Remember ‘way back’ when you were a kid? For some it’s WAY farther than others. Who was your third grade teacher(s)? My home room & math teacher was Mrs. Clark. She was 112 back then. That was before ‘mandatory retirement’ or ‘T-drop’ or anything. Of course when you’re a kid EVERYONE seems 112! She was a great African-America lady who made learning fun, & invested my early life & education.
Think back. Who was your best friend in first grade? Did you get into any trouble together? How about Jr. High? Who did you hang around with & what did you do for fun? At lunch today, our staff was sitting around laughing at our fads & ‘fashion sense.’ If you’re honest you probably wore some really stupid clothes just to fit in & be cool. But didn’t we think we were stylin’ & profilin’ back in da day?!
Our lives are filled with moments, opportunities and memories. The good memories are often results of positive choices we made. I’m not sure if your life is turning out quite like you thought it would. Does your future seem bright & hopeful, or is it a gnarled mass of questions? God does have a plan.
We often try to maximize our lives & days by ‘to-do’ lists. Gotta be honest, I have to have the list to keep my ADHD mind from ricocheting off on tangents. I have learned this, though: if I’m simply locked in a regimented list of priorities & responsibilities, I might miss the ‘divine encounters’ that God has in store for me.
A few years back, I was moving from one ministry to another. I looked over years of pictures & memorabilia with bitter sweet thoughts. As I was doing this, we were also preparing a special anniversary for my parents. I wrote a song entitled, “Between the Pictures.” One line speaks to that: “I’m reminded that life takes place between the pictures & the photographs we take.”
Are you allowing God to maximize your life to its fullest? How about those childhood friends, teachers, & acquaintances? Do you think, pray & encourage them as they did for you?
“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is." Psalm 39:4 NLT
You might have heard the poem, “The Dash Between the Years.” It deals with the line between the birth date & death date on a tombstone. I realize most of you are far too young to obsess over misspent years or regret years lost, but this is just a gentle nudge to remember how short life is & to make the most of the time you have here. Christian songwriter Mark Harris has written a song that encourages this way:
“A beginning and an ending, dates upon a stone,
but the moment in the middle is how we will be known;
Cause what defines us can be found within a line
Finding reason for our time, And the years go by,
how they seem to fly They'll all be over soon,
When our life is done, did we live and love
The way we wanted to,Cause everyday that we leave behind
Goes on to tell the truth
Of how we lived in the line between the two.”
I’d love to hear the stories about the life you’re living ‘between the two.’ Tell me about your best buddy, favorite teacher, or neighbor down the street. Remember them & share. More importantly, tell that person how much they meant to you!
www.myspace.com/davejacksonnewport.
Dave Jackson on facebook
ASUN website www.bcmasunewport.org
Cell: 870-217-9376
Dave Jackson-Campus Minister djackson@absc.org
Dave’s Desk -http://bcmasunewport.blogspot.com
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
-In a Second-
In a second you could decide to read this or not. Of course, there are a lot more earth shattering things that can happen in a second. In a second: a pass can be intercepted & a game lost or won; a foul turns a game around; a basket is made to win a championship. In a second: the words “Will you marry me?” will change your life. Of course, “I Do” even more so. In a second you can mark an answer that could make or break a grade. In a second you can pull a lever & cast a ballot that will change an election. A button is pushed & a bomb detonated.
In a second several different lives were recently ended as they crossed the yellow line & went into eternity. A young man & woman followed the heat of passion & changed their lives & the course of their families. Marriages ended in a stroke of a pen. Actions took place that stole years of lives. A gavel slammed & the sentence was set.
In my life I have had many ‘second’ decisions or actions that set things in motion for years. As a boy, in a second, I turned around & caught a brick in the head that began debilitating migraines for the next 8 years. A pistol went off & a bullet went into the side of my leg. (A second later & it would have shattered my femur.) I slowly pulled my car into a daycare parking lot, scanning to assure no children were running into traffic. Had I waited one more second I would have seen the car speeding round the corner that hit me head on.
Along with those difficult ‘seconds’ that happened in my life, there have been some wonderful seconds. “Will you marry me?” A seeming eternity later, ‘Yes.’ Of course, “I Do’ has lasted almost 25 years now. The second it took to sign the adoption papers has changed our families’ lives. Months of questions ended the second it took to surrender my life to Christ. Eternity began.
All of these actions took only seconds. The deliberation was mulled over for some time, but the actual decision was in an instant. Our lives are made up of those instants, those blink of an eye times that set life into motion. We make decisions or actions in a second that affect eternity.
“What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” I Cor. 15:50-53 NLT
I urge you to think of the importance & weight of these ‘seconds’ in our lives. In a second, this world as we know it will end. Eternity depends on what you do in a second with Jesus. With surrender comes transformation. Contact me if you have questions about a ‘second’ with Christ. Tell be about the important ‘seconds’ in your life. Love to hear.
www.myspace.com/davejacksonnewport. Dave Jackson on facebook
ASUN website www.bcmasunewport.org Cell: 870-217-9376
Dave Jackson-Campus Minister djackson@absc.org
Dave’s Desk - http://bcmasunewport.blogspot.com
In a second several different lives were recently ended as they crossed the yellow line & went into eternity. A young man & woman followed the heat of passion & changed their lives & the course of their families. Marriages ended in a stroke of a pen. Actions took place that stole years of lives. A gavel slammed & the sentence was set.
In my life I have had many ‘second’ decisions or actions that set things in motion for years. As a boy, in a second, I turned around & caught a brick in the head that began debilitating migraines for the next 8 years. A pistol went off & a bullet went into the side of my leg. (A second later & it would have shattered my femur.) I slowly pulled my car into a daycare parking lot, scanning to assure no children were running into traffic. Had I waited one more second I would have seen the car speeding round the corner that hit me head on.
Along with those difficult ‘seconds’ that happened in my life, there have been some wonderful seconds. “Will you marry me?” A seeming eternity later, ‘Yes.’ Of course, “I Do’ has lasted almost 25 years now. The second it took to sign the adoption papers has changed our families’ lives. Months of questions ended the second it took to surrender my life to Christ. Eternity began.
All of these actions took only seconds. The deliberation was mulled over for some time, but the actual decision was in an instant. Our lives are made up of those instants, those blink of an eye times that set life into motion. We make decisions or actions in a second that affect eternity.
“What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” I Cor. 15:50-53 NLT
I urge you to think of the importance & weight of these ‘seconds’ in our lives. In a second, this world as we know it will end. Eternity depends on what you do in a second with Jesus. With surrender comes transformation. Contact me if you have questions about a ‘second’ with Christ. Tell be about the important ‘seconds’ in your life. Love to hear.
www.myspace.com/davejacksonnewport. Dave Jackson on facebook
ASUN website www.bcmasunewport.org Cell: 870-217-9376
Dave Jackson-Campus Minister djackson@absc.org
Dave’s Desk - http://bcmasunewport.blogspot.com
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