As the day is passing away and the sun fades from the sky, all the regular friends have gathered at the deck area and pulled up a comfortable chair for some cool jazz and contemplative conversation.
Thank you for joining me this evening at Outposts, a rural cafe at the end of Old Field Road, overlooking the beautiful and enduring Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge, and every evening is pleasant.
With every program, i try to find a tidbit some may call a side-bar. Tonight’s side-bar is about getting over a sticky place in our thinking, what i call, “What you did to me” attitude. It often sounds like someone saying, “If they hadn’t done such-n-such to me then i wouldn’t have to do what i did!” Hmmm … let’s see, “If They”, the infamous “they”, hadn’t done what “they” did, then i wouldn’t HAVE to do what i did. Just “HAD” to huh? Do you see the twist in it? Can you relate? Some folks live lives which are stuck in all the things someone else did to them. Like a child who disdains the parents to their face, a spouse who was rude, or maybe the person at church who we perceived as being condescending … or how about the ministry which we felt we deserved but the church leadership refused to give us a badge of recognition and a title? i call it the “What they did to me” nail in your tire, with the attitude being like having a nail in your tire, and everything about the car pulls in the direction of that tire that’s going flat. It influences everything about the car…and the “what they did to me” attitude influences everything about your life, causing you to swerve all over the road. Someone is always going to be doing something that affects us. It’s up to us to let it go. By no means do i intend we shouldn’t be responsible for our behavior, but we do have to forgive, and i didn’t say be a door mat either, i said forgive. If we don’t forgive, we stay chained to that person and the circumstances. Jesus had grace for us, and we should have grace for others. And think on this, more than likely, that person who did that “thing” to you, probably doesn’t even realize what they did. i say, A little grace please, practice a little grace.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” What are “old things”? Everything born of this world fades away – the flowers, the grass, our clothes, color, daylight, thoughts, interests, even the mountains and rocks will fade and pass away….because of the origins of our beginning, we all fade and pass away. But see it from another perspective, God has extended to us an opportunity to live a life which will never fade.
Job 14:1-2, “Man who is born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and does not continue.”
To say something “fades” and “passes away” says it does not continue, and the word fade is the general idea of becoming weak or dim, ineffective, or colorless and losing solidity. From beginning to end, everything that is created and everything which is born looses form, color, becomes distant and dim and passes away eventually. It is the progression of all things under the sun. If it is born and breathes, there will come a time when it concludes the journey and all breath will cease.
The world is passing away. For all of us, someday our opportunities will blanch and dim. Beauty fades and our youth is sapped day by day, our life in the flesh never continues forever, and was never meant to. Our eyes get dim and lose color, our strength slips away and our hair turns from dark to gray. i was noticing the other day i’m starting to look like a little old man with skinny legs and skinny arms. i’m not the robust individual i used to be and i won’t be wasting my time lamenting over all that i was. i’m going the path God designed and it’s a good thing. We should endeavor to be as effective as possible as long as possible, however we come to it, in order that we would prosper the Kingdom of Heaven above all things to our last breath.
My mother told me … that one day, if things went well, i would be among the older generation. i didn’t believe her i don’t think. You know, at the time i just couldn’t imagine myself as “older”. But now that i really am “older” i realize my body and mind are fading – i can feel it. The burdens of fear and hope, labor and play, slowly lose their brightness and dissolve. i know my present is destined to fade and pass away because there is this thing called “the past”, meaning my present is fading into remembrance as with everyone, but it seems more noticeable as you get older. As time passes and i realize my gold and silver will rust, a blight and scourge is upon us called death, and for all of us in this life, all our green will become decay at some point in the future. Friends, this is not depression settling around our lives, but a mere understanding this is the way of wearing flesh, and this body will not endure time in its present state. In fact, again, our flesh was never meant to endure time. This is a discussion of our passing out of this life into eternity, and yes, we love talking about things being born, but it seems no one is eager to discuss dying, yet both are inevitable for everyone. We don’t get to practice being born nor will we get to practice dying, in hopes that when the time comes we will do it well.
1 Corinthians 7:31 “ … For this world in its present form is passing away.” i think we should seriously consider the ramifications of that … i mean seriously, where will we be if we highly esteem the things of this world, really set our sights on our possessions or the things we wish so badly we had … if all things of this world are passing away? Gosh what a vanity, what a vanity.
And in light of that question concerning people and all their beloved stuff, i find it mind boggling how Americans have so much stuff.
The fading and passing away of this world and my addiction to all the things which God says not to be in love with really came home to me when i tried to describe to a man in a third world nation how in America we have so much stuff we have to rent storage units to store all our possessions which won’t fit in our houses. The look on his face was one of incredulousness. He thought our addiction to possessions was horrible. He asked me, “If you know this world is passing away, and nothing but what is done in Christ will stand, why do you all devote so much time to owning so much stuff born of this world?” Ummm, well, i had no good answer, after all, i am an American. i have a pocket full of plastic to get more stuff if i want to. And if that wasn’t enough, i can just go to a bank and sign my life away, making payments on stuff, just so i can have more. Then there are the people who keep their stuff, years and years past it’s state of usefulness, and would rather it lay in the barn and rot as to allow anyone in need to have it. Many folks have so much stuff, their houses are piled full, full of all their valuable stuff, so much so, you have to walk through the narrow passages between the piled treasure to get to the next room. It’s an “obsession with possession”, and we can’t take any of it with us. One fellow tried to tell me God intended each of us to be wealthy, having lots of stuff and many possessions. i remember thinking, “why oh why do we need more stuff?” We’ve already got so much of everything, it’s almost as if nothing is special anymore. Indeed, we have “an obsession with possession”, and the Lord wants to change our hearts about that.
1 John 2:8, “Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”
Regardless of what the world’s activities look like on any given day, no matter what the stock market does, or the promises of our government, according to the work of Christ on the cross and 1John 2:8, the teeth have been pulled out of the jaws of hell, and darkness has lost it’s grip! The light of the world is shining, and shining brightly in a dark place … furthermore, He is getting brighter and getting closer to everything in this sin laden, fallen universe. The universe is groaning under the weight of His growing glory, for the closer Jesus gets to all things the more all things become like Him, therefore the darkness yields all its positions and holdings to the Son of God.
The evening news reports God is fading out and the dominion of darkness is fading in, at least that’s what they’d like us to think; the media service network makes sure all we hear is a biased opinion of the state of the universe, saying “everything is fine, just fine. People have never been happier and we have never been so well off” … and it’s simply not true. Regardless, the fact remains evil has lost it’s mooring and anchor, it is passing away. Darkness acts like it still has strength and the ability to run with the ball, but the truth is Jesus has shoved it back from the line of scrimmage all the way into its own goal line, and then it was the end of the game. The Son of God won it all and there is no more opportunity for darkness to repolarize the universe in sin, ever again. Darkness has lost its loud voice and is only left to manipulating those who are available to be manipulated.
Still, there are things which fade and pass away, and as long as we wear flesh and there is a devil, it’s always going to be a fight. Eventually, all that is made, all things, people and memories will pale and dissolve away over the edge of remembrance into eternity.
Ships fade into the distance as they sail away, the light passes away into the late afternoon – soon fading into the evening. Sooner or later, even the memory of the ship which sailed away into the distance will fade away. We think our friends will remember us when we die, but when the friends who remembers us die, that only leaves the friends of the friends who remember and eventually, no one but God will remember. Flowers fade, and the grass of the field passes into winter. Seasons fade in and out, times come and go, but God, God is the same and is ever enduring, unwavering, and always stable. He never fades or passes away. Ever. The older i get, the more my younger years fade into the dimness of the past. Funny how not only does the Lord never fade, but with time He actually becomes more visible, and comes more sharply into view.
How do you want people to remember you? Many years ago, a young man i knew was pondering the end of life and asked me how i wanted to be remembered. Upon asking him to be more specific in what he meant, the young man went on to ask, “Do you want to be remembered for the big house you built, or the garden you grew, or the mile long wall you built to commemorate the time you were on earth? Or maybe for some great athletic feat, or amazing intellectualism.”
i’d never considered what he was asking, so as i thought about his question, into my mind came a multiplicity of several visions all at once, like one little video after another. i first saw a vision of a great house of massive stones firmly built on great rocks in the earth, all eventually crumbling onto the ground and becoming dust again. Then i saw, in high speed motion, a beautiful garden with flowers and vegetables wither and fade, become overgrown with weeds, then saplings sprouted and became trees and shortly no one ever knew there was ever a garden there. And again, i watched as all things built of men, again in hi-speed motion, were built up, fell apart eventually and came down. i saw myself running as the fastest man on earth and jumping higher than all others until i became old with faded strength, years had gone by and then there was a new fastest man on earth, a new high jumper, and no man remembered my name; at the last of the visions, i saw myself with a bulging forehead, smarter than anyone anywhere, and in a flash i saw all my brilliance fading away into history books, and eventually my name, even in history books, would be replaced with someone else’s, someone younger, someone smarter than i ever thought of being.
i believe God gave me a good reply that day when i answered the question with, “I’d like to be remembered for my kindness, my devotion to God, my honesty and diligence. i’d like to be remembered when i fade and pass away as a Godly man of great integrity, and character. i think i’d like my headstone to say, “Here lies a man who loved Jesus and tried really hard.” i continued saying, “But all that, even the remembrance, will fade and pass away. So, above all, i want to know, when my eyes finally fade to black and all my strength is gone, that God knows my name, for men will soon forget other men and even memories fade regardless of our deeds, but God is the only one who remembers us for who we are in Christ.” What do you say? How do you want to be known?
In this life, all things fade and pass away, that is how things are ordered in God’s providence. We typically don’t want to think about that and we somehow expect to know in advance when life, times, and people, are going to fade and pass away. We want a predictable decline, a calculatable crisis so we have time enough to gather our wits and change the set of our sails. Fading and passing away is, typically, a one-time event, we don’t get to practice for the end of the line so we look good, or so we’ll have all the witty and deep things to say in those last moments.
We think to ourselves that it is still “early”, there is still time, that seasons will wait for us and won’t change until we are prepared. Ha! Think my friend, think. Out of the millions who have left this place before us, have the seasons ever, ever waited for anyone to “get it right” before the final chapter of their life somehow, closes like they want? Who gets to elect to leave here with a fairy-tale ending? You’re right! Nobody.
Most of the time we don’t notice the fading and passing of this world, but let’s not dwell on the old, but focus on the new. Galatians 6:15, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” Ephesians 4:22-23, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds”.
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, ALL things have become new!” The new has come, and “new” means never been done before, freshness with respect to age. If you and i, through Christ, have become new, repolarized from unrighteousness to righteousness, by the blood of the crucified, resurrected Son of God, and the Lord says we are made a “new creation”, what part of all new do we not get?
The standard of existing under the rules of this fallen world no longer apply to those who are believers in Christ. We are “other”, meaning not like we were before, and the old standard is no longer suitable. The old “standard” meant as under the rules of death, and the new standard meaning, in Christ, under the rules of life.
The Lord made opportunity for reconciliation and redemption, and we have the power to not remain the same. Remaining the same is not an option; change without transformation is entirely unsatisfactory. Some seem to think they can stay the same, but you know, all untilled soil grows briars and weeds quite well…anything can roll downhill, it may appear to be the simplest thing in the world to just keep going the way were, but truthfully, if we don’t get better, we will get worse, for there is no standing still in the presence of God. The word of the Lord says, we are new, meaning we are not the same anymore … no longer slaves to fear, sin, and death.
Peter says in 1 Peter 5:14, “Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus.” “In Christ” is “in Christ”…. “in” is “in” and we can’t be anymore “in” than “in”. i like these words, “in Christ”, “new creation”, “old things passed away”. We are a new creation, the old you is gone and Jesus is establishing the new, righteous you who will live forever and has access to all the attributes of the Living God, Almighty. i like that. We are new, and even if this world fades and passes away, who we are, and what we have done in Christ will remain forever, God will remember and will not forget. In Christ, you will never fade and pass away. Ever. And that is worth taking to the bank, amen? Think about it.
Outwardly, indifference and trusting God can look the same, but at their foundation they are eternally different. Indifference says, “i really don’t care what happens.” It means being unconcerned and having a lack of interest. On the other hand, trusting God says, “i care what’s happening, but i believe God has got this, He will resolve things in His time, and i’m not going to worry anymore.” ‘If any man be in Christ he is a new creature,’ Jesus has put all life under the influence of “new life”. We may have lingering hankerings from the old which fades and passes away, but as the new sap rises in us, it pushes off the old leaves to break out the new for bearing much fruit.
i’m Social Porter and thank you for joining me here at Outposts.
This world has lost it’s grip on us who are in Christ. This world is fading and passing away, satan and hell have been defeated and have no authority over us who are God’s people. When Jesus said, “It is finished”, He meant “finished”, done, accomplished. From that point on, sin, death and dying are fading and passing away and the light is getting brighter and brighter.
Stand up this week, hoist your colors up the flag pole, nail God’s declaration of Hope upon the mast pole of life and let the world hear of His goodness in your life. Pray for your neighbors, be kind to yourself and those around you. Drive carefully, and i hope to talk with you next time.