LIFE,
BREVITY OF

THE BIBLE says that a general life expectancy is three score and ten, which is seventy years. It also says, if by reason of strength, four score, which is eighty years. That’s right in the range of the average life expectancy today. Men are expected to live for seventy-three years and women for seventy-nine.

Here’s a little project to do. If you’re a man, take your age and deduct it from seventy-three. If you’re a woman, take whatever age you are and deduct it from seventy-nine. That will leave you X number of years that you have left. Multiply the number of years times 365 because that tells you how many days you have left on average. Then take some 8 ½ x 11 sheets of paper and cut them into squares. Number these squares and let them represent your days, which are numbered.

Every day, take a slip, ball it up, and toss it in the trash can. That little exercise will remind you that your stack is getting shorter. Time is running out. Whatever you plan on doing for the glory of God and the kingdom of God, you need to get around to it. Only one life will soon be passed; only what’s done for Christ will last.561

[Death, Inevitability of; Eternal Perspective; Life, Perspective on]

Ps. 39:5; 90:12; Eccl. 8:8

THERE are many people today who consider themselves young. If I take a group of twenty-somethings and ask them if they are young, most, if not all, would raise their hands. There is only one problem. You cannot measure your age by your birthday. You can only measure your age by your death date.

See, if you are thirty-five and you’re only going to live to be forty, then you’re an old man. If you are forty-five and going to live to be ninety, then you’re still pretty young. You can only measure how old you are by the time you have left before you die. Now, who knows when they are going to die? Nobody. So no one really knows who’s old and who’s not.562

[Death, Unexpected; Life, Perspective on]

Ps. 39:5; Luke 12:13–21; James 4:14

A DOCTOR was giving a prognosis to one of his patients. He said, “Sir, I have some bad news for you and some really bad news for you.”

The patient looked shocked. He said, “OK, what’s the bad news?”

The doctor said, “The bad news is that you have twenty-four hours to live.”

The patient swallowed, paused a second, and then said, “Well, it can’t get any worst than that. What’s the really bad news?”

“The really bad news is that I should have called you yesterday.”

Some of us have discovered that being a Christian cannot only be bad; it can be really bad.563

[Christian Living, Burden of; Death, Inevitability of; Death, Unexpected]

Ps. 39:5; James 4:14