Ecc. 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away. June 27, 2007
As stated here there are appropriate times and things to get and lose, however when I read this verse I automatically thought of another verse in scripture that deals with getting and losing. Jesus asks in Matt. 16:26 "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" I would venture to say that all of us have to ask ourselves this question, How much is my soul worth? Is it worth the whole world? If you could have all the power and influence over the entire world, if all the kings, emporers, presidents, and prime ministers bowed the knee to you would it be worth an eternity in hell? If all the money, resources, and materials of the world were given to you, would you get that and lose your soul? The majority of this world goes on, so caught up with power, money and material gain, they never take a second to think about eternity. The sad end will be that they die and find out they traded a season of getting for an eternity of loss.
Would you not rather the trade of be the other way around? Wouldn't it be better to trade a season of loss for eternal gain? The bible clearly tells us that a believer ought to spend less time building up treasures on this earth, and more time doing spiritual work. I wonder what would happen to the world's economy if all christians decided they were going to spend less time getting "stuff" and more time pleasing God. If we christians decided that we would rather do without the excess, in order to have more time for God's work. Do you realize that if you have a roof over your head, a car, eat three meals a day, and have some money in your pocket, you are among the top five percent richest people in the world. So why then do we continue to strive to not only have a roof over our head, but also have two extra bedrooms? Instead of being content with a car, we have to have a new one every two years. It's not enough that we have some money in our pockets, we insist on having enough to splurge on all the unnecassary toys, to impress our friends. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for comfort and fun, I like having the new toy as well as the next guy. But, when the work for all this starts getting in the way of God, when we can't go to church because we have to work on Sunday, when we don't read our bibles because we're too tired, we've gone too far. We now have other gods in our lives that are coming between us and the one true God. I'm afraid the end result for the modern christian, is that our lives are consumed with the time to get and when we get to heaven we will find out just how much we actually lost.
As stated here there are appropriate times and things to get and lose, however when I read this verse I automatically thought of another verse in scripture that deals with getting and losing. Jesus asks in Matt. 16:26 "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" I would venture to say that all of us have to ask ourselves this question, How much is my soul worth? Is it worth the whole world? If you could have all the power and influence over the entire world, if all the kings, emporers, presidents, and prime ministers bowed the knee to you would it be worth an eternity in hell? If all the money, resources, and materials of the world were given to you, would you get that and lose your soul? The majority of this world goes on, so caught up with power, money and material gain, they never take a second to think about eternity. The sad end will be that they die and find out they traded a season of getting for an eternity of loss.
Would you not rather the trade of be the other way around? Wouldn't it be better to trade a season of loss for eternal gain? The bible clearly tells us that a believer ought to spend less time building up treasures on this earth, and more time doing spiritual work. I wonder what would happen to the world's economy if all christians decided they were going to spend less time getting "stuff" and more time pleasing God. If we christians decided that we would rather do without the excess, in order to have more time for God's work. Do you realize that if you have a roof over your head, a car, eat three meals a day, and have some money in your pocket, you are among the top five percent richest people in the world. So why then do we continue to strive to not only have a roof over our head, but also have two extra bedrooms? Instead of being content with a car, we have to have a new one every two years. It's not enough that we have some money in our pockets, we insist on having enough to splurge on all the unnecassary toys, to impress our friends. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for comfort and fun, I like having the new toy as well as the next guy. But, when the work for all this starts getting in the way of God, when we can't go to church because we have to work on Sunday, when we don't read our bibles because we're too tired, we've gone too far. We now have other gods in our lives that are coming between us and the one true God. I'm afraid the end result for the modern christian, is that our lives are consumed with the time to get and when we get to heaven we will find out just how much we actually lost.
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