So I want to make something clear from the outset: I do stress about things, I get angry, I get sad, I mourn, but not in a “normal” way. It’s bothered me for years. I’ve had friends and family pass, emergencies, accidents, and all sorts of disasters, but my reactions aren’t typical. I’ve shed tears, faced persecutions, dangers and trials of various sorts, and through it all I seem to keep calm in most circumstances. I asked God today about it, while contemplating why some get healings, and some go Home, and these words came to my mind “what can life do to a dead man?” This caused me to perk up; I did so because that is EXACTLY what I am: a dead man.
I’m not saying all of us should behave in the way I do, that is what has been given to me, but if you’re a follower of Christ, we need to consider this always: if we belong to Christ we are dead. We’ve died to this life, died to the flesh, died to sin, and we’ve been raised in Him. For us, death is just a doorway from this life in to the next, and every moment we have here is borrowed. This should shift our priorities! If our time is borrowed, and we’ve already died, what should jobs, expenses, social “priorities and obligations” or anything else have over us? We should risk it all, lose it all, give it all, because this world is not our home! How often do we pursue worldly wisdom and means instead of the Spiritual, supernatural life Christ has for all of those who are His?
Now, I am in no way saying that we should sell all we have, and wander from place to place proclaiming the Gospel (though for some of us that may be exactly our calling); being dead men and women, we are sojourners and exiles in this world. As God told the exiles through Jeremiah: plant gardens, build lives, seek the welfare of the city to which you are sent. However, recognize that this world is NOT our home, we’re living on borrowed time, we have a purpose here in exile. Let us set our minds on Who and what is above, giving, and, as required, sacrificing everything for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Christ lived and died and rose again for me, I have died and risen again in Him. I’m going to live my borrowed time accordingly.
Colossians 3
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
Comments