Friday the 12th

Acts 7:59

⁵⁹While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

 

Stephen did not cry out, Jesus it’s over, or thanks for the memories. He said “Jesus receive my spirit….Stephen had somewhere else to go. His time here was over but His life was just beginning. I was just talking to a friend of mine about this subject yesterday, and look where scripture finds me the very next day…….I will try to keep this short. Reading about Stephen’s death should remind us all of a very important fact. We all are going to lose this life. We don’t  know when, we don’t know how, but you can rest assured that it will happen. This life is not the prize. Yet we often live like it is. We spend a lot of our time getting ready for our retirement. The first speech I heard about retirement was when I was about 18 years old. A fella came in and told us all about how we had to be prepared to retire. Who we needed to be able to take care of, how we should invest our money, how we should plan for the next 20 – 30 years very carefully so that when we quit working we will be ready, and so will those that are in our life. We are told that if we plan right the we will still be able to take care of those around us, and live the life we want……but what about our real retirement? The one where we don’t quit working….the one where we leave this earth. Are we planning as carefully for that retirement? Have we invested our time in those around us so that when we leave they are prepared? I dare say that most of us don’t have a very good retirement plan. I say this because if we did funerals would be a very different event for us. What do we normally hear at funerals? How will I live without them….why did they have to be taken….why did they have to go like that? These are faithless questions. If we invest in our retirement, our funeral should be a celebration. We all suffer the pain of losing someone, and I am not diminishing that one bit, We all hurt, but if we have invested the time with our families, if we have invested our time with those around us, if we have spent our lives making sure that once we were gone people would be ready……..wait a second……I think we already have a model for that…..Christ spent his time with His disciples doing what? Preparing them for when He would leave. Every lesson, every story, every action instilled more faith in those around Him, and prepared them for the time when He would no longer walk with them. I don’t bring this up to be morbid or try to depress anyone on this Friday morning, but in my humble opinion death is not something to mourn, not for the righteous, not for those that have given their hearts to the Lord. We have no control over how we will go, your righteousness does not predicate your demise….I am sure that Stephen would have rather gone in his sleep! We don’t get to pick when…matter of fact know this, until it is your time to go, until you have done what you were sent to do, there is not a person in this world that can take your life…and when it is your time to go….well, there is not a doctor in the world that can save it. So I ask you, how is your retirement plan? We strive to live our lives like Christ, but are we preparing those around us, as He did? How are we investing out time and energy. A family that is left with nothing but a strong faith in the Lord, is better off than a family that is left with a huge bank account, but no Faith! We have places to go, and we don’t know when we will leave…..start planning your retirement today!

 

 

God Bless,

Brian Thetford

The New Covenant Church

www.thenewcovenantchurch.com

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