Just A Moment Here!

      What is life but a moment, a moment to discover, to hear, to realize, to understand God is reaching out to us in love through Jesus Christ. In Christ we have real life, we have eternity, we have forgiveness, we have acceptance. This is the gospel, the love of God reaching out to mankind. We all have a moment to hear and to decide. In that moment we spend a lifetime on earth seemingly to be a long time but in reality how long is it? We measure it against ourselves and think 80 to 100 years is a long time to live. What is a long time to live? Moses lived 120 years (Dt. 34:7) so what is our 80 years in comparison? Abraham lived 175 years (Gen. 25:7)and his father Terah lived 205 years (Gen. 11:32). When we think of Noah and his sons on the ark we think of his sons much younger than they really were, Shem was 98 years old the year of the flood (Gen.11:10). Noah's father died young at the age of 777 years old(Gen. 5:31) and Noah lived 950 years (Gen. 9:29). All those from Adam to Noah except Enoch, whom God took and he was no more (Gen. 5:24), lived from 777 years to 969 years. Our mire existence today of 80 to 100 years is nothing compared to these, ours is but a short time. So what is this life we spend ether in gladness or sadness, joy or pain, triumph or defeat. These are the things that seem to give our life length. We live day after day in one way or another here on this earth and we consider our lifetime to be a long time yet it is not. The scientist tell us there are trees on this earth that are more than 4000 years old, this makes our lives seem even shorter when compared to them. God says that to Him a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. God is not restricted or governed by time like we are, He is outside of time, it has no hold on Him. God is in the continual now. It is hard to consider time not having a bearing on our lives like God yet He is free from it. When God is not effected by time what is our 80 to 100 years of life? When we start thinking about God, about eternity, about heaven, we may start to wonder why there is even the need for this life we live on earth? We may begin to think that somehow God could have taken us right from creation to heaven. Why must we spend this lifetime on earth, what can be its purpose stuck here in between creation and heaven, the time from our birth until our death?
     Have you ever been given the opportunity to participate in an organization, a club, or something special and those in charge presented the details of the opportunity, the benefits, and the requirements on your part to join or enroll? After all this was all presented to you sometimes you are given just a moment to decide, to make your choice, to participate or to pass it up. This is what our lifetime is, just a moment here. As long as it may seem it is just a moment to choose. It is a lifetime yet a moment to at some point hear the gospel, to be told God loves us and is reaching out to us in love. We have to make a choice to take His hand of love He offers or pass it up by cold heartily, rebelliously turning away from Him or refusing to believe He exist at all. We, each of us, have to make a choice and God gives us a moment to make up or minds. Yes, it is a lifetime, but to God who is outside of time it is just a moment before the rest of our lives. If we can even begin to fathom what eternity is like, then when we think of our lifetime on this earth it does become only a moment. We need to be thankful that God has given each person a moment to hear what He offers us in Jesus Christ; about real life, about eternity, about forgiveness, about acceptance, to hear the gospel and make our choice before eternity begins. I have made that choice, have you? A lifetime seems long but it is only a moment to decide. Make your choice well, it will last for eternity.

Robert L. Doudna 2006