My dear readers,

One Last Time!

New Year’s Day is commemorated globally every year. There is something very poignant about the end of the old and the beginning of the new year. Perhaps it is because man feels that they have survived another year and is about to begin to live in a new year. Magnificent and grand celebrations include fireworks lighting up the skies all over the world. Man ushers in the new year hoping that it will be better than the year before. There will be drinking, eating and carnal revelry around the world regardless of time zones. It is as if carnality never sets from the east to the west! As it sets in the Far East, it begins in the Far West. Man lives like there is no end to his life and the world and everything in it has gone on forever and will continue to do the same.

Do God’s children think the same?

God forbid!

They know from God’s Word in Hebrews 9:27 that, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” There is an end to everything under the sun. In other words, God has stamped an expiration date on everything just as man stamps an expiration date on everything he creates.

Therefore, as we begin this new year 2023 which happens to be on the first day of the year, month, week, day, hour and minute (the last time this happened was in 2017), it is important to note that everything has an end. Everything we do can be our last!

After our time on earth ends, Christ’s judgment awaits. Let us live for Jesus Christ in this new year in every area of our lives, beginning with our walk with God and Christ. Let us pray without ceasing. Let us study God's Word diligently and faithfully with a heart of obedience. Let us look forward to the Lord’s Day every week and keep it holy for Christ’s sake. Let us protect the unity we have in Christ Jesus with our brothers and sisters-in-Christ and stop sowing discord which is an abomination unto the LORD (cf. Prov 6:16-19).

Let us promise the LORD to serve Him by bearing a holy witness for Christ at home, in church, at work and in school. Let us serve Christ afresh with renewed zeal, love and fervency in the ministries given to us by God in Christ for our spiritual well-being. Let us seek not our own things but also the things of others because God has given to us the mind of Christ (cf. Phil 2:1-8). Let us not forsake the “assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is;but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (cf. Heb 10:25). Let us provoke one another unto love and good works and stop provoking one another unto wrath and iniquity.

Together, let us love and care for one another in the Lord on our way to heaven. One day, as we stand before God, may we all hear Him say to us, “Well done, my good and faithful servants. Welcome to your eternal heavenly home!”

To experience the above with biblical confidence (which is a clear teaching of Scripture as testified by Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:6-8), we need to be conscious of the end of all things so that we may be diligent to be faithful in all.

Our relationship with our heavenly Father is top on this list. A close walk with God is the key to experiencing a godly walk in all other areas of our lives. As spiritual children, who have ceased to wrestle against flesh and blood because all things are now spiritual, we need to be spiritually strong. This means that we know God’s Word well. Knowing God’s Word is to know God as the revelation of God is in His holy and perfect Word. Not to know Scripture is not to know God. To know the Word of God little is to know God little. We must pray without ceasing and also study God's Word to hear God speak. To pray is to speak with God. A healthy dialogue with God leads to a healthy spiritual walk. A healthy dialogue is unceasing prayer till the Lord’s soon return. Maintaining this holy walk coupled with faithful service results in a godly life pleasing to Him. Time is short.

This is followed closely by our home life. All areas of the believer’s life must bring glory to Him. This is not a list of priorities but of caution. The most dangerous area that can torpedo every believer’s holy life and service is from the home. The reason is that believers love their families as they love themselves. They can be the greatest blessing to them by bringing them up in the fear and admonition of the LORD. At the same time, their families can also be the greatest threat to believers’ spiritual lives when they are not brought up in God's fear. When believers are forced to choose between family members and Jesus Christ, very often they will choose the former and not the latter. One reason could be that they can see and touch their families but they cannot see and touch God whom they have to believe in by faith. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and you will be able to love your family right. Time is running out.

Then we have our church life. Next to our own families, we spend a lot of time with our church family. The more time we spend together, the opportunities to be a blessing increase exponentially. However, we also know opportunities to hurt one another will also increase as we serve together. A misspoken word or thoughtless action can cut deep to the heart because we care for one another. As such, we need to forgive even as we are forgiven. When reconciliation takes place, the teaching that the love of God covers a multitude of sins (cf. 1 Pet 4:8) because we have a fervent love for one another is no longer theory but a blessed reality. Avoidance and living like a recluse by staying away from brothers and sisters-in-Christ is a serious sin of omission. God saved us in Christ and brought us together in the church to provoke one another unto love and good works. This cannot be done without contact and fellowship. Sharing of lives will always include hurts and joys because by His mercies all of us are works of God in progress. He allows these hurts and joys to shape and mould our image to become more and more like Christ. Keep on serving. Time is running out.

Next, to ensure a holy testimony is in our work place or school life for those who are students. A holy testimony to believers is to build up faith. A holy testimony to sinners is to bring them to God in Christ. Both are important to God. We must do both well to God's glory. Time is short.

Last but not least, is how we spend our leisure times. How we spend our leisure time might look harmless in this age of the computer since everything is played on the screen. It is unlike the past when games were played outdoors and with another person or persons, where dangers lurked and parents were concerned in case children mixed with bad company. But the insidious nature of the internet and virtual world is far more deadly simply because of its apparent innocence! Lurking behind every click of the mouse or a smooth flick of our finger on a touch screen is a deadly snare of the devil to penetrate our eyes and ears to corrupt our sanctified mind, and to compromise the holy motive that is Christ’s love. The lasting effect of these deadly attacks remains within, and as long as we keep feeding it, it will never go away. It is much easier to take the children out of the world than to take the world out of them once it gets in. Time is running out.

Conclusion – Time to witness for Christ is always short. Before we know it, it is over. Our last act in all things can very well
be our last, without knowing it. “One last time” is poignant indeed. We are surrounded and reminded by everything that has an expiry date. 1 Peter 4:16-19 says it well to encourage and spur us on: “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”