.
6. Develop a sense of humor.
Good humor is the secret to good aging. If you can’t think of anything to smile about let me help you. Here are a few benefits of growing old;
# Kidnappers aren’t very interested in you.
# In a hostage situation you’re likely to be released first.
# No one expects you to run into a burning building.
# You’ve probably sown all the wild oats you’re going to sow.
# There’s very little to learn the hard way.
# You’re too old to die young.
# When you have a party the neighbors never realize it.
# You can compare notes when talking about operations.
# You have better weather forecasters in your joints than the national Weather Service.
# Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.
An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house. The wives left the table after eating & the husbands were talking. One said, “Last night we had a meal at a great restaurant & I can highly recommend it.” The other man said, “What was the name of the restaurant?” The first man thought & thought & finally said, “What’s the name of the flower you give to someone you love? You know…the one that’s red & has thorns?” “Do you mean rose?”
Yes,” the man replied. He turned toward the kitchen & yelled, “Rose, what’s the name of the restaurant we went to last night?”
7. See the older years as rich, full, productive years.
# Two-thirds of the worlds most creative people are over 60.
# More than two-thirds of the men & women in medicine, education, science, government & the arts are over 60.
# Roughly 10% of those attending college are over 50.
# Strom Thurmond was a U.S Senator at his death at 100.
# David Ray of Franklin TN. learned to read at 99.
# Paul Spangler completed his 14th marathon at age 92.
# Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel lying on his back on a scaffold when he was almost 90.
#At 91, Hulda Crooks climbed Mount Whitney the highest mountain in the Continental United States.
# Will Durant finished his five-volume History of Civilization at age 89.
# Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote “Crossing the bar” at 83.
# Ben Franklin was still working in the government at 78 & wrote his autobiography when he was 80.
# John Glenn went into space aboard the space shuttle when he was 77.Many of those who led the Kingdom of God forward in Scripture were older people;
# Noah
# Abraham & Sarah
# Caleb
# Job
# Anna
# The Apostle Paul
8. Never quit.
We never know when the Lord will call us home. All of us know someone who was supposed to die & lived on well past that date. I’ve learned not to bury people until they’re dead & ready to be buried. God loves to pull surprises & He does so regularly.
Keep in mind that no matter your age you may wind up living 10 or 15 more years, who knows. In fact some people actually live a quarter of their life after retirement. Wouldn’t it be a shame, maybe even a sin if we wasted 25% of our lives here on earth sitting on our differential?
Several years ago the Associated Press ran the story of Andre Raffray. Thirty years prior to that time at the age of 47 he worked out a real estate deal with Jeanne Calment age 90. He would pay her $500 each month until her death, in order to secure ownership of her apartment in Arles France. She could continue to live in her house until she passed away, however when she eventually did die the apartment would then belong to Raffray.
Unfortunately for Raffray, Jeanne Calment became the world’s oldest person. At the time the AP published this account Calment was still alive at the age of 120. She outlived Raffray who died in December 1995 at the age of 77. He paid $184,000 for an apartment he never lived in. According to the contract, Raffray’s survivors had to continue payment until Mrs. Calment’s death. Here’s a very good piece of wisdom; retire if you must, just keep on living.
9. Share your faith in Jesus Christ.
Nothing is as powerful as an older person who's successfully walked the road of faith through the trials of life.
I’m sure I’ll have little to leave to my children but I can leave them a good name, a name that bears no reproach. I would want them to know that I prayed regularly for them & be assured of my love for them. I would also want to leave them a strong witness of my faith in God.
10. Be ready for death.
By the way, you might find it interesting to know that the health club memberships for those over 65 & older are up nearly 150% since 1988. Older folk are taking better care of themselves & it’s paying off in longer life spans.
Nevertheless, the Bible says death will eventually come to us all or Christ will come for us by way of the rapture. You may not believe in rapture, or catching away of the saints, but if you’re saved, you’ll be leaving anyway.
Paul once called himself “Paul the aged.” It was as an old man that he wrote, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.
He also made it clear that though he was willing to continue living in this life, he much preferred going home to be with the Lord. God wants us to live life to the full but He also wants us to live eternity to the full as well. He not only wants us to grow old, he wants us to grow old in the Lord.
If you haven’t spent time in Psalm 71, I urge you to go back & read it for it’s a template for aging. The Psalm ends with a prayer for revival. Life for the aged man now has only one meaning & that’s to bring praise to God & extol His mighty works.
Growing old doesn’t guarantee we make & keep friends, nor that there won’t be times when we feel very much alone. But the writer of this Psalm has come to the final stage of his life prepared in the best possible way.
Hear what he says; -- For you, O Lord are my hope my trust O Lord from my youth. Upon you have I leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. [Vs. 5-6]
Blessings,
John
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