Tag: death

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The scripture for today, February 25, is Revelation 2:25 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Wings of Time“Only hold on to what you have until I come.”

Several years ago my 91-year-old mother left this life. Some say that at the moment of death, one’s life flashes before their eyes. In the case of my mother, at the moment of her death, her life flashed before my eyes. I suddenly imagined her as a baby in her mother’s (my grandmother’s) lap. Then she was a toddler playing in their yard. Then I saw her in school, then as a young bride to my father, then at home with her husband and children gathered around her. Then I saw her as launching a career after we were grown, then retiring, then eventually going into the nursing home.

And when that brief moment of envisioning her whole life was gone, I said, “You made it, Mother! You made it! You never faltered. Through all those years of ups and downs, you never wavered in your faith in Jesus Christ. You stuck it out. And now you’re home!”

May we all live our life in such a way that, despite our ups and downs, we never wander from Jesus. We stick with him through every storm, every flood, every blast of tragedy, every tumbling of dreams. Let us hold on to what we have until the day we leave this temporary life and enter our true eternal life.

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The scripture for today, February 6 is Jonah 2:6f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

05-Inspirations-Cover-KINDLE“To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”

This is what was going through Jonah’s mind as he was swallowed by the great fish and on his way to certain death. It is never too late. As long as the breath of life is in you, it is never too late to cry out to God. You may be in the pits of your life. You may feel you cannot sink any lower than where you are now.

But look up! God is watching you with tears. You are not only breaking your own heart, but you are breaking the heart of God who loves you so. God wants to lift you up out of your pit. But he cannot do it without your help. What is your part? You must lift up your hands so God can grasp them.

Look up! God is right there within your grasp.

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The scripture for today, February 5, is Ephesians 2:5 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“[God] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions ~ it is by grace you have been saved.”Crucifixion

Every time we sin, our spirit ~ our soul ~ dies a little more. Every time we steal, cheat, torture, murder. We say we don’t do such things. Well, how about every time we stretch the truth (lie), go over the speed limit (disobey the laws of the land), close our eyes to someone we know is in need (selfishness), lose our temper, indulge in coarse talk, call someone names, refuse to forgive?

It is true that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and our wages every time we sin is death (Romans 6:23). We certainly do not deserve to live with a sinless God. Nor can we. But by his grace, he made a way possible to consider us sinless.

In Old Testament times, people killed a perfect animal to die in their place, but it was only a temporary fix. Then God sent his perfect Son who never sinned ~ the Lamb of God ~ to lie down on the altar of the world at the cross. There he died spiritually and physically in our place for the things we in the world did wrong, all while the world raged at him.

Yes, while we were still dead in our sins, Jesus died for us. He can also make us spiritually alive. If we will actively seek him.

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The scripture for today, January 24, is Jude 1:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy ~ “

God is perfect, and so cannot dwell with faults and imperfection. We have faults. Romans 3:23 says everyone sins. And Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. But God always has wanted us to live with him. What a dilemma!

God solved our problem at great expense. He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth who lived the faultless life for us. Then God offered His perfect Son, His only Son, Jesus, to die in our place.

After that, God told the world that He would consider us “without fault” vicariously through Jesus. He’s already paid the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is believe He did and follow everything He said and did to the best of our ability.

How amazing ~ God’s love for us!

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The scripture for today, January 11, is 1st Peter 1:11 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

How often do we forget that earth is not our home? As an old gospel song says, “We’re just traveling through.” Do we really believe that? If someone told us tomorrow that we were going to die, would we go into a panic? Would we beg God to let us live another ten or twenty years? Would we feel this was the beginning of the end?

To a Christian, our dying is the end of the beginning. We have a whole “life” ahead of us in heaven. A never-ending life. Do we live like we believe it? Will we die looking forward to it?

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The scripture for today, November 26, is John 11:26 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE” ‘ And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

Jesus was talking to the sister of his close friend, Lazarus, who had just died. Of course we understand he was talking about spiritual death ~ the death of our souls. And death in the original Greek means separation; so in the case of our souls, it would be separation from God.

Revelation 20:6 & 14 refer to the second death which is the lake of fire. So what is the first death of our souls?

In John 3:3 Jesus said we must be born again of water and the spirit. Romans 6:4 says “we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death [of that sinful life] in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a NEW LIFE.”

Someone has said “Born once [physically], die twice. Born twice [physically & spiritually], die once.” If we emerge from the waters of our mother’s womb, that is the first birth of our souls. If we emerge from the waters of baptism, that is our second birth.”

So when Jesus said believers would never die, he meant their souls would never die. How reassuring!

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The scripture for today, November 16 n(11/16), is John 11:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Header-Persecution“Then Thomas…said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go that we may die with him.’ “

This apostle is most often called “Doubting Thomas.” We’ve all heard the story about Thomas being absent when Jesus appeared to the other apostles, then later said he wouldn’t believe Jesus was alive again unless he could touch him. Well, the other apostles hadn’t believed until they saw him either.

After returning to life, Jesus first appeared to the women. Then, “when they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others…But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:9-11).

Now let’s look at our scripture for today. In the months before Jesus’ death, he had been traveling everywhere except to Judea where Jerusalem and the religious leaders were. Those leaders were after Jesus’ life, and everyone knew it. Then Lazarus died and was buried about six miles from Jerusalem. It was dangerous for Jesus to go there.

John 11:7-8 says, “Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’ ‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?’ “

After explaining that he needed to get to Lazarus, it was Thomas who bravely spoke up and said, “Let us also go that we may die with him!”

Doubting Thomas? Far from it! Brave Thomas. Devoted Thomas. Thomas who was willing to follow his Lord to the death. That was the real Thomas.

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The scripture for today, September 26 (9/26)WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE, is Hebrews 9:26f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face the judgment.”

According to the Old Law of Moses, sacrifices of perfect animals had to be made to temporarily pay the price of death for people’s sins. (Remember, the wages of sin is death ~ Romans 6:23.) But it had to be done on a regular basis. Then Jesus became the perfect Lamb of God. In a sense he laid down on the altar of the world, and paid the price of death for our sins. Once was enough, for in his death he nailed the Old Law of Moses to the cross (Colossians 2:14). He had fulfilled the Law of Moses by living it perfectly and never sinning (Hebrews 4:15).

And so, just as Jesus died once, we too die once. Then our judgment. No second chances. No reincarnations. No going back and trying to be perfect again and failing again. Jesus released us from all of our failures at being perfect. Thank God, he was perfect for us.

How amazing God’s plan for us!

The scripture for today, July 1 (7/1), is Leviticus 7:1f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

“These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy.  The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be sprinkled against the altar on all sides.”

Romans 3:23 says the wages of sin is death.  The price was paid over and over with perfect animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. But Jesus nailed the Old Law to the cross (Colossians 2:14), and with his one sacrifice made it so that no more blood sacrifices were necessary (Hebrews 8-9).

In a sense, Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, laid down on the altar of the world where his blood flowed from all sides of the cross to all sides of the earth.

Jesus paid the penalty for our sins in our place.  Do you ever thank him?

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The scripture for today, June 21 (6/21), is Romans 6:21ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?  Those things result in death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sometimes we do things we are ashamed of, and decide God would be too ashamed of us to accept us as his child.  But God can get rid of the shame, for he can forgive so completely that it is as though we never did those things.

Some people bristle from the phrase “slaves to God” or even slavery at all.  But we’re all slaves to something ~ a big car, high position, beauty, a hobby, chasing after the opposite gender, reading, eating, music, sports, etc.   

From the beginning of time, sin has always resulted in death.  Death means “separation” , and in the case of sin, it means separation from God.  God allowed us in Old Testament times to kill a perfect animal in our place, but we had to keep doing it throughout life. Then Jesus came as our perfect Lamb of God, and allowed himself to be killed in our place.  

The wages were paid through Jesus; so by believing this is true and following Jesus, we are no longer in debt.

 

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