"From one day to the next," the man had told my husband's friend, "everything was changed." The man was from the Ukraine, and he shared from his own personal experience. "We went to sleep one night with everything fine. We had money in the bank, everything was normal. But, the next morning it was all gone." As I tried to sleep the night my husband mentioned this account to me, the words seemed etched onto my mind: "From one day to the next, from one day to the next..." Could it really have been so fast?
In every culture and civilization of the world, people have the ancient memory of the great Flood that covered the entire earth. The Book says that until the very day that Noah entered into the ark, people were eating, drinking, marrying - and then the flood came and took them all away. (Matthew 24:38-39) There suddenly came a day when everything changed. It happened then; it can happen again - to us, to me. When the doctor told your wife, "You have six months to a year to live," or when the soldiers with wreaths came to your front door with news of your son, everything changed. From one day to the next.
While on earth, Jesus performed countless acts of compassion and spoke many encouraging, gracious, and gentle words. But at times He was forceful, vehement; and at times He spoke harsh words. He called some people "fools", a strongly derogatory term. He used the word in a parable, after warning a man about coveting - inordinately desiring more and more possessions. In the parable, a rich man's fields yielded him an extremely abundant harvest, so he built bigger barns to store this "windfall". Then he said to himself, "Soul of mine, you have many good things laid up, enough for many years; take your ease now - eat, drink, and be merry." (Luke 12:19) There was nothing foolish about storing up the bounty, for we are urged to follow the example of the ants to wisely do so (Proverbs 6:6-8). So why would God call this man a "fool"? What made the man foolish was that he left God out of the picture. "But God said unto him, 'You fool! This very night your soul will be required of you. And all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with him who continues to hoard up possessions for himself, but is not rich in his relationship toward God." (Luke 12:20-21) He was called a fool because he failed to realize that his life was in God's hands.
One definition for ungodliness is "life unconscious of God." Once God destroyed the earth because of it. (Genesis 6:5-7) The man in the parable Jesus told planned carefully for a comfortable life on earth; but, did he plan at all for eternity (by storing up treasures in heaven - Matthew 6:20)? "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'." (Psalm 14:1) Does your plan for the future have God in it? If, not, turn around while you may. Everything can change - from one day to the next. Who can say when it will be too late? May we not, in the end, be dubbed foolish!
While on earth, Jesus performed countless acts of compassion and spoke many encouraging, gracious, and gentle words. But at times He was forceful, vehement; and at times He spoke harsh words. He called some people "fools", a strongly derogatory term. He used the word in a parable, after warning a man about coveting - inordinately desiring more and more possessions. In the parable, a rich man's fields yielded him an extremely abundant harvest, so he built bigger barns to store this "windfall". Then he said to himself, "Soul of mine, you have many good things laid up, enough for many years; take your ease now - eat, drink, and be merry." (Luke 12:19) There was nothing foolish about storing up the bounty, for we are urged to follow the example of the ants to wisely do so (Proverbs 6:6-8). So why would God call this man a "fool"? What made the man foolish was that he left God out of the picture. "But God said unto him, 'You fool! This very night your soul will be required of you. And all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with him who continues to hoard up possessions for himself, but is not rich in his relationship toward God." (Luke 12:20-21) He was called a fool because he failed to realize that his life was in God's hands.
One definition for ungodliness is "life unconscious of God." Once God destroyed the earth because of it. (Genesis 6:5-7) The man in the parable Jesus told planned carefully for a comfortable life on earth; but, did he plan at all for eternity (by storing up treasures in heaven - Matthew 6:20)? "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'." (Psalm 14:1) Does your plan for the future have God in it? If, not, turn around while you may. Everything can change - from one day to the next. Who can say when it will be too late? May we not, in the end, be dubbed foolish!
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