by Tom Wacaster
I was looking for an
illustration to make a point. So when I ran a check on my computer it took me
to the 1982 Fort Worth Lectureship book, "Difficult Texts Of The Old
Testament Explained." One thing led to another and I soon found myself
perusing the book and looking at the names and the pictures of the speakers for
that series of lectures. Some of those men have long since passed into eternity
and their "works do follow them." Winfred Clark, Bobby Duncan, W.T.
Hamilton, Guy N. Woods, and J.Noel Merideth, to name but a few, have laid down
their swords at the gates of death and are now enjoying their rest. Others
still living are now showing their years but remain faithful to their Master:
Robert Taylor, Hardeman Nichols, Flavil Nichols, Jerry Moffitt, William
Woodson, and Garland Elkins. Sadly there are a couple among those featured
speakers who have, for one reason or another, denied their Lord and traded
their inheritance for a mess of pottage, perhaps the most notable being Rubel
Shelly.
And as I closed that
book and contemplated once again the date of that series, I thought:
"1982! That was not that long ago." Ronald Regan had been in office
less than a year. The country was in a deep depression. I was still living in
Ada, Oklahoma and our children were barely teenagers. I had been preaching full
time for less than ten years and the turn of the century seemed so far away. No
doubt those who have passed the third decade of their life could share personal
stories and memories of what all of us would agree was "not so long
ago." As you look back, what stands out most clearly in your mind? Is it
not that so much of the proverbial water has passed under the bridge? Do you
not find yourself asking, if only in your mind, "Where have the past
twenty eight years gone?" I think all of us have done just that. Now let’s
turn our faces toward the future. Where will we be when another twenty seven
years have passed? 2038 is as near in the future as 1982 is in the past. Those
who now enjoy the later years of their retirement will, like those faithful men
listed above, likely have passed to their reward. Our teens will likely be
married and have small children of their own. Parents will be grandparents, and
grandparents will be great grandparents. And just as certain as is the sunrise
and sunset of today and the swift passing of these past twenty seven years, so
will be the coming of the Judgment Day when each one of us will stand before
God and give an account of how we have used the short amount of time that God
has given us upon this earth. It will not be long till we bid 2010
good-bye. Nor will it be long, when measured against the backdrop of eternity,
till we will bid this world goodbye. The words of the Psalmist press upon our
minds with increasing frequency: "For our days are passed away in thy
wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are
threescore years and ten...for it is soon cut off, and we fly away...So teach
us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalms
90:9-10, 12). "Seeing that these things are thus all to be...what manner
of persons ought we to be in all holy living and godliness...?"