How To Measure Your Life In 2019
January 24, 2019
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Dear Visionary Leader:
 Out of the hundreds of the global ezines I have written, this is the first one that I have focused only on men. What I am about to say is written to challenge men worldwide to measure themselves not according to the world but to the Word; not according to men but to the Master; not according what to is temporal but eternal. I am about to bear my soul and hope you allow the Lord to make huge deposits into your life.
What is the measure of a real man? Let this message grip your heart forever. The apostle Paul is revisiting a strategic mission field. He comes to Miletus and there he gathers with him the Ephesian elders. He has a time walking with them down memory lane. They talk about the good journey that they had together and how God had blessed and poured out his blessing. Paul rehearsed it all. Here’s what happened in Acts 20:36, “And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words that he spoke that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.”
Now, use your imagination. They were one in the bonds of love. They had been through so many prayer meetings and evangelistic crusades together. They had so many victories in Jesus. Their hearts were melted together and now they are having a prayer meeting. They are all on their knees, and God moves into that prayer meeting, and there is such a sweet spirit.
As they are praying, they realize this is the last prayer meeting on earth they will ever have with Paul the Apostle. They begin to weep, and not just a few tears. They are convulsing. The Bible says, “They wept sore.” They begin to hug Paul’s neck. The Bible says they just fell on his neck. They are weeping and squeezing him; they are hugging him because they know, never again on this earth will they see Paul. Then, they walk down to the wharf where the ship is docked, and Paul gets on that ship. As it begins to sail, they are just standing there weeping, because Paul is leaving, never to return.
When you are gone are you going to be missed? I mean other than by your family. Are you going to be missed? Will it make any difference?
We are going. I mean, you may move out of your city, but you are going either by rapture, or you are going by death, but we’re all going. The question is when you go, what difference will it make? Is your life going to have any kind of an impact?
I heard of a man who had surgery and he woke up in the recovery room and all of the windows were covered with curtains. The blinds were drawn. He called the nurse and said, “Nurse, open the windows, I want to see outside. Who closed the blinds anyway?” She said, “Just calm down. I closed them.” She said, “There’s a big fire across the street and I didn’t want you to wake up and think the operation was not a success.”
Some of us are going to wake up and find out that our entire life was not a success. We wasted our life. We’re going to go out into eternity with a wasted life. And by the way, when you go, you’re going to leave behind you all that you have and you’re going to take with you all that you are.
When the world measures a man, the world measures a man by brains, by brawn, or by bucks. How do you measure a man? In the Guinness Book of World Records, is Michael Letito. Do you know what his claim to fame is? Eating glass and eating metal. He grinds it up and eats it. Mixes it in with his Wheaties, or whatever he eats. Since 1966, he’s eaten 10 bicycles. That’s true! He ate a supermarket cart in four and a half days. He ate six chandeliers. He ate a Cessna Light Aircraft. Now can you imagine this fellow reporting into Jesus? “My son, what did you do when you were down there on earth?” “Lord, I ate an airplane.” What a claim to fame. I mean what really counts? What really matters? How do you measure a life?
In this 20th chapter of the book of Acts you’re going to find three characteristics that measure a man. How do you measure a man?  I encourage you to let this story move you; to challenge you to evaluate the essence of who you are in this life. Remember: It is more blessed to give than to receive. During World War II in a Polish village, the Nazis came into that village, accused all of the Jews in that village of crimes against the state. Brought them out of their houses, brought them out into a particular field, and made them dig a ditch that would later become their grave. Then they stripped them of all of their clothes. They lined those Polish Jews up against a wall. They got their machine guns and began to mow them down. Just bullet after bullet flying into that quivering flesh. And the people fell like cordwood, head over heels into the grave. A little ten year-old boy was standing there naked with his mother and daddy. The bullets just ripped their bodies open and the blood splattered everywhere.
 And as they fell the little boy just fell with themalso, but he was not touched by one bullet. He fell in the grave and lay still. They assumed he was dead because he was splattered with blood and they began to push the dirt over these people and buried that little ten year old boy alive. His face was in such a position that he caught a pocket of air. And there the ground was not packed that hard. And he could actually breathe under the ground, lying on the mutilated bodies of his loved ones. After several hours, it was now dark; he began to dig out his own grave. And he clawed and dug his way to the surface.
This young boy dug his way out of his grave. He was naked, clotted with blood, clotted with dirt. He went to the house of a neighbor and knocked on the door and the woman came, she saw that little boy there covered with blood and dirt, caked with the remains of his grave. She recognized him as one of the Jewish boys and knew that he’d been marked for death.
 She screamed at him, “Go away!” and slammed the door in his face. The little boy dragged himself to another door and knocked on the door and begged for help. And the same thing happened. The woman in terror said, “No, I cannot help you. Go away.” He went to one third door and knocked on the door. And when the woman opened the door she looked at him and her face froze. But before she could say anything, he said to her, “Don’t you recognize me. I am the Jesus that you say you love.” She broke and said, “Come in. Come in.” At the risk of her own life she sheltered that ten year old child. Jesus said, “In as much as you have done it unto the least of one of these my brethren you have done it unto me.”
There is no easy way to have a great life. It is more blessed to give than it is to receive. And there are millions of men, when they are gone, will not be missed. But there are other who when they are gone people will weep sorely. These are the men who know the things that count. How do we measure a man’s life? We measure the man by the manner of his life, the message of his life and the motto of his life.
Are you ready for the measurement? Blessings.
Until The Last Person Has Heard,
Dr. James. O. Davis
Founder/President
Global Church Network
Cochair / Global Networking
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