Dust!

“…for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”   Genesis 3:19

We are getting ready to say goodbye to 2020 and          welcome in 2021. What a year it has been. Over the age   of five, no one alive will forget the year that Covid-19    affected everyone on the planet, one way or another. Here in the United States, we experienced civil unrest that has not been seen since the 1960s. Yet, despite all the uncertainty, panic, doom, and gloom, God still sits on His throne and is in complete control. If anything, 2020 should show us that when the Book of Revelation events start happening, people will believe and do anything to keep themselves safe.

For believers, God’s elect, we do not look to individuals for our hope and security; we look to our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. We know that this life is fleeting, even the ungodly lament that life is too short. People have always tried to find a way to cheat death. But, God makes it clear that our bodies are dust, and to dust, we shall return.

When we were born, we began to die. Thankfully it is only God who knows the number of our days, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written,    very one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16). In the United States, a baby born in the year 2020 has a life expectancy of 76.1 years if male and 81.1 female. The    average life expectancy for the entire world is 72.6 years. Do you know what the Word of God has to say about our life expectancy?  “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10

Only God knows the days you have left. As a believer      living for Christ and seeking His will, you should be        secure knowing that nothing will happen to you that   God has not sovereignly ordained. James reminds us    that whatever time we have, it is precious,

“Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). If Christ does not return, death is as certain for each of us as the sun’s rising and setting. For believers, there is no need to fear death. We can say with complete confidence, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ( I Corinthians 15:55).  We have the hope that the world can never have without Christ. Paul writes to the Church in Ephesus and reminds us of God’s great love for His children.  “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2:4-8.

We have no idea what the next year will bring, but we can rest assured that our salvation is secure, and we can live a life of joy and peace no matter what trials and tribulations come our way. In this new year, may our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you, and may you remain strong in the faith.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark