Important life lessons

It's been a while since I did an editorial consisting of several short lessons instead of just one main topic and I think I'll try that again today. I've saved up several little thoughts that I felt needed to be considered but, taken individually, they just didn't fill up an entire editorial space. Here they are in no particular order, just sort of randomly offered.

First thought: If you're like me you probably don't like taking tests, especially those of the "medical" type. Well, the other day they were talking on the radio about something called a "Successful Aging Exposition." It's designed to teach people how to age. Let me ask you, doesn't that sort of come naturally? I think so and if there's a test involved I'm pretty sure that I can "ace" that puppy.

Next thought: I'm going to talk for a moment about the thought of "worth" in the sense of the "value" of something. Where this thought originated was from a little blurb I happened across that was written by a newsman about a well-known government official from the Vietnam era administration following his death. He wrote concerning this official: He was "The original bean-counter. A man who knew the cost of everything, but the worth of nothing."

I immediately thought about the Jews of Christ's day when I read that piece. About how Jesus told them in Matthew the 23^rd chapter basically the same thing in regards to what was important about the Law. That they knew it, at least their version of it, down to the Nth degree, IE: "the cost", but they did not know the value or the worth of it. (Verse 23)

In further looking at those people and that time, Jesus also taught them and us, a lesson about the value, the worth of something. In Matt. 16:26 He asked them a rhetorical question that shows us this lesson. He asked, "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul." When you examine that trade, it's a poor bargain. One has not realized the "worth" of the deal, because they've traded something "eternal" for something "temporary."

Before we leave this thought of "worth" allow me to remind you of what the Jews back then thought the Messiah, the Savior of the world, was "worth." In Matt. 27:9 we see that they "Took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was valued, whom they or the children of Israel did value." Don't you agree with me when I say that they knew the cost, but had no inkling of the "worth," the "value?"

Next thought: A couple of months ago I presented a lesson about the Holy Spirit being a "guide." I'd like to comment a little further on the idea of our "guide" here for just a moment. This little thought popped into my head as I was reading the words in the title of an old familiar hymn, written by Fanny J. Crosby. When one recalls that she was blind, these words take on even more meaning. The song: "All The Way My Savior Leads Me."

This thought is short and sweet. In the form of a question; What better a guide can one have?" Who better to follow "all the way?" All the way to where? The Father in heaven and eternal life there. And, another way of looking at the words "all the way" is to recognize that they mean "in everything."

Next thought: Like me, I'm sure that many of you have seen some of the commercials on television advertizing some type of medicine that is supposed to help people overcome "depression." And I'm fully aware that, in many cases, depression is a form of mental illness and I'm not addressing that form of depression here in this thought. I'm going to offer my opinion of what I feel causes a lot of people to be "depressed" at times.

It has to do with many of the factors of our current economic situation and that I fully agree can be depressing. Perhaps that's why the financial experts refer to it as a "Depression" because it "depresses" so many people. Anyway, I feel that one of the mitigating factors leading people to be depressed is that "they spend too much time thinking about what thy DON'T have versus what they DO have."

It's my opinion that Christians should not suffer this type of depression. I'm speaking here of the depression that comes from worrying over material things. That a true Christian won't be depressed over something they DON'T have. And the reason they shouldn't is because they are aware of what they DO have - the "blessings" that come from being "in Christ."

These consist of "spiritual blessings" and not the possession of "material things." And one of the greatest "blessings" that relate to our lives here on earth is the blessing of "peace." As in "peace of mind" that allows us to avoid being depressed over a lack of "things." Because we recognize that "things" are only relegated to this life, this world, and that they will pass away. They won't survive the end of the world as it's pictured in God's Word.

What's the ultimate "blessing" to the faithful Christian? To find the answer to that question, let's just look at a couple of closing passages. The first one is in Rev. 22:7 where it reads: "Behold I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

And then the one that brings this all home to us, Rev. 22:14: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Let's always keep this in mind as we journey through this life and allow me to give you one more thought to keep in mind about our Christian journey.

    We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience.

    We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience.

Ron Covey

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