"For the Love of God"

No one survives the preaching of the Gospel.  Either the hearer will die to self and come to rest on the Bedrock of true belief, or they will die alone in their sins.  There is no escape.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

~ Romans 6:3-6

In Him, everything is backwards from the world.

Last to be first.

Give away to gain.

Seek Him first.

Slave to be free.

Strength in weakness.

Grace to the humble.

Surrender to win.

Die to finally Live.

Oh, beloved, somehow we know this foolishness is true.  All of us do.  We just have that one last little thing in our lives onto which we hold.  One more time, one more thought, one more attempt to try it ourselves.  And He hammers it home… Apart from Me, you can do nothing.

We become brutally aware of the cost of the Gospel becoming effective in our lives.  The price for this transaction is absolute abandonment of our lives.  And the price has to be paid by both parties in the transaction.  The Initiator has already anted up.  The very G_d of the universe has torn Himself asunder and poured out His own blood.

All He wants from us is our weak souls, minds and bodies…. Naught but dust and wind really.  But He wants all of the dust and all of the wind.  He wants to take all that little bit of us, and kill it in the death He died and bury it in His burial.  For, this death is the only path to new Life in Him.  Flesh can have no confidence before the coming judgement that will surely come.  Only a human made new and perfect in His Spirit can stand on that day.

But, in Him, stand we will.

Can we see it?  This new Life is not a new way of living – it is Life finally Lived.  He is the Way, He is the Truth, He is the Life.  This new life is not something we live somehow enabled by Him.  This Life is His Life lived in us – and through us.  And the only path to this Life, is the death of our old life. 

There is no other way.

Oh, we can try.  He has always left that option open.  The first covenant in the Bible is still in effect.  We can stand before Him that day on our own merits, and He will judge fairly.  We only have to make our wind and dust stand against the perfection of inapproachable Light.  Yeah, we can try.  And we will fail.  We will fail just like every other time we have tried to make ourselves be good enough.  And after the final trying, and the final failure will come a death that never ends.

So, when are we going to die friends?  Now or later?  There are no survivors.

When are you gonna die?

Note the contradictions: The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, yet he is more alive than before and he fully expects to live forever. He walks on earth while seated in heaven and though born on earth he finds that after his conversion he is not at home here. Like the nighthawk, which in the air is the essence of grace and beauty but on the ground is awkward and ugly, so the Christian appears at his best in the heavenly places but does not fit well into the ways of the very society into which he was born.
~ Aiden Wilson Tozer

For the true believer, there are some days when we don’t just give intellectual assent to the truth that this earth is not our home.  Rather, we feel it deep down in our bones.  We “know in our knower” that something just ain’t right.

We are a very square peg in a round hole.

We sit in our chair at work and listen to the others talk about ANYTHING other than the things of G_d.

We walk through the store, and are struck by the futility of the material goods around us.  We feel the desperation around us as others look to obtain SOMETHING that means something.

As we walk in His Spirit, we even feel our bodies scream and fuss that we aren’t fulfilling their fleshly lusts.  MAN IS THAT VOICE LOUD!  But, we don’t even really want to listen.  We’ve tasted freedom and are running into His marvelous light.

We are different.  

We are different in a very good way.  Something in us has come completely alive, and some-other-thing in us has completely died.  It is almost like we are out of phase from the physical plane on which we live.  We are fully here, but it almost feels like we are window shopping the world.  We are in it.  But we are no longer of it.  There is no judgement of the others walking around on the other side of the window.  There is not even really any pity.  We have passed through those emotions along the way, and now simply feel the same Love for others, that He has pour onto and into us.

And even on the days when the circumstances and devices of the world system crash in around us – we can simply stand at rest… And stand, in Him, in profound and powerful peace.  And we can stand because we KNOW that all this will be over in just a little bit.  We are dead to this world already, we are dead even to ourselves – and we are now fully alive in Him.  This is a peculiar place to be, even for a peculiar people like those possessed by G_d, through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Delicious!  

Care for a taste beloved?  Life, here in Him, is naught but an appetizer for the epic feast on that Day.

This post is to honor PFC Andrew Timothy Morrison – who is growing into the likeness of his name.  He is a manly warrior that honors God.  He is a soldier and i thought some readers might benefit.  Oh, by the way, he is a decorated Army shooter, with multiple qualifications, thus the focus of the note…  Go “now” reader, and enjoy.

Hope all is well Andy.  Was just thinking about the problem of handling stress.  You might be facing some now.  And then it hit me… You already know how to handle stress because of your skills as a rifleman.  Sounds strange, I know.  Hang in there with me. Here goes… 

Got stress? Worry? Pain? Fear? Exhaustion? Go “now” with Him. It really works.