THE BEAUTIFUL ROSES ARE FADING FAST!

The beautiful pink roses on our white fence are now fading white. They ‘hit their peak’ by Mother’s Day. They are still beautiful but they are fading fast.You see, like other beautiful flowers the time does come when the beauty of the roses fades and eventually they will die. This is also true of mankind. We will also fade/pass away. The apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:24,25 wrote, “all flesh is a grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass, The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever” (See also Isaiah 40:6-8). Life at the longest is brief when compared to eternity. The writer James, in his letter, wrote that life “is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” In Psalm 90:9,10, we read, “For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Regardless of age, life is very fragile and death can occur at any time, regardless of one’s age. Some of us are in the winter of our lives and we are definitely closer to eternity than ever before. It is only in Jesus Christ that we can have an abundant life presently (John 10:10) and for eternity! Jesus said, as recorded in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The apostle John in chapter 5:11,12: “And this is the testimony:that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” I strongly encourage you to study very carefully the following passages to know just how to be in Jesus Christ and to have life in the Son: John 20:30,31;8:24;Acts 19:30; Galatians 3:26,27. It is by the blood of Christ and the grace of God that we are redeemed and forgiven of our sins (Ephesians 1:7; 2:5). We should “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord” (2 Peter 3:18). If we live faithfully in this life for Jesus Christ, as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7,8, we will receive a “crown of righteousness.” It is my heart’s desire that everyone would give his or her life to Jesus and live for Him so we all can go to that heavenly home ‘where the roses never fade/die’. Of course, we know there will not be roses in heaven but it is the thought of where we will be in eternity that we will never ‘fade’ or die that is found in the title of this song. Where The Roses Never Fade. “I am going to a city, Where the streets with gold are laid, Where the tree of life is blooming, And the roses never fade. Here they bloom but for a season; Soon their beauty is decayed. I am going to a city, Where the roses never fade. In this world we have our troubles, Satan snares we must evade. We'll be free from all temptations, Where the roses never fade. Loved one's gone to be with Jesus, In their robes of white arrayed. They are waiting for my coming, Where the roses never fade. Here they bloom but for a season; Soon their beauty is decayed; I am going to a city, Where the roses never fade.” -Janie West Metzgar