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After Graduation, What Then?

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“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” (Ecc. 12:1).

 

This is the time of year when students in schools and colleges look hopefully forward to being graduated and thus end the arduous years they have spent in preparing themselves to face the business world and the time of putting into practice all that they have learned.

At the graduation exercises a speaker usually commends them for their having successfully studied and earned their diplomas. But he also might point out to them that they have only learned the rules and standards that permit them to look for gainful employment. Should they fail to take advantage of what they have learned, their graduation will mean little to them. Graduation is only the first step into a new and exciting world.

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Graduates will be called upon to remember a great number of things that they have been taught over the previous years. But the text that we have cited (Ecc. 12:1) is certainly one that should be read, re-read and studied diligently by all who are “going out into the world on their own.” You may forget some of the things that you studied in preparation for life, but if you “forget thy Creator” you will have left behind the important thing in life. You may remember how to make a living, but if you forget how to live you will never be a success. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

As graduates step into the days that are before them, there is nothing as important as remaining faithful to God. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2). With these principles as their guide, our graduates have a great deal in store for them. Their lives will be filled with the joy that belongs to the child of God.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 clearly gives the formula for success. Remember that God is the strength and hope of all who will truly succeed. “For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth” (Psalm 71:5).

-Author Unknown

LET GOD BE YOUR WHOLE LIFE AND YOUR TRUE GOAL.

–submitted by Jerry Sturgill

 

The Christian’s Vigil

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Last week a FedEx hub worker fell asleep in the process of loading an aircraft in Memphis, TN.  He woke up and was startled to find the plane was flying over Texas.  While the thought of this man mistakenly nodding off and travelling hundreds of miles unbeknownst to him is humorous, there is a sobering spiritual lesson that came to my mind when I heard this news.

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Perhaps, we have all heard the adage: “sin will take you farther than you want to go and make you pay more than you want to owe.”  Sin surrounds us, and, if we are not alert, we can be lulled to a spiritual stupor where we no longer think sin is a big deal.  While today the world may look at things that were considered unthinkable 50 or 100 years ago as “no big deal,” God’s word is timeless.  Long after our short time on this earth is expired, if the world still stands, God’s word will still say the same as it always has regarding the works of darkness and light.

Consider Ephesians 5:3-14:

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)  Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.  For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.  But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Christians are called to be awake and ever vigilant to the spiritual dangers the world poses.  If we do not keep our eyes out, we may well end up some place we never intended to be: in the place of God’s wrath.  Let our sleep come at the end of life’s day when we can rest in Jesus:

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him (1 Thessalonians 5:5-10).

-Mark Day