Happy New Year!

Recently I spoke at a insurance company’s annual awards ceremony and prior to the event I led their daily devotional. I spoke about setting goals for 2010 and beyond and having nearly completed mine I had come to a rather poignant discovery concerning the two most important goals that anyone could ever set for themselves.

What do you suppose the most important goal in life should be? And second to that?

Hmmm I came to the conclusion that number one on the list should be to obtain salvation. We will spend eternity either in heaven or hell. Personally I would prefer to spend all that time in heaven and not in hell. We are not talking about a hundred or so years, or a thousand, or a million, billion, trillion, zillion, or whatever comes next, we are talking about infinity, forever and ever.

Determining where we will spend that amount of time should be on ALL of our minds and I think that is why the Bible instructs us to think of our own deaths often. We will die and then we will either depart for heaven or hell.

Second to salvation on the old goal list should be to obtain peace and joy in whatever remains in this life. Whatever time we have left, be it the rest of today or seventy more years, should be spent enjoying peace and happiness. While small in comparison to eternity, most of us are obsessed with this goal in one way or another.

I believe the Bible was written with the express purpose that we might learn how to accomplish both of these two extremely important goals. The Bible plainly explains in much detail how we must accept Christ as our Savior and thereby have our sins forgiven and obtain salvation.

The rest of the Bible is devoted to instructing us how to obtain peace and joy by avoiding those things God says are bad for us and by doing the things that are good for us. Many people are turned off by this and look at the Bible merely as a rigid book of rules written by old men in the “olden times”.

I am not in that crowd and know in my heart that God’s laws are designed to ensure that we enjoy life and even though we must endure trials and tribulations in our fallen state we can still have peace and joy in our lives. I’m living proof of it.

In other words if we follow God’s owner’s manual we can get the most that we can out of this life until He calls us home. Think about the Ten Commandments. If you lie, steal, murder, covet, treat your parents shabbily, commit adultery, and so forth, do you think you will enjoy peace and have happiness? Of course not. If we do those things, we will suffer consequences and God knows it and is warning us not to do it or we will not enjoy His peace and happiness.


As you wrap up your goals for next year be sure to include these two all important goals and work hard to obtain them. It all begins with hearing the word of God and listening to God’s Spirit open His message to us all. We grow through Bible study, fellowship with other Christians, and prayer and the end result is faith and obeying the Father who loved us enough to create us and then write an owner’s manual that if followed will result in incredible peace, joy, and happiness that surpasses all understanding.

God’s two greatest commandments are to love Him with all of our heart and soul, and to love each other in like manner. Hmmm… Sounds like a good place to start…

Happy New Year everybody!

2 Cor.10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.