We trust that if you accepted or received one of our 2017 calendars
that you will enjoy using it and, particularly, the photos featured on it. It
shows what tremendous national parks there are in the British Isles. If only we
had time to visit them all!
That is what made me think. Calendars, apart from the pictures they
might contain, are indicators of the passage of time as well as heralds of what
is to come. You may be aware of hoe time has slipped by. No sooner had we
entered 2016 than now we are at its close. Where has the year gone? I wonder
how many of the things that you intended to do were completed and, if they
were, how many were completed in the time span you thought possible. So often
we look back and remember what still remain unfinished, incomplete, or not even
started. In some cases, we might have re-evaluated our list of jobs and decided
that some things were not as important as we thought.
What I would ask is: where does your plan for eternity feature? What
preparations have you made for life beyond the span you spend here on earth?
The calendar we distribute contains some excellent Bible verses about this key
issue. One speaks about the way that seems right to men and women. [1] Many are
so busy ‘enjoying’ the present that they give no thought to the future,
specifically life beyond death. Don’t be fooled by the thinking of the secular
world that this life is all that there is. God has shown us that there is more
and that we have a choice to make now as to whether we will spend that eternity
with Him or separated from Him. So, in the words of another calendar verse, are
we busy laying up treasures on earth, or treasures in heaven? [2]
If we want to be assured of heaven we need to have our sins forgiven.
We need to have the guilt associated with our shortcomings and failures
removed. We need peace with God. How can this be achieved? Another of the
calendar texts tells us. ‘Jesus saith unto him, I am the way . . . no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me’. [3] Because Jesus came to earth as a babe
in Bethlehem and went to die upon a cross at Calvary (remember the Easter story?),
we can be forgiven. His death was God’s remedy for our sin. Jesus Christ
provided a sacrifice for sin, a payment to ransom us from its power. Are you
prepared to believe it? Another text says, ‘By grace are ye saved through faith’.
[4] Do you have that faith? Another text says: ‘Choose you this day whom ye
will serve’. [5] What will you do with Jesus Christ and God’s offer of
salvation found in Him?
[1] Proverbs 14. 12
[2] Matthew 6. 20
[3] John 14. 6
[4] Ephesians 2. 8
[5] Joshua 24. 15
