People define success in so many ways. Success is very subjective to all people who experience it. But, is there truly a real success in this life? If you'll ask a student --- "Why do you need to study?", then the answer you'll get might be simply... "Well, I would like to become a professional and have a successful career someday." If you'll ask a professional --- "Why do you need to work and keep your successful career?", then the answer you'll get is... "I would like to earn more so that I can make myself ready to raise a family." If you'll ask a successful family man --- "Why do you still need to work?" --- then you might get good laugh and an answer something like this... "Are you kidding? Of course! I need to work to earn more money so that I can provide to my children good education and someday I might also see them as successful as I am. And once they became successful, I don't have to worry for them anymore when I get old." And if you'll ask an old man --- "What else do you want to achieve if you'll already succeeded in achieving your goals in life?"
On the last question, we might realize that we have been doing things, which we thought, able to serve the purpose we defined in our lives and at the end we will be prompted with a question... "What else to achieve most especially when our earthly life is coming near to an end?"
In reality, there might be only few people who can claim that they have already seen the peak of their success or maybe no one else can. I have found an interesting fact from the word of God saying:
"This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead." - Ecclesiastes 9:3 (KJV)
It is actually a brutal fact to realize that our hearts are full of evil and madness while we live. And because of this, we always wanted more good things to come into our lives even if we have already achieved most of our goals. In other words, we will never be contented. The truth is, man's so-called success has no value at all under the sun. Let us be confronted by these facts:
1) Life's success has really no profit at all
"And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (KJV)
2) Life is full of envy
"Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit." - Ecclesiastes 4:4 (KJV)
3) Life is full of tragedies and is always given to unexpected circumstances
"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." - Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 (KJV)
4) Life's purpose without God is just to eat, to drink, and to be merry
"Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 8:15 (KJV)
5) Life is full of discontentment and problems
"That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." - Ecclesiastes 1:15 (KJV)
6) Life always suffers injustice
"All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life on his wickedness." - Ecclesiastes 7:15 (KJV)
Let us go back to this verse...
"This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead." - Ecclesiastes 9:3 (KJV)
We can never know what kind of evil will come and take away everything we have. Some problems or tragedies may arise that might cost us our success. Or, somebody will just do evil things against us because of too much envy. Imagine that we are toiling in all the days of our lives to become successful and then suddenly we died. Who will gain the fruit our labor? It might be comforting to know if our loved ones might be the ones to enjoy on our gain but what if somebody whom we don't really know or even our enemy takes our wealth? And how can we be so sure that our loved ones would follow our last will and testament after we have died? It's sad to realize that we do not have control over our wealth anymore after we have died. Isn't it?
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul?" - Matthew 16:26 (KJV)
The truth of the matter is that those things that man is achieving to make himself successful in this earthly life has no value at all when he arrives on his final destination which is DEATH. Death is the "one event unto all" because afterwards we shall all "go to the dead". There is one verse in the book of Hebrews that tells us the same thing.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" - Hebrews 9:27 (KJV)
The above verse would tell us that physical death is still not our end because there is still something after our physical death. And that is the "judgment". I will not talk about "judgment" on this article but let me tell you that this life we have is not hopeless after all. And I tell you that we can still find the real success and that is to have "eternal life" in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ is actually our only hope both in this life and after this life.
It is not bad if we become successful in this earthly life but we should also care about what will happen to us after we have already done in this life. Our success on this present world is only temporary. What lies ahead of us is something unimaginable and that is what we call "ETERNITY". What is 100 years compared to eternity? We can live successfully for 100 years but, can we confidently claim that we can still have that success after 1000 years or more? Do we already have eternal security in Christ Jesus? If we can not answer these questions, then I suggest that we should trust and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal Lord and Saviour. Many people might not believe this but I tell you... If the Bible is not telling the truth then I have just shared to you a fantasy and there's nothing wrong with that. But, what if the Bible is telling the truth? Then, please consider these things because we will always be miserable if we don't have Jesus Christ in our lives. Let me close this article with the following verses from the Bible:
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8 (KJV)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." - John 3:16 (KJV)
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:23 (KJV)
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. - I John 5:11-13 (KJV)
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." - Romans 10:13 (KJV)
Will you now kneel in prayer, call upon the name of the Lord, and trust him to be your Lord and Saviour?
On the last question, we might realize that we have been doing things, which we thought, able to serve the purpose we defined in our lives and at the end we will be prompted with a question... "What else to achieve most especially when our earthly life is coming near to an end?"
In reality, there might be only few people who can claim that they have already seen the peak of their success or maybe no one else can. I have found an interesting fact from the word of God saying:
"This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead." - Ecclesiastes 9:3 (KJV)
It is actually a brutal fact to realize that our hearts are full of evil and madness while we live. And because of this, we always wanted more good things to come into our lives even if we have already achieved most of our goals. In other words, we will never be contented. The truth is, man's so-called success has no value at all under the sun. Let us be confronted by these facts:
1) Life's success has really no profit at all
"And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (KJV)
2) Life is full of envy
"Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit." - Ecclesiastes 4:4 (KJV)
3) Life is full of tragedies and is always given to unexpected circumstances
"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." - Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 (KJV)
4) Life's purpose without God is just to eat, to drink, and to be merry
"Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 8:15 (KJV)
5) Life is full of discontentment and problems
"That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." - Ecclesiastes 1:15 (KJV)
6) Life always suffers injustice
"All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life on his wickedness." - Ecclesiastes 7:15 (KJV)
Let us go back to this verse...
"This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead." - Ecclesiastes 9:3 (KJV)
We can never know what kind of evil will come and take away everything we have. Some problems or tragedies may arise that might cost us our success. Or, somebody will just do evil things against us because of too much envy. Imagine that we are toiling in all the days of our lives to become successful and then suddenly we died. Who will gain the fruit our labor? It might be comforting to know if our loved ones might be the ones to enjoy on our gain but what if somebody whom we don't really know or even our enemy takes our wealth? And how can we be so sure that our loved ones would follow our last will and testament after we have died? It's sad to realize that we do not have control over our wealth anymore after we have died. Isn't it?
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul?" - Matthew 16:26 (KJV)
The truth of the matter is that those things that man is achieving to make himself successful in this earthly life has no value at all when he arrives on his final destination which is DEATH. Death is the "one event unto all" because afterwards we shall all "go to the dead". There is one verse in the book of Hebrews that tells us the same thing.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" - Hebrews 9:27 (KJV)
The above verse would tell us that physical death is still not our end because there is still something after our physical death. And that is the "judgment". I will not talk about "judgment" on this article but let me tell you that this life we have is not hopeless after all. And I tell you that we can still find the real success and that is to have "eternal life" in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ is actually our only hope both in this life and after this life.
It is not bad if we become successful in this earthly life but we should also care about what will happen to us after we have already done in this life. Our success on this present world is only temporary. What lies ahead of us is something unimaginable and that is what we call "ETERNITY". What is 100 years compared to eternity? We can live successfully for 100 years but, can we confidently claim that we can still have that success after 1000 years or more? Do we already have eternal security in Christ Jesus? If we can not answer these questions, then I suggest that we should trust and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal Lord and Saviour. Many people might not believe this but I tell you... If the Bible is not telling the truth then I have just shared to you a fantasy and there's nothing wrong with that. But, what if the Bible is telling the truth? Then, please consider these things because we will always be miserable if we don't have Jesus Christ in our lives. Let me close this article with the following verses from the Bible:
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8 (KJV)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." - John 3:16 (KJV)
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:23 (KJV)
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. - I John 5:11-13 (KJV)
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." - Romans 10:13 (KJV)
Will you now kneel in prayer, call upon the name of the Lord, and trust him to be your Lord and Saviour?
1 comment:
Hi,
It's a great information about life. I hope that people would realize that all things in this world are vain.
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