Be aware of your accomplishments

Genesis 11:3-4 “(3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. (4) They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

The prideful tower of Babel all began with a small accomplishment – a technological break-through that man had made (the bricks and mortar).

The nature of man is to get a big head when he achieves anything, especially in the ‘information age‘ when man has accomplished so many break-throughs. We’ve harnessed electricity and power to make all sorts of inventions that allow the whole world to keep in contact in real time. We’ve landed people on the moon, and sent probes out to other planets to get all sorts of details and pictures of those other worlds. Such amazing accomplishments! But what do these accomplishments do for our souls? Will this really get us closer to the kingdom of God?

These are secular accomplishments. Yet what these do for the egos of the world, even “Christian” accomplishments can do for the egos of people in the church. “I’ve passed thousands of tracts out, I’ve given wise advice to hundreds of people, I’ve planted churches, given bibles, given money, preached, taught many people.”

It seems that the whole world must now be a ‘tower of babel’ in a sense. Our goal must be to never take any credit for any of our accomplishments – secular or Christian, minor or major… at our jobs or in the church. Remember that numbers mean absolutely zero to the Lord! Don’t even pagan preachers have multitudes following them? I would rather be a humble janitor in the church of God than reach thousands for Christ yet be puffed up with pride. Lord, keep us from this temptation. Only then can He use us as a means of giving life to other people.

On death and dying….

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain– Philippians 1:21

We read about heaven, we hear sermons about heaven, we sing about heaven; but still we are apprehensive about death. God has built into us a desire to live, and it should be our goal to be able to say with the apostle, “To live is Christ.” Even with the amazing experiences Paul had with the Lord he was still pressing toward the mark and desired to know Christ more intimately. May we each day in our fellowship with our Savior become more like him in our walk and more dedicated in his service.

But as Paul continued to work like crazy in the kingdom of God, he thought and wrote a lot about heaven. He wrote that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come. He tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and that we willl forever be with him. No wonder, then, he would write, “To die is gain.”

It meant to gain freedom from the weaknesses of our bodies so that he would never again have to say, “O wretched man that I am!” He would gain the joy of living with Christ forever; he would gain the benefits of the inheritance which is reserved for all believers in jesus.

He felt, though, a conflict. He had a desire to go and to be with Christ but also saw it was needful to remain and minister to the churches. Surely, as God’s children, we should long to be with the Lord, but see there is work to be done here and want to labor faithfully until we are called home, so be patient, our time in glory will come soon enough.