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'Christ in You...'
by Dale Krebbs
There is someone - at this very moment - who is struggling for something. It is not a struggle for more money, a better job, a better automobile, a more ostentatious home, more things, more friends (or fewer enemies), happiness, a higher high, more intense thrills, more fun. It is not a struggle to loose weight, to gain weight, to have fewer wrinkles, to have more hair (in the right places), look younger, be more admired and popular, or to receive praise. This struggle is for (if I may borrow a line from a recent movie), "just one thing"...
Life...
You might feel that the word "life" really needs no defining. We often hear, and perhaps you have said similar, that "well, my life ended when__(fill in the blank)". And so it can seem when we fail to expect the unexpected, or loose something or someone so very close and dear to us. Of course, this is only a figure speech - our life has not "ended", or we would not be speaking. There are many events in this this span of time we call life that cause us to feel like our life is over. This has been experienced by soldiers, and many others caught up in circumstances that provoke such feelings. Many Christians have had such feelings. Even the Apostle Paul experienced such desperate circumstances that he despaired of life itself, and said he felt that upon him was "the sentence of death"! (2 Corinthians 1:8-9) This writer has experienced one or two such feelings. It is indescribable, utterly incomprehensible. We all know what life IS - and if we do not, we will - when it is about to be taken away. The split second we are born and take our first breath, we are sentenced to our death - it is certain, in time...A prisoner sentenced to "life" knows exactly what the word means. He also knows what sentenced to "death" means. There is just no way he can misunderstand!
Please consider with me for a moment: take everything, every possible eventuality, every possible experience, the bad, the good, the ugly, the happy, the excitable - everything and all things taken together. Now - take away your LIFE - your breathing in and out, your heartbeat, your sight, your hearing, your sense of touch, your thoughts - all that we can call "Life". Remove it all into oblivion and nothingness. What do you have now...? We are all the "walking dead"...we are literally dead on our feet while we walk. In view of all this, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN LIFE? Ask anyone who is about to loose it!
NOTHING! - NOTHING! - COULD BE AS IMPORTANT TO YOU AND ME AS LIFE... !
This article is about LIFE. But in order to speak about life, we must speak of death. It is sometimes said that death is a part of life. And so it is in this world. As we have seen above, we are all sentenced to death. This life is temporary. It is so because we have all gone our own way, resisting God and His way (Ephesians 2:1-3)). If we are ever to escape this sentence of death, it must come from Someone who is not part of this death cycle. There is only one answer - God. He, and he alone is eternal, living outside the dimension of DEATH! If He has given us this physical life (we did not evolve - this has been proven beyond all doubt), He can give us what He also has - eternal life! And this He has promised to do!
Now, with the coming of Jesus Christ to remove our death sentence (in one sense we are "prisoners" in the earth - Lamentations 3:31-36), God has promised not just life but to give us ETERNAL life!!
We don’t have to die!!
Yes, all of us will "die", the life in this physical body will cease, but then can come the next phase of "life", and that can occur when we are resurrected from the grave, given new bodies that cannot grow old or ever get sick, or ever die again!. After that, it can be eternal life. Life will not end. It can go on forever! And the quality of eternal life can be billions of times better! There is only one way into this life that is eternal. It is Jesus Christ (John 14:6). He paid our penalty of a death sentence. But just as any prisoner understands if someone were to pay his penalty, the judge would require that he not repeat the crime. Jesus requires us to surrender to Him, and if we do fail and sin again, if we ask Him He will forgive us, and help us to grow more and more in righteousness.
Have you considered seriously your "LIFE"?
How much do you have now, or could you ever have, or hope to have, or experience that would be worth having in exchange for your life? (Matthew 16:26-27) ALL that this world has to offer during this blink of time we call "life" - is it worth it? REALLY worth it? (Job 2:4) Ask God to help you see clearly concerning this. Everything around us mitigates against our vision concerning life. Unbelievable as it may seem, this world is in a darkness, a death sentence.(Ephesians 6:12) This physical existence we call life now is but a whisper of real life - eternal life (James 4:13-14).
Ask God for a turning of your heart from this life, in repentance of the sin of wrong goals and emphasis toward Jesus who created you. He created you with physical "life" for the purpose of making you a son of God, in whom will dwell REAL life - ETERNAL LIFE. Jesus is the Life (John 6:63; Colossians 1:26-27).. Turn to Him. He has eternal life to give you!
I said in the beginning that I know someone struggling with something, The items listed that make up this physical life for this person are no longerof interest. Everything in "life" has turned a 180 - this person’s only interest now is for just one thing - LIFE! And having been told by the physicians that "life" is about to end, for this individual, LIFE is ABOUT TO BEGIN - ETERNAL LIFE. We all must make a choice (Joshua 24:15). We all must live and die with our choices. This person made the best one...
I pray for you today...that you will also make the best choice.
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days..." - Deuteronomy 30:19-20 ESV
WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?...
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