Date - July/64

Contributor - M. Geene

Title - Exist Or Live?

Topic - Youth

There was once a song that was called: "What a Difference a Day Makes." Last Saturday while returning from the classical council meeting in Galt, that song may well have been called "What a Difference a Half Hour Makes" for that was all that separated me and the passengers in my car from horror and death. Perhaps this sounds like a fatalistic point of view but the young people who were injured or killed in the highway accident could well have been young people we knew, or even us. Only God's grace and love kept us from becoming those blood covered corpses lying so pitifully still along the highway.

As we viewed the scene of the accident the thought kept coming to my mind: What were these people's last thoughts before they crashed? Or did they have time to think or even react? What was the state of their spiritual life? Did they know Jesus as their Lord or were they having their so-called last fling before settling down to the plain life? These last intimate details will never be know by anyone except God. But as I said before, these victims of this, and any other accident could well have been us. They don't need to be someone in the next town or street or even another country. They could be someone we know very well or even be one of our loved ones.

But let us come even closer to reality. If we were those accident victims then what would be our last thoughts before we met our Creator - for we will meet Him face-to-face whether we think so or not at the present. That excuse would we offer to the Almighty God if He were to take our earthly life away from us when we are in places that are not suitable to Christ's followers? Could you tell Him that you were too busy to attend a church meeting because you just had to see that movie before it left your town? Could you tell Him that the Youth Fellowship Meetings are too dull for you to go to them? Could you tell Him that Sunday is your day of rest and therefore you should rest and relax on the beach or in bed, rather than being in God's house and having to listen to the Word? yr could you explain your being in a place where His name is used in cursing and swearing and where human beings are making gluttons and pigs of themselves by eating and drinking to excess'.? How could you explain the time when you heard malicious gossip about someone you knew and did nothing to defend that person in the name of Christ? What could you and I say if God confronted us with these situations? We cannot deny that we were never in those circumstances for if we live in this world then we are among these situations all the time.

And if we were to meet our Maker suddenly, He will ask us what we have done for Him on earth while we sojourned here. What could we say in answer to that? Have we lived our life for our own enjoyment and thrills or have we lived in a way that Jesus has demanded of us as Christians? If a poll were to be taken of what our purpose for living would be I wonder what the results would show. How many of us exist? And how many of us really live? If we live for the main reason of getting all the thrills and enjoyments out of life that we can get for ourselves-seeing and doing and participating in all the activities of the world, then we do nothing more than exist. When we die, our chance for service to God is over on this earth. But then we will pay our entertainment fee in the hereafter. Does this shock you? It should for it deals with your eternal destiny - and eternity is forever. Rather a long time to pay for a fling isn't it?

But the fear of eternal punishment should not make us come to God, for then we are coming as a little boy who is apologizing for being naughty in the belief that by being sorry for what he has done he will not be punished for his misdeed. Fear is a poor reason for coming to the Almighty God. Some evangelists preach fire and brimstone all the time and have their audiences in such an emotional state that they would promise anything to get away from this punishment. I am not advocating that all the sermons and talks be about the love and mercy of God either for then our worship would lack forcefulness and discipline.

But why must young people be hit over the head with car tragedies, harsh experiences and stark reality? Has God not shown us how much He loves us in all that He has given to us without our even asking Him? We don't need to participate in all the worldly means for making people feel "happy and content with life". Of all the people of the world the Christian should be, the happiest of all for did not we receive the best reason for being happy. We have not only this life here on earth to be happy in the Lord but also eternity in which we can be with the Lord in all His glory and peace.

If the legendary "millionaire" of television were to leave us a million dollars to do with as we wished, would we not be continually grateful for his generosity? But God has given to us the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you and me, so that we might have forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. Is that not worth more than many millions of dollars? Then why are we not grateful? Why do we not serve Him in every way possible? The world entices us with many appealing things and there isn't one person who can resist them ALL the time but with the help of God's Spirit we can overcome these temptations. We cannot hope to achieve this by ourselves for our efforts are puny, but with His hand on ours we can overcome anything no matter how colossal it may seem at the present time. Why not then, Young people of Canada, live for Christ instead of existing for self?