Today's Thoughts - What are you living for? - Mark 15

Today's Thoughts - What are you living for? - Mark 15
by Pastor Lee Hemen
April 3, 2011

What are you living for? It is a good question to ask. I have often asked others this very question yet in a different way. I ask, "Suppose you were standing before God, in heaven, and he asked you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?', what would you say?" Yet, this week I have been encouraged by another writer, to consider asking another series of questions: "If you live for many more years, what quality of character will you take into eternity? For what will your life have counted? What lasting spiritual legacy will you leave to those left behind you?"

The author of these questions goes on to state that everyone accepts--intellectually if not emotionally--that they eventually will die. What they do with their remaining years is crucial. A legitimate question to ask anyone--and most of all ourselves--is: What are you living for? In light of eternity, everything hinges on your answer.

In the final moments of Jesus' life we discover something that simply takes our breath away. Here is the Savior who is so focused on what the will of God is in his life, he is willingly going to his death. How he does it and how he faces his life's greatest trial is something that cannot but affect those who read it. After all these years as a pastor, it still makes me hold my breath, wonder, and stand in awe. The fact is, I often cry when rereading Jesus' final moments. No greater love has anyone than this.

It brings me back to my first question, "What are you living for?" If God gives you many more years, how will you live your life? Will you impact the world around you for the sake of the gospel? We cannot control how we were brought into this world, nor do we have much control over how we were raised or what happens to us while we go through life. However, we do control how we respond, grow, mature, and what we do with our faith in Christ.

Jesus knew he was going to die, and he gives us a good example on how to finish well. We will all die sometime, yet how we live the remaining moments in time we have says a lot about what we believe.

What are you living for?
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Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2011 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.

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