May 15, 2007

  • I’ve Wasted it! I’ve Wasted it!

    Today, I would like to use a quote from John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life.”  This had such an impact on my perspective of life and how I live it.  Personally, I don’t want to waste my life.  We should never want to waste our lives as human beings.  But, how much more as Christians should we be living to the fullest for Christ?  We should squeeze everything we can get out of our lives for Christ.  This quote is an example of a life that was delivered from sin later in life and a regret that this soul had wasted his life in rebellion against God.  Here’s the quote,

    “For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations of my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age.  The church had prayed for this man for decades.  He was hard and resistant.  But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching.  At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone’s amazement he came and took my father’s hand.  They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed.  God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life.  But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face–and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears–’I've wasted it!  I’ve wasted it!’  This was the story that gripped me more than all the stories of young people who died in car wrecks before they were converted–the story of an old man weeping that he had wasted his life.  In those early years God awakened in me a fear and a passion not to waste my life.  The thought of coming to my old age and saying through tears, ‘I’ve wasted it!  I’ve wasted it!’ was a fearful and horrible thought to me.”  (John Piper, “Don’t Waste Your Life”, p. 12)

    I hope we all feel the same way as John Piper because we don’t want to look back on our lives and say we have wasted our life for Christ.  If you are not a believer, please know that right now you are wasting your life in this world.  Please ask questions how you can stop wasting your life; please know that there is a solution.  Christ is that solution; if you continually reject Him you will soon find out you have wasted your life.  Brothers and Sisters in Christ, rest assure that you are secure in Christ but please don’t waste your life for Christ.  Christ wants your all; He wants you to serve Him completely, to live for Him.  Be careful with the choices you make, choose wisely!

    DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE!

Comments (4)

  • Hey Josh, please send your phone # to my work e-mail, so I can try to call you today at lunch.  Thanks man….

    My e-mail address is my name: First.last@grace.com 

    I haven’t posted it exactly for security reasons.  Note the period between my first and last name.

    C-ya Josh. 

  • Josh,

    You look young–which is great!  What better a time to capitalize on the life God has for you, to determine it should be for good not evil, and for gain, not loss.  I’ve been digesting “Don’t Waste Your Life” over the past two years, and a few minutes ago, the phrase, “I’ve wasted it!” jumped into my mind.  It came up quickly on a Google search, and I was glad you put in the effort to share this strong illustration with us. 

    I just want to add that many of us who have accepted Christ still waste sooo much of it, we can sob right there with the old man, “I’ve wasted it!”  There are several New Testament examples I could cite, but the clearest one is Christ’s parable of the sower;

    “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown….The seed is the word of God.  Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.  The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.  But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:5-8, 11-15).

    Believers are those whose seed was not gobbled up by the birds nor trampled on the path, and their seed had enough soil and moisture to take root. 

    Christians inhabit the two categories that remain; those who are choked by weeds and unfruitful, and those who continue in good soil without weeds and are fruitful. 

    However, so many Christians remain immature and unfruitful because of three things.  First, we can let life’s worries and responsibilities cloud our view of Christ.  In John 14:1, Christ reminded his disciples, “Do not let your heart be troubled.”  There are things on this temporal plane that ARE trouble, but we don’t have to let them take control of our heart.  Jesus reiterated the point in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world!”  When we fail to take heart in Christ’s ultimate victory, we let one tenacious weed wrap its tentacles around us.

    The second and third weeds, riches and pleasures, are summed up by Matthew (13:22) and Mark (4:20) as “the deceitfulness of wealth,” and Paul reminds the Ephesians (4:22) that our old self “is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.”  The Hebrews writer also warned about being “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”  The things that our world runs after, many believers run right along side of them, deceived into believing we are pursuing and attaining a better life in the process.  Instead, we find ourselves empty, unfulfilled, and unfruitful.

    Paul urged young Timothy, saying,

    “Godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1Ti 6:6-12″ 

    We can be the seeds that are fruitful, we just have to follow Christ steadfastly, not haphazardly with one eye still on the world.  

    “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”  Matthew 6:24

    “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Luke 9:23-24

    Josh, I pray you will be fruitful as you determine to make your life count for the Kingdom!

  • @Anthony+Grubb - Thanks for the encouragement.  I always need to be reminding myself of who I am and what I should be doing.  God Bless!

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