Living for Eternity 1 - Part 3

money or the world or pleasure. Now that does not seem to be right at all. Furthermore, I have seen how quickly life passes and this evening I was considering well, if Jesus dealt with all these difficult cases, incurable, normally incurable cases at even, I too am in the evening of my life.

Well, I never thought of it that way but that's a fact. After preaching 60 years, certainly I ought to be aware that I should redeem every moment that Jesus gives me, shouldn't you, shouldn't I? When the evening was come and there was need to be addressed, sickness, demon possession, darkness, Jesus was ready. Our master was equal to the demand or the occasion.

See, how many times we are not equal to the occasion. I was thinking yesterday about how even prayer life can become a nominal kind of, you see, thing where you don't really grip the situation. There's a kind of loose handling or mishandling of eternal things.

Why don't you go and ask a man who is a pitcher in one of these big leagues whether he has only a loose grip on the ball? Why don't you ask a batter whether he has only a loose grip on the baseball bat? He will laugh at you. He would say, are you joking or you think I'm mad? What do you think I'm trying to do there? I have my grip over that situation, that ball, before I know exactly how I am going to hurl it. Why, why this looseness, hit or miss kind of attitude? Where does this come from? So while I was thinking about it, I was reminded of a situation where after childbirth we were carrying one of our newborn babes across the Atlantic when he was hardly, what, two weeks old or under a month anyway or thereabouts.

And my wife became very ill in England. I had an attic room where I used to go up for prayer. And my wife, with her medical knowledge, of course said, this is not a very good turn in my health situation.

After the birth of a baby, I should not get this ill. But our travel was before us. My meetings on the continent were before me.

I could not postpone either travel nor the meetings. I went into the presence of God and took hold of him. And lo and behold, though my wife being a doctor had no particular remedy for her sickness, she was healed.

The Lord touched her. So are we not going to live in the immediate presence of the King? Or are we going to keep him at arm's length, arm's distance? Why don't we live in the immediate presence? Let us pray. Let us tell God, Father, how many evenings I have squandered.

How rare are the evenings which have found me closeted with you. Forgive me. Cleanse me.

What a failure in love. Lord, help me to recognize this fact that the devil is cuddling my love, torpedoing my love. Forgive me, Lord.

Teach me to go to your promises and turn the battle to the enemy's gates. Gracious Father, thank you again. Thank you again.

Thank you again. That we can come and just look into the mirror of your Word and see how far short we are falling. In Jesus' holy name, amen.

This program is brought to you by the Layman's Evangelical Fellowship International, an interdenominational missionary and prayer group working for revival around the globe. We invite every lay person to become God's ally in changing his or her corner of the world. Please write.

And if you have a problem or concern you would like to share, please do let us know. You can email us at post at lefi.org or visit our website at www.lefi.org. Our mailing address is LEFI PO Box 14 South Line, Michigan 48178. You can also call us at 248-486-6326.

Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.