At the end of your life

When we do start hearing and feeling in ourselves something special, which brings us to look for the Special Element behind creation we shall come to hear more. When we come to more hearing through reading we shall receive more insight. but when we come to see more things and come to understand that there is That Greater Supreme Being behind everything we do have to make choices.

When hearing we shall have to come to “accept”, and then we “do” have to come to co what God desires in the way we live using our individual abilities and opportunities to serve God and his Son, our Saviour every day. Hearing by reading in the Book of books we shall be able to find the instructions God has given His followers.

Various signals were devised for the different uses of the trumpet. The signalling for assembly and movements for war would have been similar to the function of the nineteenth-century military bugler (see Numery 31:6).
However, the trumpet also had a place in the worship and praise of the Most High. The shofar (ram’s horn) was used in an annual festival (Levites 23:24). But the silver trumpets became part of the temple furnishings (2 Kings 12:13). Such was the ceremonial greatness of the trumpet, that Solomon had one hundred and twenty of them sounded by priests (2 Chronicles 5:12).

When a child is born lots of families want to blow the trumpet to let others now the good tidings. We also should blow the trumpet for the other good tiding brought to us and sealed by the son of man, son of Abraham, Jesus from Nazareth.

Today we read about the trumpet that sounded not just as a convenient way of making a loud noise – it was approved by God and part of a command which caused them to remember their Lord and be saved. The trumpet did not only mean ‘get up and move on’ or ‘go forth to war’ it also quite clearly was associated with ‘God will be with us’, and thereby provided certainty to help those of weaker faith.

We can all easily possess God’s instructions, recorded in His word, the Bible. “At the end of your life” may it be that you have read, listened and acted upon the words’ God caused to be written and preserved; and that you will be welcomed into God’s kingdom with the words,

“Well done, good and faithful servant”.

Let us hope we shall be able to be one of those meek ones who shall be able to inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

“At the end of your life you …”

We continue reading the blunt and challenging words of advice by Solomon in the Proverbs – how appropriate they are to counteract the values of life, or lack of them, that surround us today.

“My son, be attentive to my wisdom”, writes Solomon, “incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge” (5:1,2).

In today’s chapter Solomon particularly warns about the “forbidden woman” whose “speech is smoother than oil” (verse 3). Such women abound in today’s world, less and less women desire to settle down to wholesome married life, some of course prefer a worthwhile business career. The type of woman Solomon is referring to is clear, “her steps follow the path to Sheol (the grave); she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander …” (verses 5,6). He advises,

“Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house …” (verse 8).

The climax to the lesson Solomon is teaching is the warning, that if you fail to follow his advice,

“at the end of your life you groan … and you say, ‘How I hated discipline and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors’” (verses 12,13).

Today, the instruction from God we can all easily possess – in God’s word – the Bible. “At the end of your life” may it be, that you will not groan – and this will be because you have read and listened and acted upon the words’ God caused to be written and preserved.

Our final thought (being parallel to this) it is in Luke 19. It tells us that when Jesus

“drew near and saw the city (Jerusalem) he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes’” (verses 41,42).

It is not just an association with the wrong sort of woman that can ‘destroy’ our lives, but our wilful ignoring of the teaching of Jesus – what a terrible end came upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And as our Luke chapter for Saturday makes very plan, a disastrous end faces our world today – and when that happens may that not be “the end of your life”.
You make the answer Now.

– the Christadelphian

+++

Jesus wept again (genesisone.wordpress.com)
As Luke tells us from his careful investigation Jesus wept over Jerusalem as He approached it on His ‘Triumphal entry.’

So much was going on of which the crowds were unaware. Caught up in the spectacle and the moment they escorted Jesus as if He were coming to reign there as King. Yet not very long afterwards crowds would be calling for His crucifixion.
Reflective Moment ‘Establishing Testimony’ (mylordmyfriend.com)
Jethro had heard the story how God had bought them out of slavery. He had heard the story of redemption. He heard the story of the wonderful and victorious power of The Lord. Moses told Jethro all the Lord had done to Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s people to make Pharaoh, let them go. Moses told his father-in-law about all the hardships and troubles that had come on them along the way, but the Lord had delivered them.
Head of waters: the intercessory role of tears (dailymedit.com)
When King Saul whom Prophet Samuel anointed to be king in Israel messed up because of disobedience to God, the prophet, knowing the gravity of the situation, felt really sad about it and probably wept (1Samuel 15:34-35).
+
Groaning in the spirit in described by Paul as an expression of the intercession of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26). So Jesus groaned, he wept and at the end of the day, we see Lazarus, who had died and was buried for four days, and therefore was smelling, came back from the dead.
Jerusalem Focus: Next 600 Days (jerusalemxfactor.com)
Certain things must occur before the 2nd coming of Jesus and the Rapture or “catching away” of the church. The clock keeps ticking and ancient Israeli prophets are right on target as to the rise of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple in these last days.
It’s Gotta Be the Shoes! (Post #2,072) (ourdailybread101.wordpress.com)
motivation and perspective (dailymedit.com)
It is not just important to do the right things we should do them for the right reasons. When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to some of his disciples they started following him and Jesus asked what do you seek (John 1:38-39)? They answered: where you dwell. He needed to be clear about their motivation, what they are aiming at, their intention. He does not want to make assumptions based on what he observed in their action, and to determine how he will relate to them. And he said to them: come and see. Their motivation made Jesus invite them to his presence.
Giving Up Life… to Be Alive (stocki.typepad.com)
I started asking where in MY life am I paying any cost? Where am I denying myself? Where am I in any shape or form carrying a cross? Where is my life in any remote way looking like being a disciple of Christ? Where? The chasm between the Biblical text that we gather round and on a Sunday and the gatherers seemed so very wide at that moment of the sermon.
‘Finding Jesus’: John the Baptist Q&A (gantdaily.com)
In the Hebrew Bible the people of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years before they reach the Holy Land. The flood lasts for 40 days and nights; Moses spends 40 days and nights on the mountain; Goliath spends 40 days encouraging the Israelites to challenge him before David steps up; 40 is a common age for people to be when they get married; in the book of Judges it is always 40 years between judges; and David and Solomon each reigned for 40 years. What we can take away from all of this is that people in the ancient world saw 40 as suggesting a full, complete period of time. It’s sort of like a narrative stock number, in the way that modern jokes follow the rule of three.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (divinedirection.typepad.com)
Meekness is one of the most confused adjectives in all of the Beatitudes because most people confuse meekness with weakness. Jesus said He was “meek and lowly” (see Matthew 11:29), but He wasn’t weak. The word “meek” means “strength that is brought under control.”
Blessed are we all. . . (positivethoughtsandmore.com)