Your Bucket List

On Sunday night Molly and I watched "The Bucket List" (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825232/) with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. The bucket list is the list of things you want to do or accomplish before you "kick the bucket." Both men receive news that their cancer means they have less then a year to live so they make a list and with the help of Jack's endless resources and set out to cross out everything on the list. The list included skydiving, racing cars, traveling all over the world and seeing something truly majestic among other things.



I couldn't help but ask myself the question: "what would be on your bucket list?" And the question we should all ask is this: "what would the bucket list of a follower of Jesus look like?"



- to know Christ and Him crucified

- to fellowship in Christ's sufferings

- to taste and see the goodness of the Lord

- to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

- to pursue the faith and joy and holiness of my family

- to preach the Gospel where Christ hasn't been preached

...



Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it. . . And whoever loses his life for Christ will gain it.



For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.



I consider all things as rubbish (including worldly bucket lists) in order that I might know Christ. Philippians 3.



DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE!

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Retirement and the Christian - Part 1

How should Christians think about "retirement"? My mid sixties seem so far away, but each year seems to go faster than the one before. Many of you are closer to "retirement" or have already entered that status. How does one think Christianly rather than culturally about the recent invention of retirement? Bob Rayburn says:

It is certainly fair to say that it is not obvious in the Bible that it is our Heavenly Father’s intention that we should work until we are 62 or 65 years of age and spend the remainder of our years touring the United States in our RV (that is, if we had a defined benefit retirement plan that has not gone bankrupt and we can afford the gasoline!).

Here is a challenging video clip by John Piper on retirement -- "DON'T WASTE YOUR RETIREMENT.

Finishing Well

When I was in seminary, I listened to a series of sermons by John Piper that he preached and a conference for those who are entering (or have entered it a while ago) the second half of their life. He made a call to them to be counter-cultural in their thinking and to FINISH WELL. I like that concept! I am 32 years and I may have 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, 1 decade or 5 decades left to live--but I want to finish well. I want to be faithful. I want to say with Paul - "I finished my course and fought the good fight of faith."

Whether you are young or old, if you are a disciple of Jesus it is important to think on these things. Here is a sermon by Jerry Bridges (author of The Practice of Godliness) called "Four Essentials to Finishing Well."

You can listen to it, watch or download it.

You can also purchase the series by Piper I mentioned above called "Finishing Well" here.