I read a story about a woman who walked into her bathroom at home. As she did, she saw her husband weighing himself on the bathroom scales, sucking in his stomach. The woman thought to herself, ''He thinks that he will weigh less by sucking in his stomach.'' So, the woman rather sarcastically said to her husband, ''That's not going to help.'' Her husband said, ''Sure it will. It's the only way I can see the numbers.''
Matthew 19:23-30
23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
27 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?”
28 So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife[a] or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Business owners are busy at the end of the year taking inventory. This is a painful but necessary reality so they can know if they made a profit or not. They take the information they receive and make adjustments for the coming year.
As Christians, we need to stop at the end of the year and measure our progress. Sometime this is a very painful thing to do.
In Philippians 3:12-16 Paul is taking inventory of his life and pressing towards the goal ahead.
What is his goal? His answer was in Philippians 3:14:
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
As we look back at 2021, I wonder if we can see the progress we made in our journey. Has this last year been painful or Happy! You see we always have ups and downs in our lives.
In this past year have you met God or have you received what you wanted from Him. If you have not ask yourself could it be on your shoulders. Have you pressed to get answers, have you prayed, have you asked, or did you neglect God somewhere along the way.
What is your goal in life? Many people (especially at this time of the year) are so distressed and confused about their future that they are Alcoholics or strung out on drugs. When you get that kind of an addiction, you cannot see the end of the tunnel. You are so lost in the darkness that you can't be happy. Many times you do what you know how to do which is the drugs or Alcohol instead of looking to the goal of being clean of those addictions and working your way that direction.
You may be lost in the darkness of depression or Anxiety. Some people get so down that all they see is the bad in their life and they can't look to the joy that can be had if they would call out and cry out to God.
Before I got married to my beautiful wife I started to work on changing my garage into a bedroom. I spent a lot of money to change the room along with some help from our Pastor Bro. Jaso that donated all of the sheetrock to complete the bedroom. As well I had to spend money to build a shed to hold the stuff from the garage.
This bedroom was being built to give my new daughter a place to sleep. You see, I had a goal and that was to get married on February 14, 2004. Therefore in the anticipation I got everything prepared to meet that goal
In order to go to Heaven we must get prepared and make sure that we are doing all of the right things to get there.
We need to examine our lives and ask for salvation from God. Then we must learn how to travel the road of salvation in order to see God and make it to heaven.
There are people that are dying every day from young to old. They die from all sorts of problems. In the last couple of years we have lost a lot of people to COVID.
I have heard many stories of people that have died young, health, athletic, eating right and drinking plenty of water. You don't know when it is your time to go.
Today we reflect on the past and prepare ourselves for the future.
What have we done?
Where are we going (Heaven or hell)?