February 23, 2023: 1 Peter 1:24-25 - All Flesh is as Grass
“…because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” - 1 Peter 1:24-25
Life. It is so brief. When you’re a child, though, it doesn’t seem that way. Instead, it seems to drag on forever, especially during the school year and you’re waiting for summer to begin. Or right after Christmas, when you have another 364 days to wait until next Christmas. I remember when I was twelve years old and there was a boy at my school who I had a crush on. He was 15. I thought he was so mature. I couldn’t wait until I was 15. Then I graduated high school at 17, then at 18 I got married and went 10,000 miles overseas with my husband. Life was happening. I was working, trying to be a good wife and keep a clean house and learn how to cook quick meals, taking college classes, studying, living. Then three years after we moved back to the states, God blessed us with a son and four years later we were blessed with a daughter, and sadly miscarrying a daughter in between. After that, life sped up. Everything went by so quickly, until I realized one day after our kids were grown and living their own lives, just how short life really is. Where did all that time go? And now, if I go by average life expectancy statistics, I don’t have a whole lot of years left to live, maybe twenty.
When I look in the mirror I see myself but not like the self I used to be. Now, there are wrinkles on my face and neck, dark circles under my eyes, and gray hairs on my head when there used to be none. My face is less full, more sunken in. Just like the bouquet of flowers that I bought recently, the flowers start out vibrant and full of color, standing straight up, bringing a smile to my face when I see them. But then, after a few days, their leaves start to dry out, the colors of the flowers begin to fade, the flowers start to shrivel, and their once straight stems now start to become weak and droop. Just yesterday I threw away one of the flowers, a hydrangea, because it had died. Its life cycle was over. And one day too, I will die. My life cycle will be over. And one day too, you will die, your life cycle will be over.
But God, His word endures forever. It has endured for thousands of years, and it continues to endure, no matter how many men and women seek to destroy it. According to an August 2021 article from churchleaders.com, the Bible is either illegal or severely restricted in 52 nations, most of which are Muslim or Communist. I believe we are quickly coming to the point where the Bible will be banned in western countries as well, possibly starting with Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and England and then followed by the USA.
https://churchleaders.com/youth/403760-how-many-countries-is-the-bible-banned-in.html
If there is no power in God’s word, then why ban it? What harm can a powerless book do? But there is a reason why the Bible is banned in many countries. It is banned because there is power in God’s word, and those who ban it know it. They ban it because of their unbelief in the One true God and instead, are being led by Satan. And what does Satan know? He knows that the Bible is the word of God, he even quoted it to Jesus. Satan knows that it has the power for a human to read it and realize that God is real, that He has a plan for us, we were not created accidentally, we are all born sinners but there is hope, a living hope for redemption from all our sins, and His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus came to offer salvation of sins to all who would believe in Him as Savior, God’s only begotten Son whom He sent to provide the way - the only way - of salvation. Satan does not want us to know that because he wants our soul and will deceive whomever he has to, including world leaders, to prevent you from having a Bible, and especially from you reading it for yourself.
Sinful men and women cannot save themselves because there is nothing we can do to earn our way to heaven; only Jesus can do that for us. Jesus did it once and for all when He came to this earth, preaching and teaching the message of salvation, only to be rejected by those He came to save. Jesus died on a cross via crucifixion, the most painful method of death known to mankind, saying “It is finished” as He took His last breath, was resurrected by God, walked the earth for 40 days after He was resurrected, and ascended to heaven, where He is now, at the right hand of God. Jesus’ message of salvation is for each and every single one of us. No one has sinned so much that they cannot be saved. If they truly turn to Jesus and ask Him to forgive them of all their sins and believe with their heart that only He can save them, He will. His word - His enduring word - promises us this free gift of salvation.
But what are we being saved from? We are being saved from eternal separation from God after we die. When we die, we will either be with God for eternity in His kingdom in heaven, which is God’s throne, (Isaiah 66:1), or we will be eternally separated from Him in a place called hell. All sinners who die in their sin and reject Jesus’ free gift of salvation will be cast into hell. Jesus spoke of hell as a real place, including in the passages of Scripture below.
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33)
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)
For those who are saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, our life here on earth is just the beginning. We are just getting a foretaste of what our true life will be like, where we will live forever in a place without sin and without death, and most importantly, we will be with Him! We will have been given our new glorified bodies. I am very happy about that, when I don’t have the aches that my aging body has now! And even though the earth on which I live has all the beautiful flowers and trees, majestic mountains, vast oceans, and amazing animals, I know that the God who created it all has something even more spectacular for His children when we get to His kingdom in heaven, for my God is an amazing God, a God of glory, a God of love and mercy and who also is a just God. He gives us all the opportunity to turn to Him and receive His free gift of salvation. Have you turned to Him and received it? The enduring word of the Lord is sent as a love letter to mankind. He truly wants to save us from our sins, telling us He doesn’t want any to perish but for all to have everlasting life, but He won’t force you to believe in Jesus. The choice is yours. When your time on earth is done, when your time of flowering is done and you have withered away, will you be cast into the fire or will you be made new in Jesus, never again to wilt or wither away but to flourish like a vase of fresh beautiful flowers, bringing a smile to His face?
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) ✝️