| The 'Nothing Month' |
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THE ‘NOTHING MONTH’ What’s your favourite month? As a child my sister chose February as her favourite month. Now she probably would vote against it – and for the same reason as she used to like it! Why? It’s her birthday month! As many people grow older, the less they like birthdays! But February – apart from birthdays, anniversaries and special events – seems to me to be a ‘nothing month’. No Christmas anticipation. No New Year buzz. No early spring overtures. No Easter or Spring Bank Holidays. No annual holidays. No autumn leaves to kick through. No fun on the beach. No Bonfire Night! Only October seems as ‘nothing’ as February – but that’s my birthday month, so it doesn’t worry me! What is life, anyhow? Some find normal daily life ‘boring’. Others rate life on what they can get from it. How rich and influential can they become? But what really is life? How can it have real meaning? Where is lasting satisfaction and personal fulfillment to be found? What life is not Who better to teach about life than the Lord Jesus Christ? Being simultaneously fully God and fully man He spoke with perfect authority and knowledge. First, what did Jesus say life was not? In Luke’s gospel He said, Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing (verse 23), and beware of covetousness (verse 15). He summarised life by saying one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things a person possesses. Jesus’ teaching exposes many of life’s current priorities as empty and passing. Are food and clothing – although basic necessities for survival – the real joy-givers and the primary purpose for living? Why do those with the most valuable possessions rarely claim or demonstrate peace of heart and spontaneous joy? Dying ‘the richest person in the graveyard’ is hardly a worthy or satisfying life ambition. What really is life? “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”, said Jesus in John chapter 17 verse 3. He also taught that now we can know, receive as a gift, and possess eternal life by personal faith in Him. That gift of eternal life continues forever in Heaven. To possess that gift, sinless Jesus died on the cross to bear our sins and God’s punishment against them. He rose from the dead. By His risen life Jesus enters the life of anyone admitting sin and turning from it to receive Him. Jesus both offers and is the gift of eternal life. That life is in Him. Receive Him to receive life! Know Christ – know life! No Christ – no life! Gerard Chrispin |
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