One Life

Have you ever heard of a man by the name of Dennis Barnhart? I’ll tell you about him in a moment. Do you work, think, complete, strategize, plan, sacrifice, travel, worry, take risk, skip vacations, add hours to your work load, increase your responsibility, scratch the right back, invest, save…. Do you think that when everything is in place, when all your ducks are in a row then you’ll have the time to spend with your wife and kids? Let me tell you about Dennis Barnhart. Dennis was president of an aggressive growing company name Eagle Computer. His firm grew incredibly fast. He decided to go public and as a result he became a multimillionaire virtually overnight.
So why haven’t you heard about Dennis Barnhart? The sad thing about Dennis is that he never got the opportunity enjoy what he worked so hard to achieve. Let‘s read about Dennis.

Taken from the New York Times June 10 1983
The young president of a successful new computer company died Wednesday afternoon in a car crash in California's Silicon Valley, hours after his company had sold its stock to the public for the first time and he had become a multimillionaire.
Dennis R. Barnhart, 40 years old, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Computer Inc., was on his way home to his wife and three children with a companion, Sheldon R. Caughey, also 40. It is not clear who was driving, but Mr. Barnhart's red Ferrari veered out of control a block from company headquarters in Los Gatos. The car flew through the air, tore through 20 feet of guard rail and crashed into a ravine. Mr. Barnhart was dead on arrival at Los Gatos General Hospital.

Work hard have exciting plans and it’s all reduced to death. The fact is all will be reduced to death in only a brief span of time. We must not forget what James tells us!

James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Time! How much do we have? We don’t have the answer to that question or do we? James said our life is little time compared to eternity. The picture he gives is like something cooking; if we were to watch the vapor coming off that’s how quick it vanishes away, that’s our time. We only have one life to live and only one life to give. Amos tells us in

Amos 4:12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. The Apostle Paul tells us in

Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

How much time are we given to prepare and examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith? Little time; just like a vapor, only one life. As you and I go into this week we must not get so caught up in the millions we want to make, but make sure we know Jesus because we only have one life a short time. It’s going to be a great week I’m excited let’s get going.