Sunday 17th March 2024
Good morning.
If you listen to the audio recordings of the Bible, did you notice anything different yesterday? I don’t expect you did but it was in fact the first new recording of the Bible I had made in eight years. Earlier today I compared my voice between then and now and I couldn’t hear any discernable difference. I was pleasantly surprised because If I was to look at a photograph of me from eight years ago – that would be a different matter.
Just a few days ago I was talking to Ruth, a dear friend from Plymouth who through demonstrating acts of kindness and making intercession to God for me, was I believe significantly responsible for my coming to faith back in June 1982. Ruth is 41 years older now, but I remember saying to her during a recent conversation, that her voice sounds the same as I remember it all those years ago.
Then there are our minds. Do you find it strange that despite the age of your body, your mind seems young in comparison?
From a biblically historic point of view, we live to a fraction of the age that our distant ancestors did. Methuselah, the Bible teaches lived longest of any person, with a lifespan of 969 years. Though he lived longest, others of his generation lived similar lifespans. If we compare Methusalah’s age with what we regard as a long life today, say 100 years, today’s lifespans are extremely short.
Whilst doing a little research for this morning’s thought, I discovered that even today there are animals which live to be 500 or even 1000 years old. For example, a species of mollusc called the Ocean Quahog lives for more than 500 years, and yet even that is short when compared with the Turritopsis Nutricula Jellyfish, which is believed to be ‘immortal’ because it cycles from being an adult to a juvenile and back again – ad infinitum.
Mockers scoff at the biblical account of Methuselah living nearly a millennium. Yet here we have a jellyfish today that is living proof that even a creature low-down in the animal order, theoretically can ‘live forever’.
Consider this for a moment; if Adam had not disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and as a consequence, the whole world had not been thrown into disorder and corruption, lifespans today might be very different, not just for us, but for the entire cosmos.
Scripture for the day:- It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: Hebrews 9:27