This week, I got some bad news about one of my first cousins that was killed riding a motorcycle.  He was about my age and when we were kids we often had adventures during the summer together.  Life is so short and we need to be ready  – No one knows the hour that we might be taken from this world.

 It seems that for the most part you are given about 80 years of your life to do all the things you need to get done.  Some people live longer and some people live shorter lives, but the average is about 80 years. 

The concept of life expectancy, which considers the average experience for a population, is distinct from the concept of life span, which considers the upper limit of human life that could be reached by an individual. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base,7 the highest attained life expectancy to date for a national population was that of Andorra in 2006, when life expectancy was 83.5 years for the total population (86.6 years for females; 80.6 years for males).

The oldest authenticated female life span thus far recorded was for J. Calment of France, who died at age 122 years, 164 days, and, for a man, C. Mortensen (a Danish immigrant to the U.S.), who died at age 115 years, 252 days.  There is a lively debate among researchers regarding whether the biological limits of life spans have been reached or whether future increases are probable. (CRS Report for Congress)

Ok, 80 years to live, that is 29,200 days.  Man was created by God to be in relationship with God. Each day counts when we are trying to live a life of relationship and trust with God.  Age 1-18 or the first 6,500 days of your life you are learning as much as you can just about life. Maybe as a child or teen someone introduced you to a relationship with God.  The next 6,000 days you are rebelling about what you have learned about life.  That brings us to age 35 or about 12,800 days of your life.  You can become President of The United States and you are almost half through your life. 

If God made man in his image and His plan was for man to have trust in Him, then what are we thinking?  If we had confidence that there was a God; that God knew our name, that God would never leave us, was with us through all things in our life, how would that change our relationship to Him?  Jesus came to earth because we just could not get it. Man did not trust God.  Mankind thought it was all about the law.  God wants us to trust him in all that we do.  You see man in the beginning did not trust God.  Man felt that God was not telling him the whole story.  So the relationship between God and man was broken.  All things in the world were broken when man lacked trust.  The laws of thermodynamics prove that all things were broken.

?  You cannot win (that is, you cannot get something for nothing, because matter and energy are conserved).

?  You cannot break even (you cannot return to the same energy state, because there is always an increase in disorder; entropy always increases). 

?  You cannot get out of the game (because absolute zero is unattainable).

However, with the life and death of Jesus on the cross; you can win through His grace, you can break even by showing grace, love and service to others, and you can get out of the game and end up in heaven with faith and trust in Him.

I went to the wake this week for my cousin and much was said about his life.  I heard people talking about how he lived his life.  Some of the things they said about him were good and some of it was that he lived recklessly.  Don’t we all have a bit of both in us?  My cousin’s older brother said, “God does not take people – He welcomes them to heaven.  God does not make bad things happen.” 

We, that call ourselves Christians need to figure how many days we have left and make each day count.  I have about 8300 days left.  I need to make everyday count by being in relationship to Christ.  Trying to follow his three simple commands.  To love others, To serve others, and to have a relationship with him through his blood and body.  Then and only then, God’s kingdom will come, God’s will, will be done, On earth as in Heaven.

 I hope you will evaluate your life and place your confidence and trust in the one that came to earth so that we all might be justified to God our Father.

In Christ
Steve Rusk

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