Friday 1 April 2016

Of Grass and Glory

Of grass and glory
Gen. George C. Patton said,
"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honour of triumph, a tumultuous parade.
 In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments.     The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. 
Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. 
A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."
                                   Gen. George C. Patton.
“All glory is fleeting” no matter who you are, how famous or how humble you are. You will one day be forgotten to the people of this world. Even the most famous person will be but a note in some history book.
The prophet Isaiah states,
“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” 
“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” 
                                                                                                                         Isaiah 40:6-8.
I like what Isaiah states, “God’s word stands forever”. God is there for all generations. For everyone who ever lived, is living or is yet to be born.
The one thing I a believer in Christ agree with an atheist on is that one day our bodies will be little more than dust. That’s not to say we are.
I believe we, the essence if you will of what we are, what Christians call the soul lives on throughout eternity.
The thing is where will you spend eternity.
As Tony Campolo the American evangelist put it,
“When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?”
                                                                                                                Tony Campolo.
Christians make it clear you can know here and now where you will spend eternity. The apostle John speaking of Jesus states,
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” 
                  John 1:12,13.
The apostle Paul tell us,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.” 
                                                                      Ephesians 2:8,9.
It is by the grace of God we are saved and enter heaven. It is an act of faith on our part.
Jesus speaking of himself said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. 
                                                                                                            John 3:16-18.
God when He created man gave him complete freedom. That freedom is complete freedom it allows each and every man the right to believe in God or not. Such is the nature of true freedom.
However to get to heaven takes faith the writer of Hebrews saying,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
                                                                                                    Hebrews 11:6.
Thus the choice is yours. Believe that there is a God and that Jesus is his one and only Son. The Saviour of mankind or reject Him.
The choice is yours.
Please think about it.  

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