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Genesis 7:6, Psalm 90:10

The Human Life Expectancy

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 16, 2023

TGod looked down upon the earth (figuratively speaking) and saw that violence was the focus of man’s intentions. This grieved His heart, and He proclaimed a day of judgment coming.  He resolved to preserve mankind by providing a way of escaping the coming judgment. Noah believed God. Because he believed in God, he spent over a hundred years preparing for the coming flood waters as God instructed him. Noah was not a young man when the floods came. Genesis 7:6 tells us, “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.” Before the flood, people lived a long time. Many argue that in Genesis 6:3 we learn that God was about to reduce man’s lifespan to 120 years. There is still a lot of discussion about this. It could be referring to how long it will be before God sends the flood upon the earth. It says, “Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’” This did not happen all at once. Those born before the flood still lived long lives. The person who lived to be the oldest is  Methuselah. He lived to be 969 years.  Jared is said to have lived till he was 962 years old. Noah lived for about 950 years. Other similar lifespans are also recorded. But what we see following the flood is a gradual decline in human lifespans.

In later genealogies in the Bible, we notice a big change in the ages of people from Eber to Peleg. At that time, the lifespan of man was cut in half swiftly.  Some attribute this phenomenon to the “dividing” of the earth in Peleg’s lifetime. The argument might be that the flood caused cataclysmic events that removed the earth’s protective canopy of water, which caused a situation on Earth where our life spans declined. Genesis 10:25 tells us that it was in Peleg’s day that the “earth was divided.” Some argue that the receding waters created the continental shift, which made the continents as they are now. There was once one huge land mass, and during Peleg’s day, the cataclysmic event of a drastic continental shift did something to cause man’s lifespan to decrease.”

I was visiting a nursing home recently and saw a gentleman wearing a t-shirt that said 104 on it. I asked if that was his age. I was told that yes, it was, but the shirt is two years old! He was 106. He moved on his own. He was in the independent living section and seemed to be intelligent. The record for long life is in the 120s. I recently read that the oldest woman lived in Nebraska until last year (2022). She passed away at 122. You could say that the prophecy of Genesis 10 seems to work out to be true. However, in Psalm 90, we read that Moses limits man’s life even more. Psalm 90:10 says, “The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” But this has been recognized as the average, not the limit. When I looked this up on Google, I found that the average lifespan for people on the whole earth is 69.9 years. That includes some third-world countries that have a low life expectancy. The lifespan of those living in the United States is closer to 77 years. However, we’ve been seeing a decrease in our lifespans. One report says, “Life expectancy at birth in the United States declined nearly a year from 2020 to 2021, according to new provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). That decline – 77.0 to 76.1 years – took U.S. life expectancy at birth to its lowest level since 1996. The 0.9-year drop in life expectancy in 2021, along with a 1.8-year drop in 2020, was the biggest two-year decline in life expectancy since 1921-1923.”[1]

[1] Life Expectancy in the U.S. Dropped for the Second Year in a Row in 2021 (cdc.gov)

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Revelation 1:3

The Certainty of Christ’s Return

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 15, 2023

John promises a special blessing for those who read the Book of Revelation and those who hear the book read aloud. In the midst of great persecution, the new believers in Jesus were frequently threatened with death or torture if they refused to renounce their faith and offer incense to the gods of Rome. But John wants them to “keep” the faith because although they appear to be losers now, they will win in the end. He says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” I disagree with Osborne, who suggests that “The focus is not just on eschatology but on ethics. In other words, in light of the fact that ‘the time is near,’ we are called to live decisively and completely for God.”[1] No one lives decisively and completely for God. That’s something that’s not in the capacity of fallen human beings. When the Israelites decided to live completely for God, they promised to keep all of Moses’s laws. Then Moses tells them that they won’t do it. Again, Joshua charges the people to choose this day which God they will serve, and when the people say they will serve the one true God, Joshua says in Joshua 24:9, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.” The focus is on eschatology. In Jesus, we will have the ultimate victory!

The last phrase of this verse, “for the time is near,” has caused great confusion in every generation since it was written. Keener points out how every generation from the beginning has looked for the victory of Jesus to come during their lifetime or at a certain point in history. He spends several pages of his commentary on Revelation explaining each one of the prophecies of the past. Each of these prophecies has failed. Jesus made it clear that no one knows the time of his return to set up the kingdom. Only the father himself knows the “when.” At Jesus’ ascension, the apostles asked him if now was the time, and he instructed them not to focus on that but to focus on “keeping” the faith until he returned. Keener’s conclusion is right when he says, “Setting deadlines—or predicting the signs that suggest such deadlines—misses the point. With or without such signs, we should always be ready.”[2]

Richison rightly understands that the issue isn’t as much “nearness in time” as much as it is concerned with the imminency of Christ’s return. He writes, “The idea is that of imminence. Imminence does not necessarily mean near in time. The word ‘near’ means impending. No prophecy needs to be fulfilled before the Lord comes. He could come in the next few minutes or He might not come for another hundred years. This is the next event on God’s prophetic program.”[3] Wrapped up with the idea of imminency is the idea of certainty. It was John who told us about Jesus’ words assuring the disciples that he would go and prepare a place for them but would return to take them to be with Him. He assured them that he would not have told them so if it were not true. John is, again, in this last book of the bible, reminding his readers, as well as all throughout history who hear and read this prophecy concerning Christ’s return, that they can take this truth to the bank. This certainty is accompanied by the assurance that Jesus will take us to be with himself. He has already prepared a place for us. We might fail in life in many ways, but Jesus will not go back on His promise. The realization of this truth will affect how we live today. Underwood writes, “Yet the certainty of Christ’s return is to influence the entirety of our lives. As a result, we don’t cheat on exams, we don’t throw out our used motor oil in a way that pollutes God’s creation, and we demonstrate Christian patience (and maybe even evangelism) while in a long checkout line to pay for our new socks. Living life in view of Christ’s return is a lifelong discipline. It starts with being convinced of the certainty of that great event.”[4]

[1] Osborne, Grant R. 2002. Revelation. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

[2] Keener, Craig S. 1999. Revelation. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[3] Richison, Grant. 2006. Verse by Verse through the Book of Revelation. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems.

[4] Underwood, Jonathan, and Ronald L. Nickelson, eds. 2006. The NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2006–2007. Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing.

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Jude 1:5, John 3:16

Lack Of Faith

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 14, 2023

Jude wants to snuggle up with his fellow believers but feels compelled to contend with those who are teaching false doctrine that has led to licentiousness in the church. These false teachers have “crept in unnoticed.” Jude says they “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Verse 4).  The noted philosopher George Santayana penned one of the great truths about human history: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His observation echoes a somewhat more cynical version written earlier by the German philosopher Friedrich Hegel: “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”  Further, Aldous Huxley said, “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” What surprises me most about these three quotations is that all three come from men who are atheists or agnostics. They may think they have a market for their ideas, but they are merely saying something Jude told his readers thousands of years earlier. He reminds his readers of an important historical truth that some may have forgotten. Jude 5 says, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”

 The Old Testament is full of reminders to God’s people of God’s miraculous works in their lives in the past. The Exodus from Egypt is one of the more common historical events that proved to the world that the God of Israel was greater than all other gods. Whereas the pagan gods had their worshippers fight for them, feed them, carry them around, and protect them. The God of Israel carried His people through the Red Sea, fought and destroyed the Egyptian Army, fed them in the wilderness, and carried them from slavery to freedom in the promised land. The three wise men quoted above were not thinking of any Biblical lessons. But they knew that something had been forgotten that should have taught us a very important lesson. What Jude is reminding us of is that God is mighty to save. He did so in the past, and He can still save today.

Even after such a great deliverance, some came out of Egypt with them and did not believe that God could save them from the hands of the giants they saw dwelling in the land they were supposed to take as their own possession. Shaddix says, “Jude has in mind Numbers 14 when the twelve spies returned from their reconnaissance mission into the promised land. The majority report of ten said, ‘We can’t do this. They are giants, and we are grasshoppers.’ The minority report of two (Joshua and Caleb) said, ‘No problem. After all, grasshoppers plus God can beat any giants!’ However, the people who had seen God do so much, now in unbelief, said, ‘Well, he can’t do this.’ The result: every person twenty years old and over died. All of them! They missed the promised land. They missed God’s best. Forgetting God’s grace and greatness, they dug their graves in the wilderness within sight of the land God had promised, saying, ‘God did it before, but I cannot trust him to do it again.’”[1] Jude wants his readers to remember that “unbelief” leads to catastrophe. We are to remember God’s work and apply that to our lives, knowing that He is still able today. Those who were “destroyed” in Jude’s words were those who did not believe. Jude knows well that salvation is based on faith and not works. It wasn’t their failure to do something. It was their failure to believe something. It was Jesus, according to Jude, that saved the people from Egypt. It is Jesus who saves us today as well. John 3:16 makes it clear, “God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten Son so that whoever would believe (have faith) in Him, would not perish but have everlasting life.”

[1] Shaddix, James, and Daniel L. Akin. 2018. Exalting Jesus in 2 Peter, Jude. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference.

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3 John 1:6

Walking Worthy Of God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 13, 2023

Diotrephes was a church leader that rejected the authority of John, Paul, and most likely the other apostles. He caused a split in the Church that met at Gaius’ house. The problem could very well have been a theological one regarding the nature of Christ. John’s main conflicts involved the gnostic view that Jesus was just a man upon whom came the spirit of Christ, the Messiah. John and the others taught that Jesus came in the flesh and was born of a woman impregnated by the Holy Spirit. The two leaders of the division seem to be the divisive Diotrephes and the faithful follower of John, Gaius. We don’t know who this Gaius is, but according to one blogger, “According to tradition, this Gaius may be the one whom John appointed as bishop of Pergamum.”[1] Regardless, John commends Gaius for his faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, and John mentions that he has a great reputation among Christians all over the area. In 3 John 1:5-6, he says, “Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.”

They showed their hospitality and acceptance of those who were sent to the church by John rather than rejecting them and their message as Diotrephes did. John recommends that they continue such gracious hospitality even when the visitors move on. He tells them it will be good for them to send them off well. Most commentators like to relate the visitors John is writing about to modern missionaries traveling from church to church to raise support. Richison has an interesting comparison. He writes, “Motivation for ministry should be outgoing love that is self-giving and spontaneous. People who truly love God do not begrudge giving to the cause of Christ. They willingly invite speakers and missionaries into their homes, serve them a good meal, and get to know their specific needs. They also willingly help in practical ways, such as driving a visiting speaker to the airport and making sure he has something to eat.”[2] I don’t think John was recommending that Gaius “drive” his visitors to the “airport,” but I understand the principle that Richison thinks is being promoted here.

Whatever the specifics are in this case, John wants it done in a “manner worthy of God.” There are many comments about what it might mean for Gaius to send out the visitors “In a manner worthy of God.” I think Wright has the right idea. He says, “That means, in such a way, that one can look up to God and expect his approval. Or, in such a way, we would do it if it were Jesus himself whom we were sending on his way. What would we not do for him? Would such a perspective and such an ideal not transform the way we make provision for the sending out of mission partners, whether as churches or as mission agencies?” Wright then concludes, “Third John 6 should be written as a motto on the walls, desk calendars, or computer screens of all those with responsibility for the sending of people in mission, in churches or mission agencies, or in training institutions.”[3] Yet, it’s important to remember that one cannot merit God’s favor. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve God’s love. He gives that freely, and it comes to us through the channel of our faith in Jesus. After commenting on living a life “worthy of God,” John Piper says, “So think this way. Not: I must have faith and love so as to be worth God’s favor; But rather: God’s favor is free and it is infinitely worth trusting. Walking worthy of that favor means walking by faith because faith is the one thing that agrees with (and fits) our bankruptcy and God’s infinite ‘worth.’ Looking to God’s infinite worth for our help and satisfaction is ‘walking worthy of God.’[4] God is worthy. I am not. To walk worthy is to walk with a clear understanding and appreciation of God’s worth. I have faith, or believe, in the worthiness of Christ.

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/Gaius-in-the-Bible.html

[2] Richison, Grant. 2006. Verse by Verse through the Books of 1, 2 & 3 John. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems.

[3] Wright, Christopher J. H. 2010. The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission. Biblical Theology for Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] Piper, John. 2005. Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.

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2 John 1:6

In The Same Boat

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 12, 2023

John reminds us that walking in the truth means living our lives and realizing our culpability before God. As Isaiah says, and Paul agrees, no one is righteous and never sins. That person just doesn’t exist. The story of Diogenes and what most people remember about him is that he wandered around ancient Greece carrying a lantern, searching for an honest man, which he never found. He did this to prove his point that there was no such thing. I’m wondering if Diogenes had read the book of Isaiah. Instead of trying to look for someone righteous, John tells us to walk around in the truth of our own sinfulness. That will enable us to love even the other sinners around us. If you walk in love, you will keep the commandments from the heart, not from the works of the flesh. Thus, God will remove the heart of stone and replace it with a truly human heart with its flaws and failures. It’s a matter of love, not law. So, John continues this subject in 2 John 1:6 when he says, “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.”

The New Testament makes a big deal about understanding the importance of love for God and others. Jesus named these two as the most important of all the commandments. He said that all the rest of the laws either depend on them or are suspended from them.  In this verse, John wants us to understand that we shouldn’t walk around in life searching for righteousness in others. Like Diogenes, you’ll live a very disappointing life. But if you walk in the truth of your own sinfulness, understanding that God loves you anyway, you too will be able to love others in spite of their failures and frailties. God loves sinners. As both John the Baptist and Jesus preached, the first step in the Christian life is to repent. That doesn’t mean to say you are sorry for something you did wrong. That’s confession. We should confess to God for forgiveness of that sin and to others we have wronged to find healing in our relationships. Repentance is different. One blogger explained the idea pretty well. He said, “I am a sinner.  If you don’t know that about me, then you don’t really know me.  I am a sinner by birth (Rom. 5:12-18; Ps. 51:5), by nature (Rom. 7:19-21; Eph. 2:3), and by choice (1 Kings 8:46; Rom. 3:9-18).  You are a sinner.  Suppose you don’t know that about yourself, then you don’t really know yourself.  God loves sinners.  If you don’t know that about God, then you don’t really know God.”[1]

We are all sinners before we are saved and after we are saved. Johnny Cash once did an album called American Recordings. On the album cover is a picture of two dogs. One dog is black with a white stripe. The other dog is white with a black stripe. The two dogs are meant to say something about Johnny Cash. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Cash explains what the two dogs mean. “Their names are Sin and Redemption. Sin is the black one with the white stripe; Redemption is the white one with the black stripe.” Before salvation, sin has not totally destroyed the image of God in which we have been created. There’s still a white stripe to which the Gospel is always appealing. After redemption, a black stripe of sin remains, and we constantly battle it. We are all sinners who need to be redeemed. We all need Jesus.[2] If we fall prey to the false teaching that we no longer sin after coming to faith in Jesus, we will find it’s nearly impossible to love other sinners. We become the pharisee who looks down upon the sinner at the time of prayer at the temple. We become Diogenes looking for perfect people. We judge others in every part of their lives according to our victories or priorities while ignoring our own weaknesses. Only Jesus was perfect. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. When we both see ourselves as God sees us, we can have fellowship with each other. We are all in the same boat. A true Christian has two things in common that foster healthy relationships. First, he is a sinner. Second, he believes Jesus died for his sins. We are pulling on these two oars in our boat as we cruise through life.

[1] I am a sinner – Thinking on Scripture

[2] Larson, Craig Brian. 2002. 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

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2 Corinthians 5:20, Isaiah 33:7

Ambassadors Of Peace On Earth

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 11, 2023

I’ve been watching the News more than I should this week. Hamas has set its heart on the destruction of Israel. Pharoah did it in Egypt. God responded with plagues and destruction of the entire army in the Red Sea. Hitler tried it in Germany, and God responded with total destruction of the Nazi Regime. The hatred of the Jews has been a theme throughout history. The two mentioned are just the most famous episodes. There have been other attempts to eradicate Israel from the face of the Earth. As I watched the News, saw some of the scenes of devastation, and heard the report of total disregard for the lives of innocent women and children, I couldn’t help but remember what the Prophet Isaiah foretold about the Nation of Israel. Isaiah 33:7-8 says, “Behold, their valiant ones cry without; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases. The enemy has broken the covenant. He has despised the cities and the witnesses. He regards no man.”

In the Middle East, two religions are at war. Judaism is at war with Islam. Islam is at war with Judaism. They will fight each other to the death for the sake of their religion. I wish the world would understand that Jesus did not come to set up another competing religion, which is the way the world shapes the struggle. The world presents Christianity as the third religion in the world, alongside Judaism and Islam. Jesus came to reconcile the world to God, not to add another player to the world scene. God sent Jesus to be the mediator, the representative who would reconcile sinful man to a holy God. His task was accomplished when he said, “It is finished,” before he died on the cross. We now have been given the task of being God’s spokesman for this wonderful message. Paul makes this perfectly clear in 2 Corinthians 5:20 when he says, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you, on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God.”

Notice the emotion connected with the plea. It says, “We implore you.” This is a passionate plea. Instead of killing people in the name of religion, Jesus pleads with the whole world to set aside their cultural and religious differences. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile or any other distinction that pits one group against another. All have sinned and fallen short of God’s plan for man. The passive voice of the verb must be translated as “be reconciled.” It’s to receive God’s offer, not to make a contrary offer. There’s no negotiation in God’s offer of peace. This is a passionate offer of peace because peace with God is the result of reconciliation. The atoning, substitutionary death of Christ brings reconciliation and peace with God.  Beautifully, the promise of this peace was made long ago by the prophet who condemns us for our sins. Isaiah says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” As Ambassadors, we’ve been entrusted with the most wonderful message in the world.  The Angel announced it at Jesus’ birth, “Peace on Earth.”

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1 John 1:6

The Light Of The World

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 11, 2023

Jesus is the light of the world, according to John. He says as much in both his Gospel and his epistles. Living in the light is living in the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The light is living in the knowledge of our eternal destiny. God created us in His own image, and we have meaning, purpose, and an eternal destiny. Living in the darkness is to live in the moment for the here and the now. Like Satan, those living in the dark only take their nourishment from the earth. Their appetites are only fleshly and earth-bound. When God cursed the serpent, he would crawl along with his belly on the ground. His diet would be the dust of the ground. Those that are deceived by Satan draw their nourishment only for their flesh. But in Christ, our appetites are spiritual and eternal. It is only in the light that we can have fellowship with Christ. Living in the dark recesses of our flesh destroys our walk with Christ. John says in 1 John 1:6, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” In John’s gospel, Jesus claimed to be the “light of the world.” In the opening Chapter of that gospel, John informs us that the light of the world came into the world, and the world would not accept it. It could not, however, extinguish it either. John then adds, “But to those who receive Him, to them, God gives the power to become children of God.”

Receiving Jesus is a step into the light. It is also a step into the truth. Jesus also told us that he was the way, the truth, and the life. Many, if not most, commentators consider this passage to be about how allowing sin in our lives is what John means by walking in darkness. Obviously, a person living and preaching license to live any way the flesh might draw us is promoting the feeding of our earthly appetites. That’s walking in darkness, not walking in the light. Those who proclaim to be Christians and support and have “pride” in an immoral lifestyle are surely walking in darkness and are not practicing the truth. To reject the moral standards taught in the Bible and then claim to be a follower of God is inconsistent with the truth. “God accomplishes His will on earth through truth, and Satan accomplishes his purposes on earth through lies.” As the father of lies, Satan wreaks havoc on families.  Every time there is destruction among God’s people, it’s because the deceiver has been allowed to have just a little bit of a foothold in someone’s life. Today, the spirit of deception is rampant. But let’s not forget that in the midst of this problem, there is Jesus. In the midst of the deception, there is the Truth. In the midst of all of the seduction of our society, there is the absolute, rock-solid person of the Lord Jesus Christ—the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When we put our trust in Him, we can live above deception and on the level of truth.”[1]

I don’t want to miss the fact that many who profess to be Christians have not truly believed in the Son of God as we find Him in the Bible. “Historically, Christians have believed that Jesus is nothing less than the incarnate Son of God in whom the fullness of the Deity dwells in human form; fully divine and fully human– the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Recent evidence suggests that what Christians have historically affirmed is now up for grabs. A surprising number of Christians, including evangelicals, are not convinced of Jesus’ unique nature.” The current religious diversity practices have diluted Jesus’s person and work. He is the truth! Paul warned the Galatians about believing in or embracing “another gospel.” Even if an angel would tell you, or if someone proclaiming to be Paul would proclaim a gospel different from the one proclaimed at the beginning, you should not accept it. It is the church’s calling to continue to bear witness to Jesus and demonstrate the significance of his person for the whole fabric of the Christian faith. If we fail to stand fast here, everything else will be in vain, and the Christian church will lose its bearings.”[2]

[1] Jeremiah, David. 2002. Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God. Nashville, TN: Integrity Publishers.

[2] Sailer, William, J. Creighton Christman, David C. Greulich, Harold P. Scanlin, Stephen J. Lennox, and Phillip Guistwite. 2012. Religious and Theological Abstracts. Myerstown, PA: Religious and Theological Abstracts.

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2 Peter 1:3, various

To God Be The Glory

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 10, 2023

On the basis of God’s unconditional love, he has given us life. He made us simply because he loves us. And in this life, He has also provided all the things we need. Peter tells us at the end of 2 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

 God has given us all we need for temporal and eternal life. Both are free gifts. Both have been granted to us through His divine power. Temporal life is given to us before we are born. God weaves us together in our mother’s wombs. In Psalm 139:13-14, the Psalmist sings about it, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God brought forth the gift of life from our mother’s wombs. In Psalm 71, Another Psalmist says, “Upon you, I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.” It is the power of God that brings about our temporal lives. God’s power provides all we need for our lives on earth as long as we live. As children of faith, children of Abraham, we see God’s power from before time began until the day we leave this world. Isaiah 46:3-4 speaks for God, “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” Jesus tells us that he not only wants us to have life but also says in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Peter wants us to understand that the life we have been given is not only in this world but into eternity.

When Nicodemus was talking with Jesus, he was told that he must be born again to receive eternal life. He replied in John 3:4, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” We receive our physical life by passing through our mother’s birth canal. As we are born through the birth canal of our mothers by the power of God, we are also born again through the birth canal of faith into spiritual life by the power of God. In His further conversation with Nicodemus, he said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” Both our physical existence and eternal life awaiting us are produced solely by the power of God. That’s why the Psalmist can always praise God’s glory for his life. Our lives in every capacity result in the praise of His Glory. We get no credit for our temporal life or the eternal life that comes through faith in Jesus. They are both gifts from God. In Acts 17:24-25, Paul says, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

 

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