2 Corinthians 5:1.  Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

James 2:26.  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

“We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience.”

I don't remember where I got that quote, it isn't original with me. I like it. It helps me focus on what is really important.

The authors of 2 Corinthians and the epistle of James each had come to the conclusion that there is an eternal spirit resident within each human body...until the body dies. Then there is eternity where that soul of man shall never die.

It seems that some saints would treat Paul's observation as a commendation of looking forward to death. I think that he did have times when he was ready to be done with all the pain and suffering he went through. However, we find him and James strongly voicing the responsibility we have 'in the flesh' to do good works.

As Jesus said, to "labor while it is yet day for night cometh when no man shall work."

That's what James chapter two is about...it's what the book of Titus is about. It's what so many of Jesus' parables are about.

We are spirit, temporarily wrapped in flesh and we better get busy producing "fruit for the kingdom" while there is still time.

These 'troubles, trials, and tribulations' are "light, momentary afflictions" when viewed from a long-term (eternal) perspective.

"It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment." Judgment? Of what? Of the "deeds done while in the body."

From those labors we will someday rest, and then be judged accordingly. We just need to make certain that while we are absent from the Lord and present in the body we labor for eternity.

Remember, Jesus said to lay up treasure where thieves cannot break through and steal, where moth and rust does not corrupt...labor that is not in vain. Works that will attend our soul as we rise to meet Him.

"Absent from the body, present with the Lord."