January 5 – Evening
Tending to Our Earthly Tent We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians 5:1
H
er uncle had some very bad health habits that would kill him if he didn’t stop them. But when she shared her concern, he laughed and said he’d rather enjoy his life, even if it shortened his days. Why, she asked me, would anyone act like this? I was first struck by his self-centeredness. Deliberately doing something that will cut short his life revealed that he was thinking only about himself, and ignoring all the hurt and sorrow his premature death would bring to his family. Perhaps, I suggested, she could remind him of this—as well as urge him to give his life to Christ. But his situation got me to thinking: In what ways might we be like him? What health rules are we violating? In what ways are we not taking care of the body God has given us? Someday each one of us who follows Jesus as our Savior and Lord will leave behind our Earthly tent—our flesh-and-bone body—and join Him in Heaven for eternity. But until that day—as the Bible says—“Glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). 13
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1/13/12 5:08 PM