Only Temporary

I am a huge fan of MercyMe and for Karen’s birthday last year I bought her front row seats and tickets to meet the band before the concert to have our CDs signed. They are a fine bunch of young Christian men who are blown away by how God has used their music. Karen reminded them of when they came to Switzerland to be the worship group for the youth retreat that our daughter Tiffany attended.

The weekend is upon us and the ladies at our church are going on their retreat and I praise God that Karen gets to attend this year. She’s missed it at least a couple of years in a row.

With the weekend being upon us many folks are going to try to knock the work week off them and the cares that come with it. Some will go to costly extremes to “escape” from reality.

So what do these three paragraphs have to do with one another much less the subject of today’s devotional?

Stay with me.

The men of MercyMe will tell you that they know the fame and fortune they are experiencing right now is only temporary.

The ladies’ mountaintop experience at the retreat (yes I know they’re going to the beach!) will only last until they walk through their front doors Saturday afternoon. You can’t stay on a spiritual mountaintop; that too is only temporary

The escape from reality that so many Americans will attempt to find will all be blown away when they get into their cars on Monday morning to begin their workaday weeks. Weekends always are only temporary.

MercyMe sings as song titled “Only Temporary” and the opening says:

    Don’t let the situation get to you
    This is not a hill worth dying on
    Don’t let these circumstances tear your heart in two
    Soon enough this chapter will be gone

Yeah but Bro Dave you have no idea what I am facing. Check out the bridge in the song:

    What’s insurmountable today
    Will surely one day fade away

I know, we think we can predict the future, but let me ask you something: how many of your devastating predictions for your life have ever come true? Jesus’ brother tried to teach the futility in that sport:

    “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” (James 4:13-15)

These past couple of weeks I’ve thought a lot about eternity. The third anniversary of Eddie going to be with Jesus just passed and I just out found that a sweet lady of God I met in Nevada recently passed away. The more people I know who go to be with Jesus, the more I feel out of place here on earth. Some day I so want to be with Jesus that it literally distracts me from life here on earth. The chorus and the second stanza from today’s song explains it well:

    There’s a reason why this world just don’t feel right
    Cause we are strangers who are simply passing by
    In light of all eternity
    It’s only temporary

    This place was never meant to be my home
    Not comfortable in my own skin
    Which may explain some of those days I feel alone
    Standing on the outside looking in

Do you sometimes feel as though you are standing on the outside looking in? If you’re a Christian there could be a couple reasons for that. First, this world is so dark and corrupt it can make us feel unwelcomed. We need to shine some light and sprinkle some salt to make it more acceptable.

Or perhaps dear Christian you’ve wandered from the faith; well without a church family and a place to worship God corporately you are an orphan.

Lastly, you may feel disconnected from all aspects of life because you have never accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. That makes you incomplete and that void can never be filled without Jesus, trust me I’ve tried…everything. Nothing can give you a sense of fulfillment than a life in Christ because God has wired eternity into our souls. And when a man or woman gives his or her life to Jesus you are literally made new and your soul knows it!

    “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Wouldn’t you like to know that old things have passed away?

Wouldn’t you like to have all things become new?

Then say yes to Jesus today!

Midway ladies know that I am praying for you. My prayer for you is single in focus and topic: that you come back with a new love for Jesus and the commitment that He always be first in your life; not your husband, not your children, not your house, not your job…Jesus.

To those orphans wandering this earth without a church family, won’t you return home?

And to anyone I may have missed, please have a real and restful weekend and remember to go to church on Sunday.

And also remember that the things of this life are only temporary.

After all, this place was never meant to be our home.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2010 David Jeffers

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