NO REGRETS PART 1

I know it has been a while since I last posted and it is not so much that I have been busy I have just been waiting for the right time as I process and review my thoughts and try to filter content for the most value. (Value to who...me or readers? Both I hope)

To make the impact and experience better for readers and myself I will do this in several parts with other related topics and post but mostly on living well and leaving this world with no regrets.

"Life is not seperate from death.
It only looks that way"
Indian proverb
(Lakota)

Or to quote Charles Spurgeon about a man who said to a dying believer " Farewell, friend ! I shall never see you again in the land of the living !" The dying Christian replied, "I shall see you again in the land of the living where I am going. This is the land of the dying !"

Your perspective on this subject must begin with your beliefs. There is much to debate and discuss with others who do not share the Christian faith but for the scope of this subject I am going to assume agreement with authority of scripture and form basis of my views from the philosophy that this life though important is not all there is but it is inseperatable from the after life and is actually linked in the present as eternity has no begining or end even though are lives are measured by the dates on the tombstone . Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3: 11 "He (God) has set eternity in the hearts of men"
and in vs:17 "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity ,
a time for every deed."

So do you still think life and death are not linked to the afterlife?

or as Jack Nicholsons character in the movie" The Bucket List "(more on this film in another post) scoffed "The wheels on the bus go round and round" Rather to say" this is all there is"

Warren Buffet on the stock market and proper valuations of equities ...."the market is a voting machine(OF VALUE) but time is a weighing machine"
On this subject I have heard quote "price changes quicker than value" think about that and the tulmult of recent markets.

Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death."

So how should we then live ? (not my original rhetorical question....Francis Schafer at least)

Or how should we die with no regrets ?

The one who does Gods will has no regrets......Think of the apostle Paul's farwell "I have fought the good fight I have Finished the race" note the distinction of actually doing versus Just knowing Gods will.
"all the knowledge in the world is of no use to fools"( Eagles lyrics)
James 1:22 "do not merely listen to the word, and so decieve yourselves, do what it says."

This is the mantra of William Paul Young, author of the fiction best seller titled "THE SHACK"
Speaking about his life at the Mabee Center recently in Tulsa He said these challenging words...."When I get to the end I do not want to ask what if only I had completely surrendered my life to Gods will ?"......no regrets.

The best example is Jesus in John 17:4 "I have brought you glory by completing the work you gave me to do"
What was this work? To seek and save the lost by restoring a broken relationship with the Father and remove the curse of death John 17:3 "Now this is eternal life: that they may KNOW YOU,the only true God"
Even when this work was toughest Jesus prayed "not my will but yours"

So if you or I do have a" BUCKET LIST" of sorts it best be in the will and workof God (Doing not just knowing) , Not in the pursuits of this world trying to experience all our wants and desires.

"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever" 2 JOHN 2:17