Pune, India is a city of two-and-a-half million people located in western India. It has a grand temple dedicated to the god Shiva. Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes are also preserved in that city. Eight hours ago someone from that city visited my website, pulling up the article “The Secret of Longevity.” They must have told someone else in Pune about that article as four hours later a different computer in Pune brought up the same article. It is rare that two different computers from the same city visit my website and bring up the same article to read. I can only assume the first visitor has shared my website with someone else, urging them to check it out. (The Bible Study sites to which I post, as well as my Facebook page, receives comments from dozens of different nations and scores of pastors, evangelists, missionaries and the like).
“The Secret of Longevity.” That is one of my most popular postings. I have expanded it several times and may yet expand it a bit more. And I do know the secret of longevity. First and foremost it demands a total and continual submission to Jesus Christ as Lord. Your Creator is then guiding and leading you in your daily life, in every decision you make. Guardian angels are then watching over you quite actively and carefully. When ill you have the Great Physician Himself attending you. Who could ask for more than that?
It gives me pleasure to think that something I have written might indeed increase the lifespan of someone on the other side of this planet, or someone just down the street from where I reside. The article is based on scripture, of course, and in the same I quote many scriptures wherein our Creator tells us humans how to live long lives on His good earth. My twin and I are now past the halfway mark of our seventh decade of life. November 30 will mark our 76th birthday, and that is less than six months away. (My twin and I are now eighty-two years old as March 9, 2025).
I read a lot of biographies of the famous and near famous. During my adult life, scores and scores of the famous and near famous have finished their life course and now are only memories, memories that grow dimmer with each passing decade. And, all too soon, we, too, shall be but a memory. And when the younger generation of our loved ones die, then those visiting the cemeteries that hold our remains will glance at the markers above our graves having no idea who we were, what we looked like, or what manner of lives we lived. We will be the dead of ages past.
The past does not exist, although the recent past remains in the memories of those now living. The ancient empires are no more. The Incas, the Mayans, and the Aztecs are not hiding in the shadows. They were erased from the scene of life long, long ago. But not a one of them has been forgotten in the mind of God. ALL live unto Him (See Luke 20:38). Someday, and that day grows ever closer, our Creator will call each and every one of them to come forth from the dust of the earth and they shall live again. And, in that time and in that day, they will have their minds opened to just why they live again and what a grand and glorious future their Creator will then offer them, inviting them to “enter into the joy of your Lord.” I look forward to that day with eager anticipation. The Hebrew prophets speak of that day and time expansively, but many believers are prevented from seeing this grand truth in scripture due to a misunderstanding of such New Testament passages as Hebrews 9:27 and Romans Chapter 1. Also, they fail to comprehend that “ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God AND IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE!” (See 2 Timothy 3:16). God help us all to understand.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley