Sixty is much closer to seventy than fifty is to sixty. And those who are moving from seventy towards eighty years of age will tell you that it is as a breath of wind moving across their face.
“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10)
In case you were unaware of this, a score is twenty years in the Scriptures, twenty years that are like yesterday to those who can add three or more of them to their days.
Death, and the length of life in the Scriptures, is a prevalent subject, the pages are filled with it, and rightly so. In the wisdom of God, it is vitally important for mankind to know and to realize that his time will end here, you will die, of this there is no doubt, and the sooner you accept it as truth, as a fact, the sooner you will start living.
I was maybe four years old when I was taken to a funeral of a very old lady. I stood on my tiptoes, looked into that coffin, and knew without a doubt that one day I would also die, and from that moment on I went and lived with abandon, all of it in sin yes, but living nonetheless.
While most were attempting to live their lives, if you could call it that, in subjection to authority, I rebelled against it. While they attempted to fit in, to be seen as morally correct, submissive for fear of not being accepted, I walked the path I chose, when I chose, where I chose to go.
Tell me, who truly lived their life, and who lived their life in an attempt to get people to see them in a certain way? And which one is really living life?
This wasn’t just experiences, this was complete and total freedom from conformity, from the desire to be seen by others as one of the crowd.
More like one of the herd in my mind.
And if you can understand that mindset my friends, then you can understand what it means to be born again.
We who are hid in Christ are no longer led by the moral constructs of this world, their societal standards hold no power over us any longer, in the way their minds have been formulated to obey the set rules of how a person is to portray themselves towards others, that has been removed from us.
We follow Christ, not them, not their ideologies of how we are to act and react. That is called being sanctified, and to everyone of this world, we are the rebels.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)
The greatest most prevalent, significant problem, error if you will, the place most who are hid in Christ still need to grow in is their desire to still be liked and accepted by those still in the world. It is not the Lord Jesus Christ they serve in this regard, it is self, it is not denying self for His glory, it is still wanting to fit in, desiring to be part of the herd.
And so, they fold when they should stand, they agree to disagree when they should never give an inch, they want both worlds still.
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4)
If you struggle with that verse, then this letter is for you.
I have never really cared very much what people think about me, so in that regard, I had, as it were, an advantage when the Lord called me to Himself. I care today what they think about Him.
It makes no difference to me if people like me or not, but they would be wise to listen to those words we speak about our Savior.
