How will you use your one life?:

Only one life twill soon be past,

Only what's done for Christ will last.-John Piper

"Only one life twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last." Each of us is given one life. At the end of our life we will stand before our Creator and give an account for how we used our life. Will we use our one life glorifying God or will we waste it? How will you use your one life?

Ecclesiastes 12 is a chapter in the Bible written by King Solomon which allegories the shortness of life...

Vs. 3: keepers of the house tremble; Solomon is using an allegory to refer to the arms.  We are reminded that there will come a day when our arms will shake and become frail.  Opening and closing our fist will become next to impossible. 

Vs. 3: strong men are bent; this is referring to the legs, in reference to the fact that there will come a day when we will walk hunched over with knees bent.  One day we will wake up and never again be able to run, hike mountains, go for long walks, etc.

Vs. 3: grinders cease because they are few; One day our teeth will fall out and we will have to wear dentures.  We will no longer be able to enjoy a juicy, delicious steak or other amazing foods.

V 3: those who look through the windows are dimmed; One day our eyes will fail us and we will be unable to see.

Vs. 4: rises at the sound of a bird; One day we will have trouble sleeping. We will arise before the sun and  and go to bed shortly after dinner, and we will spend all of the time in between complaining about the noise.

Vs. 6-7; before the silver cord is snapped, and the gold bowl is broken, and the jar is shattered at the spring, and the wheel is broken into the well; and the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it; One day every one of us will die!  

Ecclesiastes 12 allegories reality for all of us. One day we will grow old and die. This life is fleeting and passing away. Our life is but a vapor. We are like the steam which rises from a coffee cup on a cold day; here one minute and gone the next.

"Only one life twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last." How will you use your one life?

Will you use your life playing church like so many people in the South or will you serve others and live in community? Will you use your life entertaining yourself to death or will you shut off the television, put down the smart phone and serve others? Will you graduate from college, get married, have 2.5 kids, move into the city, work 40 hrs a week, vacation once a year to the beach, and collect shells or will you live on mission, radically serving others? Will you protect and insulate your children or will you view them as arrows to be launched into battle?

"Only one life twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last." How will use your one life?

We need men to step up and lead in Christian obedience. Where are the men who will be like Joshua and Caleb who returned from spying out Canaan and though ten of the spies said the Israleites could not take the land, they urged everyone to trust God, play the man and take the land? Where are the men who will be like Shadrach, Meschach, and Abendago who event though they were to be thrown into the furnace would not bow their knee to an idol? Where are the men?

We need women to step out in faith and follow the Lord. Where are the women who will have the faith like Ruth and say, "your God is my God, where you go, I will go"? Where are the women who will be like Esther who told Mordecai, "tell the people to go and fast, for I will go into the king, and if I perish, I perish"? Where are the women?

Where are the men and women who will count their lives as lost and give their lives in service to the King? Where are the men and women who will push against culture and take a stand for Christ no matter the cost? Where are the men and women who will give sacrificially to support the work of missions? Where are the men and women who will view their workplace, schools, and communities as mission fields? Where are the men and women? 

"Only one life twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last." How will you use your one life?