Pythagoras used to say life resembles the Olympic Games; a few men strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for a profit; and some there are who seek no further advantage than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done.
1. LIFE IS BRIEF: Job 14:1-2(KJV, NLT, Easy to Read versions)
* Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage. - William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
* God has given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends. - Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)
* In this world I am a stranger. I don't belong here. I am straying here for a bit and it's a very nice place, an interesting place, but I don't belong here. Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)
* Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last. - Publilius Syrus (First Century B.C.)
* If we fully comprehended the brevity of life, our greatest desire would be to please God and to serve one another. - James C. Dobson (1936- )
2. LIFE IS FICKLE AND UNCERTAIN. Life is like a cloud: James 4:14(KJV,NLT)
* There's nothing certain in this world; today we are on top, tomorrow we're at the bottom of the ladder. - Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
3. LIFE IS A DIVINE TREASURE TO BE INVESTED (NOT TO BE SQUANDERED): Acts 13:36(KJV, MSG, Easy – to – read version)
* Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of. - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
* I will not just live my life. I will not just spend my life. I will invest my life. - Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968).
* It is not how many years we live, but what we do with them. - Evangeline Cory Booth (1865-1950).
* Life is a glorious opportunity, if it is used to condition us for eternity. If we fail in this, though we succeed in everything else, our life will have been a failure. Billy Graham (1918- )
* Life is the preparation, the training ground, the place where God begins his work of making us into what he wants us to be. But it is not our home. - J. B. Phillips (1906-1982)
* Live out your life in its full meaning; it is God's life. - Josiah Royce (1855-1916)
* Living each day as if it were our only day makes for a total life lived at full potential. - Lloyd John Ogilvie (1930- )
* The tombstones of some people should read: Died at thirty, buried at sixty. - Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947)
* O Lord, let me not live to be useless. - John Wesley (1703-1791)
4. LIFE IS A TREASURE THAT HAS NO EQUIVALENT AND IT IS IRREPLACEABLE: Mark 8:36-37(KJV, NCV, MSG, Easy – to – Read versions), Ps 49:6-9(NCV)
5. LIFE HAS NO SECOND LEG/ REPLAY: Heb 9:27
* Life is a bridge. - Arabian Proverb
* Life is a one-way street. Bernard Berenson (1865-1959)
6. LIFE IS MEANT TO BE REDEEMED/PRESERVED (by handing it over to the only one that can preserve it): John 3:16(KJV), John 3:35-36(KJV), 1 John 5:11-13(KJV), John 14:6(KJV)
* On the day I first really believed in God, for the first time life made sense to me and the world had meaning. Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961)
Conclusively:
Eccl 12:1-7(NLT)
Prayer:
Oh Lord, help me to live my life in your glory and to please you all the days of my life.