Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. Prov. 28:26

There are three wise old sayings that help to corral our purpose in sharing this week.   The first is the easiest to harness:  “Time flies when we’re having fun.” The second is a little more meditative: “We can’t give what we don’t have.”  The third is unique in that it can be life changing and settle us to the point of becoming eternally hopeful:  “It is better to give what we can’t keep to gain what we can’t lose.”

These three tenets apply to all, including those of us behind this Temple Ministry.  As a matter of self-examination, we’re amazed that over a dozen years have flown by since we began having fun sending out our weekly Message of Hope.  The second wise saying gives us pause to think and logically conclude…No chicken…no chicken soup (or in our case… No hope…No Message of Hope). God and you judge whether you receive genuine hope from our articles.  What about that third saying?  Without question, this one hits us the hardest.

Daily life is a mini-journey; a part of our life in total.  How we pack for our day will directly influence our “giving what we can’t keep” to “gain what we can’t lose.”  If our first priority is to please ourselves, then we’re deceived into believing that someday our hearse will be followed by a U-Haul trailer full of our material treasures.  If, however, our first priority is to please the one true living and eternal God, then we inherently invest in something that cannot be lost.  If we behave toward others in a manipulating or controlling way, then maybe we imagine our hearse with a double wide U-Haul.   If, on the other hand, we behave toward others in a way that is pleasing to God and our neighbor, then we invest in something that will endure forever.

Our desire has always been to share God’s hope, not ours.  It’s the hope where the Spirit of truth guides us in seeing the promise of eternity in heaven.  The same hope that shows us that material time is vastly different from eternity.  [World time is a convenience that God has given us to operate while on earth.  It is temporary and quick to disappear like a vapor (whether we’re having fun or not).]  It’s the hope that declares what we sow, we will reap.  It’s the one that commands us to love Father God with all our spirit, soul, and body and advises us to invest in His Kingdom where rust and moths can’t destroy.

Friends and family, as we resolve to invest in becoming more and more selfless, let’s consider living joyously as our time flies by, doing and giving our best to encourage and restore those around us in a bond of loving peace.  Better than imagining a hearse and our own U-Haul is choosing obedience to the One who saved us from a fleeting material world; the same hopeful One who stands in wait to haul us into His arms when our physical lives are over.  As believers in Jesus Christ, we walk by faith, not by sight.  We believe in the Hope of glory and we’re packed to live, move, and have our being knowing with a confident expectation, that in Him, “It is better to give what we can’t keep to gain what we can’t lose.”

Matt 6:19-21; Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35; Joshua 1:8

Editor’s Note: If we invest in the external without investing in the internal, then we are not investing in the eternal.