TODAYS BIBLE READING:
 

If you were raptured today, taken directly into heaven, would your eyes be fixed on Jesus, or would you be straining your neck back to earth, searching for someone or something? Would you be looking back to see if a loved one was being left behind? Would you be looking back at your pets that you love? Would you be looking back at your house, your favorite vacation destination, perhaps someplace you always wanted to travel to, your office, etc.? While we inhabit this earth there is work to do. Most importantly there is the moving forth with the gospel message. But nothing, I mean nothing, should take your focus off of Jesus. Many know of the story of Lot’s wife. The angels warned Lot, his wife, and his daughters to flee Sodom and not look back. But we read in Genesis 19:26, “But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” Jesus said in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Jesus isn’t telling us to literally hate these loved ones, He is stating that our love for Him should be so strong, that our love for our family looks like hate in comparison. If this is the case our heads will not strane back to earth for anything.

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Solomon wrote three books in the Bible. Full of romance and optimism, he wrote Song of Solomon early in his life. He wrote the book of Proverbs in the middle of his life, as he compiled much of the wisdom that God had given him. But Solomon later in life made many poor choices, and he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes as an older man looking back at his life and much of the meaningless that he pursued. Though he started strong, he accumulated wives, wealth, etc. These things turned him away from God in his years of backsliding. In his later years, he found life empty and unfulfilling as the pursuit of riches and pleasure pushed God out of the way. The phrase “under the sun” is used nearly thirty times in this book and reflects what the world looks like apart from God. The word “vanity” or emptiness is used thirty-seven times. So Solomon starts off in Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Vanity of vanities”, says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity””. We read in 2:10-11, “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.” Solomon came to the conclusion that there was no lasting profit from earthly things.

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Jesus said in Mark 8:36, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Corrie Ten Boom wisely said, “I have learned to hold all things loosely, so God will not have to pry them out of my hands”. What has us so captivated as to take our eyes off of Jesus? We are not commanded to simply do nothing and stare at heaven. But we are to do all things for and through Him. Every relationship, every job, everything should be with Christ at the center. The time to reach others is now. Looking back will serve no purpose. May we mean it when we say, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”