What Is Your Life
by Cline Hancock

James 4:14

   James 4:13 to 17 "Go to now, ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow: For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away. For we ought to say if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that, But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
   John 8:32 says, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Truth here equals the gospel and the gospel is what saves. Rom. 1:16. It seems that one of the biggest jobs a preacher has is causing people to realize they are lost, Will you remember with me what Paul told the Galatians, 4:16, Am I therefore become your enemy if I tell you the truth?" There are two ways we can go—the broad way or the narrow way. Which one are you on? Paul warns us in Eph. 4:14-15, "That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craft- ness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into fin, in all things which is the head, even Christ."
   It is interesting to study the lives of great men, and very profitable to us also—such men as Washington and Lincoln. Longfellow said, "Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime." Biographies, Who is Who and encyclopedias are synopsis of lives.
   Now question, What is your life?
   Psalms 90:10 tells us, "The days of our years are three-score and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away"
   The Brevity of Life, Job 7:6 has this to say. "My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle." How fast is that? Well, so fast you can hardly see the shuttle going back and forth. Also in Job 14:1, 'Man that is born of woman is few in days and full of trouble,' At the end of life, then what? II Cor. 5:10-11, 'for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
   Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, where are the companies of childhood? They remain here for only a short time. Life separated from "the tree of life" is a tragedy indeed.
   James' life is a vapor. On our farm we had a high bluff about a half-mile from our house with a valley between. Lots of mornings the valley would be covered with a vapor obscuring the bluff altogether. In a few hours the vapor would rise, then you could see the bluff again. Well, that's the way of life here, A few short years and then we are gone.
   As we get older we appreciate the rapidy of life, The mile posts pass swiftly. It will be only a short time 'til we all stand in judgment before God. Heb. 9:27, "It is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment." Do we believe for one minute anyone will escape? If we do we are kidding ourselves.
   Let us think for a moment.
   I Cor. 15:22. "For in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
   No, we don't have to die spiritually. We can live a new life in Christ. Please read Romans 6:3-4.
   Even with all this we live to die, we die to live. This life is short yet very valuable. Jesus says in Matt. 16:26, 'What doth it profit a man tho he gain the whole world and lose his soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Gal. 6:7, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Therefore life is the seed time of eternity. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. When I used to help my mother wash clothes on the oldtime washboard, I suppose I was complaining about it, as I remember rubbing lots of blisters on my hands. She would tell me this place is just a place to try us to see if we were fit to live in the next world. I now appreciate that teaching very much. What would the earth be without life? God made life. Again, the way we live in this life will determine where we spend eternity.
    In Luke 16:19 (please read the rest of the chapter), here was a man that the only thing that seemed wrong was neglect. James 4:17 "... to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
    I am convinced that more of my brethren sin the sin of omission than of commission. Let me call your attention to the rich man again. How much of his riches did he take with him? Matt. 6:19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal."

Life's Three Phrases
    What is your life retrospectively? What has your life been? Are you satisfied with it?
    I'm not. I wish I could have done more in the Master's vineyard. Take an invoice, Has the past been wasted? When I was in the fourth reader sometimes (kid-like) I thought I had a mean teacher. She seemed to have an all-seeing eye, She taught us the poem "Lost somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours - each set with 60 diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever."
    I've never forgotten that poem. Its been an inspiration to me all my life.
    Now let's see a little more about our past life.
   Have we kept the sacred vows to our wife or husband we took in marriage? How about Father, Mother, child and the great question, to Christ? I Peter 3:15, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."
   What is your life? Introspectively or the present? Stop and think - "What are we now? Are we what we pretend to be? Are we big enough to face ourselves in the looking glass of God's word?" Read James 1:21 to 27. Are you honest, truthful, just and good? You say "Yes," but have you Obeyed the Gospel? What if we haven't? Today is the day of salvation.
   What is your life prospectively? What is our hope for the future? Do we hope in money, fame or worldly pleasures?
   I Tim. 6:17, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." We need to humble ourselves in the sight of God, Paul at the close of life said to the Philippian brethren (1:21) "...to live is Christ; to die is gain," What did he mean? For him to live was to win souls for Christ, but to die was personally better for him. He further said it was far better on the other side. How have we proposed to live in the future? What is your life? Remember God said it; I believe it; that settles it. Are we going to die in the Lord? Well, we can by being baptized into Christ which means the same as being born again. In Rev, 14:13, "I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Yea sayeth the spirit, they shall rest from their labors and their works do follow them." And in Rev. 22:14. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
   Heb. 5:8-9, "Tho he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him," Notice this promise is not a temporal salvation. Are we better than Christ? If He obeyed the Father, should not we obey Him and have life? Remember we live to die; we die to live, And remember, we cannot do wrong by doing right and we cannot do wrong by doing exactly what God says. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
   Look at this with me a few minutes. People fuss and fume about water baptism, yet Peter in I Peter 3:21 says, "...baptism doth also now save us. Why do people deny such plain teaching? Remember God said it; I believe it; that settles it. Have we ever counted how many times God used water to destroy sin and people and delivered His people? The flood in Noah's time; the Red Sea; the Jordan River; Naaman with his leprosy (a type of sin). How long can we live in it or how long can we live without it?
   Rev. 22:17, The spirit and the bride says. "Come and whosoever will let him come and take the Water of Life freely." The spirit is the Holy Spirit. The bride, the Church, and in Matt, 1128 Jesus says. "Come."
   Friends what else could we ask for? Won't you obey the Gospel today? Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow may never come.

   Remember, God said it; I believe it; that settles it. The Bible is right!







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