Saturday, November 08, 2014

He's a Liar!

Praise God for our recent rains and I pray you got a decent amount in your back yard. With the winter months creeping up on us combined with the time change, it gets dark outside way too early making for a long evening indoors cooped up with a hyper-active Chihuahua. Little Bella easily contracts cabin fever and tends to take her pent up energy out on her toys, picking them up and shaking the devil out of them. Not being very good at entertaining herself she does her best to get me involved in her aerobic activities by sitting in front of me, with toy in mouth, staring at me as if to say, “Play with me! Play with me!” Well, the tug-of-war game begins making her happy as a little kid in an amusement park. Eventually she’ll let go of the toy, I’ll throw it across the room and she’ll chase it, pick it up and shake it, as if killing it, then bring it back to me to start the cycle all over again. Of course, after about a dozen cycles my throws start to get a little wild jeopardizing favorite knickknacks and frayed nerves to the point my wife makes us stop our antics before something bad happens. The short fun and games periods aren’t enough to burn off all that energy and believe it or not she tends to become a little depressed when the weather keeps her indoors for a couple of days. We finally got outside and while I was picking up pecans she began to run around the yard like a wind-up toy gone wild, funny to watch and good to see her happy again.

Have you ever run across someone you found hard to impress with your life? A Maine potato farmer and a Texas rancher were engaged in conversation at a political rally. The rancher asked, “How much land do you tend?” The farmer replied, “Oh, about a hundred acres.” The Texan bragged, “I’ve got six thousand myself.” The farmer didn’t seem very impressed so the Texan continued, “My neighbor’s place is huge. He can drive his pick-up truck from early morning till noon and still not be half way across his place.” The Maine farmer noted, “I had a pick-up truck like that once.”

[Luke 12:13-21] It is said that life is like a coin; you can spend it any way you want, but you can only spend it once. So, when it comes to a lifetime of spending, which is the wiser investment: Godliness or Worldliness? We are in a tug-of-war every day of our life making decisions as to the best way to carry out our life. God has given us a hope of bigger and better things to come in the after-life and Satan says it ain’t gonna get any better than this. The devil is a liar! (John 8:42-47). He knows he can’t win over God with worldly materials, yet he dangles them before us and says, “Come play with me!, Come play with me!”, taking pop shots of temptation at us in an attempt to lure us away from God. He uses the disappointments of life to discourage our faith in God and get us to invest in the world. And guess what? He’s doing a good job! But: God’s eternal purpose cannot be overthrown (Acts 5:39). No person can live after the flesh and please God (Romans 8:8). A person cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). No one can take anything out of this world (1 Timothy 6:6-10). One cannot avoid reaping what he has sown (Galatians 6:7-8). Man cannot escape death or the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). “What good will it be for a men if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The world is full of cons looking to prey on your well meaning investments. The Liar is wanting you to gamble your soul on worldly pleasures against eternal life. Can you afford to lose?

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