Life Investments

I've been thinking about all week how Christmas is next month. I can't believe it's already here...again. It seems it wasn't that long ago we got the decorations put away. It's probably not as long as it seems, though, considering our christmas tree wound up residing in our living room for quite a while after the holidays (seems like March when it finally "moved out"). I'm not kidding...I love putting those decorations up, well, other than assembling the fake tree we have; I let my wife have fun with that. However, I detest dismantling that tree and all those decorations, having to move them back to their home in the attic.

I started thinking about writing this article a while back, way before Christmas was on the horizon. It's one of those things I'd been wanting to write on, but it always kept getting pushed back in my mind somewhere until now.

A couple of years ago, around Christmas time, the mayor grandson's, a city firefighter where we live, died while responding on a call. I can't remember much about it, other than it seems that another vehicle hit the firetruck en route to the call. We live in a small town (I say "small" because there are only about 8000 people or so who live here), so it's one of those situations where "everybody knows everybody". The young man was spoken highly of by the people who live here, and most everyone knew his grandfather was the mayor. After his death, one of the new fire stations which had been built to serve the expanding area, was named after him. I didn't know the city had named the fire station after him until I was riding through the newly developed area about a year ago and saw his name on the building.

I started thinking about how people "make their marks" in life doing certain things. Obviously, he did quite a lot being a firefighter. I think most of us want that for ourselves. We have a desire to accomplish good things for others, make the world a better place, so to speak, while we're alive. It's something innate within us.

I started thinking about too as I drove past that fire station that, although people do all sorts of "good" things in life they are of no value unless we do them within God's will for our lives. What is God's will? God's will, first and foremost, is that we be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). We must come to the realization that we're all sinners, and that we need God's help to be reconciled to Him.

Now, I don't know what this young man's spiritual condition was at the time when he passed away. I had heard the family was from a christian background, so it's a good possibility he was saved. Without salvation, though, none of us are considered righteous in God's sight. The Bible says in Isaiah, that our "good deeds" (those deeds done outside of a reconciled relationship with God) are as "filthy rags" in His sight; they don't have any importance or relevance to Him. When we get to the end of this life and we stand before God, if we don't know Christ as Lord and Savior, we're going to be standing there with "empty pockets" when it comes to what we'll have to offer God for what we've done with our lives. He won't accept those "good deeds" as consideration, and we'll have wasted our lives away by not being able to experience those things that God had planned for us.

The good news is that God does want us to do "good deeds" to bring glory to Him, but those have to be done within the confines of one's salvation. Therefore, if we are saved, and we do those things that God wants us to do while we're here, He'll reward us in Heaven for them one day. God says our righteousness is through Jesus Christ, and Him alone. God considers us "clean" first and foremost by our acceptance of His provision for redeeming us from sin.



But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:21-24)

...but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:24)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)



All this leads to one point I want to get across: Don't spend your life apart from God's will, trying to do what's "good" to get yourselves into heaven, because it won't work. If you don't accept Christ as your savior while you're living, you're basically "spinning your wheels", even if you accomplish some wonderful things in this life. If you live outside God's will, you've, in effect, wasted your life. It may not look that way from the world's perspective, but from an eternal perspective, you have. True success in life comes from accomplishing those things God wants to do through you. Think about it: God made each of us with His own hands. He created us and gave us life. He made us unique. Each one of us has purpose and worth. By doing what God wants for you to do, you'll be making a "life investment" that will live on for eternity, something more than just the "here and now". Something to make your life worthwhile and meaningful.

If you want to quit wasting your life and live it to its fullest, you can. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, that's the first step. Once you allow Him into your life, He'll help you accomplish everything He has in store for you!