GLOBAL  IMPACT  STUDIES

If you find the truth, will you believe it?

If any man desires to do God's will, he will have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from myself and on my own accord.  John 7:17 

 

 

LET US BE THANKFUL FOR THE SEASONS OF OUR LIFE

Our Elohim is a God of order.  He divides the year into four distinct parts called seasons which come and go with precise regularity century after century throughout the eons of time.  "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Genesis 8:22).  So the seasons of our lives are patterned after this example.  Let us examine the different seasons and learn to give thanks for each of them, for together they make up that being that is uniquely you.

SPRING:   A time of joy and newness of life.  A baby is born, innocent, helpless, and needful. The child must depend on others to nurture and protect him; else he will die.  How exciting when the baby cuts his first tooth, takes his first step, says his first word.  He carries the DNA of his parents and begins to exhibit their looks and mannerisms.   Sometimes you will hear others remark regarding a boy, "He is the spitting-image of his dad," or if a girl, "She has her mother's eyes."  He has inherited it all through no effort of his own but is the recipient of his ancestors' endowments.  He has been bequeathed with talents, abilities, and a body to carry on the next generation.   And so it is when we are "born again" by the Spirit of Elohim (John 3:3-5). The Heavenly Father's DNA becomes a part of our being and we are enabled to perform works of righteousness.  See Romans 8:4.  It is a time of new beginnings.  For this season, "Let us give thanks!"  

SUMMER:  The child grows and matures into a young adult capable now of caring for himself and accomplishing his own dreams and goals in life.  He no longer needs the constant supervision of his parents but learns by education and experience how to achieve what he desires in life.  He learns valuable life-skills and social graces to live compatibly with others. He chooses a mate and now with his life-time companion, they also can reproduce and create children after their likeness and so they start their own family.  Life becomes very busy with work, raising children and the days become full and sometimes hectic.  He begins to think about laying up in store for the years ahead when he no longer has the strength and physical energy of his youth.  And yet while all these things are occurring during this period of one's earthly existence, we must never forget that we are but pilgrims here and heaven is our home. "These (those who have come and gone before us) all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13).  For this season, "Let us give thanks!"

FALL:   Such a beautiful time of year; the culmination of Spring and Summer growth!  The trees have shed their dress of various shades of green and are magnificently arrayed in splendid hues of red, orange, and yellow.  Their brilliant colors can be admired from afar.  The heat of summer has given way to cool, crisp days of a less hectic time of year as nature winds down in preparation for a long winter.  So it is in life,  our children are grown, we have pretty much established our lives, decided where to live, raised our children, and chosen our friends. Retirement presents itself with thoughts of a little more leisure and more time to consider the more important aspects of life we may have neglected throughout our lives.  We may see ourselves as the trees that have been stripped of all the foliage which covered their branches and trunks.  We can take this time in our lives for considering what our lives have been or may have been had we pursued another course.  For this season, "Let us give thanks!"

WINTER:  And now we enter into the rest of all our labors and activities of life.  White hair hopefully attests to the wisdom of having lived long Elohim-centered lives.  Not much is new to us any longer for we have already experienced most of the pleasures and heartaches of life and find ourselves content to just settle back and enjoy the remainder of our life, one day at a time. We surround ourselves with familiar faces and find comfort in the sameness of our surroundings. There is also a twinge of sadness as the faces of old friends and familiar faces gradually fade from our life and are gone.  Our children are grown and gone away to establish their own families, and we yearn for them but take pleasure in the fine men and women they have become.  We know that our efforts to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of Yahuwah have not been in vain.  "Train up a child in the way it should go:  and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).  "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth"(3 John 4).

Memories bring some measure of comfort for we have tucked them into the deepest crannies of our heart and bring them out whenever we choose and hold them close even if it is just for a short while. Sometimes they even manifest themselves in our dreams as we sleep. And then, one day, it is our time to say good-by.  This day is just as important as the day of our birth, perhaps even more so.  "The day of death" is better "than the day of one's birth" (Ecclesiastes 7:1)  The choices we have made in life will determine where we spend eternity. For those who have made Yahuwah their Elohim, they can quietly lie down in peace, knowing they shall hear the trumpet of Elohim sound and come forth to enter into a glorious new life, free from the hurts and pain of this world, into a life immortal and incorruptible to dwell forever with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  "For Yahuwah Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of Elohim: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first:  then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet Yahuwah in the air:  and so shall we ever be with Yahuwah, wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, emphasis added).  

As Spring brings forth new birth, so also Winter can herald a new beginning for those who have repented of their sins ("The goodness of Elohim leadeth us to repentance" [Romans 2:4].), and have been reconciled through the atonement of the blood of the precious Lamb of Elohim (Romans 5:10-11), and have been born again by the Spirit of Elohim (John 3:3).   For this season, "Let us give thanks!"

Friend, if you want to be able to give thanks in the winter of your life or whatever season you are in, consider this: "For Elohim so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, might not perish, but have everlasting life"  (John 3: 16).

Why not today become the recipient of the Father's love in the gift of His Son and make this day of thanksgiving and be truly thankful?