“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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What is Life?
What is life? That’s a question all of us have asked at some point during our time on Earth.
I remember a time shortly after Katie and I were married. It was 1973. We had been married for less than a year, and we had just bought our first house. Actually, it was 3 houses. We lived in half of one of the houses and rented out the rest. Because of that, we lived rent free, and our cash flow was net positive each month. We were also able to depreciate the property for income tax purposes.
I was 22, and Katie was 21. None of that was normal.
To buy the property, we put no money down. It was 100% financed. Closing costs were all I had to pay. That’s not normal, either. A man who later became my partner in a business was a businessman and a lawyer. He talked with a friend of his at the bank and set it up. All I had to do was sign the papers. His name was Billy Slaughter. I appreciated all the things Billy did for Katie and me.
The thing I remember most about that time is not the property or the deal, though. Katie and I had gone to The Varsity in Athens, Georgia for lunch. We went inside to buy the food, and we sat in the car while we ate. While we were eating and talking, I was thinking about the meaning of life. I was asking, “Is this what life is all about?”
The answer to that question is no. Life is not about possessions or position or title. I was on a road of discovery, and I didn’t even know it. Yahweh was guiding me on my journey, and that journey is life. What we do on our journey determines whose we are.
In Jeremiah 1:4-8, Yahweh told Jeremiah,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Then I said, “Alas, Adonai Yahweh! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.”
But Yahweh said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares Yahweh.
Jeremiah’s journey on Earth was a very small part of his journey through eternity. Yahweh said that He knew Jeremiah before He formed him in his mother’s womb, so Jeremiah’s journey started before he was conceived.
Yahweh knew us before He formed us in our mother’s wombs, too. Everything we think we know is a miniscule part of our journey through eternity, but it’s an important part. It’s the part where we demonstrate our faith in Yahweh, or we demonstrate our lack of faith in Him. That determines our ultimate destiny.
Yahweh knew that Jeremiah would make the right choices. He did not predetermine those choices, but He knew what they would be.
Yahweh is omniscient. That means He can see the past, present, and future at the same time. Nothing is a mystery to Him, but He is a mystery to us. Yahweh exists at a level that our minds can’t comprehend yet. In due course, we will see things the way He sees them. Until that day comes, we are guided by Him and learning to respond to the leading of His Spirit.
Life is about developing a relationship with Yahweh on our journey, so that we become the people He created us to be. Some of Yahweh’s people are rich and some are poor. How much or how little we have is not the issue. The issue is what we do when Yahweh’s Spirit leads us. Do we turn away from Him and go our own way, or do we follow the leading of the Spirit and go Yahweh’s way?
Several years ago, a friend gave me a T-shirt with a message emblazoned on the front that I really liked:
Yahweh not My Way
Yahweh’s children hear His voice and follow Him. The Messiah explained it like this:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10: 27-30)
All of us need to pay attention to Yahweh’s voice. I’ve heard some people say, “I have never heard Yahweh’s voice.” They are wrong. Every person has heard Yahweh’s voice, but many people simply ignore it, or they drown it out with frivolous things that don’t amount to anything.
Why do so many fabulously wealthy people spend most of their time and energy trying to get richer? They won’t take anything with them when they go, and Yahweh won’t be impressed by their net worth when they die.
The only thing that will matter when we meet Yahweh Face-to-face is whether we knew Him and followed Him. Our faith in Him and our willingness to follow Him determines whose we are. It’s not what we have that matters. It’s what we do.
All of us experience trials and tribulations on Earth. It’s a form of testing. Do we have faith in Yahweh or not? If we have faith in Him, we will follow Him. If we don’t have faith in Him, we will go our own way.
A while back, Yahweh started telling me, “Don’t be afraid to die.” To test me, Yahweh allowed Satan to attack me and put me in positions where death was a distinct possibility. Learning to confront the reality of my own death made me stronger than I have ever been. Physical death occurs in an instant, but life goes on through eternity. The only question is where will we spend eternity?
I don’t know how this sounds to you. Some of you are probably brushing it aside because it has no meaning. Some of you understand what I am saying and are thinking about where you are headed. I’m talking to the latter group. Don’t be afraid to die.
When my cardiologist told me that I had aortic stenosis, a congenital disease, and that I would need to have open-heart surgery to replace my aortic valve in 2 to 5 years, he also told me that there was a chance I would die during surgery. He said that my health was very good otherwise, so there was a 90% chance that I would live.
That meant there was a 10% probability that I would die. Would you get on an airplane if you thought there was a 10% probability it would crash? Under normal circumstances, the obvious answer is no. Those odds are better than the odds of surviving Russian roulette, but they don’t inspire confidence.
Even so, I told my cardiologist, “I want to have surgery as soon as possible, because I have things to do.”
His response surprised me. He said, “Most of my patients want to put off surgery as long as they can.”
I said, “Everybody dies.”
“Yes, everybody dies,” he said, “but most people don’t want to expose themselves to that risk until they are about to die.”
Overcoming the fear of death is an important step in the process of developing a relationship with Yahweh. Jeremiah confronted death many times during his time on Earth, because he delivered a message from Yahweh to the Jewish people that made many of them very angry. They tried to kill him, but Yahweh wouldn’t allow them to succeed.
As Yahweh told Jeremiah, “I am watching over My word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:12) Yahweh’s people have nothing to fear, because Yahweh will protect them until they complete their mission. After they complete their mission, they return to Yahweh for eternity. The trials and tribulations of this world are nothing compared to eternity with our Creator.
The 23rd Psalm
The 23rd Psalm is a Psalm of David. He confronted death many times as he did the things Yahweh told him to do, but David never lost faith in Him. When he sinned by going his own way, David repented and returned to Yahweh.
Below is the 23rd Psalm:
Yahweh is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
