While coming home from work, I looked over at a pasture, and in that pasture were rusted old cars and boats.  It occurred to me, that at one time, these “things” were brand new.  A shiny new boat, and a shiny new car.  I thought about how many families enjoyed those things, and now they are no longer of use to anyone.  They have been relegated to the trash heap of time.  There is a lesson here.

As I look about me now and think how far we have come.  I see little progress in the sense of spiritual growth.  We have more cars, more toys, more clothes, more vacations, more sports, more of everything money can buy.  We are wearing ourselves out with “more”.  More stuff which will eventually be as the boats and the cars in that pasture.  Our pockets are full, but our souls have become lean…..and in the end was it really more?

The statistics given for young people leaving the Lord’s church is alarming.  A warning has been given, but I’m not sure the warning is being heard, because the statistics given thus far have not changed for the better, and if Barna is correct for this year, the numbers will continue to worsen.  We continue on the path of destruction.

Less time is given to family.  Less time in prayer.  Less time in Bible study.  Less time given to children.  Less time in instruction from God’s Word for the family.

Now, go back and read the statistics given by the Barna survey.  You can Google it and read the numbers.  There is a correlation here, if we will take a long, hard and honest assessment of where we are headed.

“Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.  Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm;  and he that earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.  Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.”    Haggai 1:5-7

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”   Matthew 6:19-21

Our Lord came to teach us about life and how to have life more abundantly.  Somewhere along the way, we have become enticed by Satan to have all that money can buy, while the more important values are left unattended, and when we look back, what is there left behind, but old stuff and lean souls.  And Satan knows, there is no turning back to recover what we lost, for we placed more importance on those things which had no lasting value.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:  I Am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”     John 10:10

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”     Jeremiah 29:11

“And be not conformed to this world:  but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  Romans 12:2

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”   Matthew 6:33

“And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones:  and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”   Isaiah 58:11

May we begin again to place “more” importance on those truths which are everlasting, and less importance on “more” things which perish with time.

“You know, it’s been said that we just don’t recognize the significant moments in our lives while they are happening, that we grow complacent with ideas or things or people, and we take them for granted, and it’s usually not until that thing is about to be taken away from you, that you realize how wrong you’ve been, that you realize how much you really need it, how much you love it.”        ~ Scott

Eileen Light