We Can Have Liberty Over Death

As the old saying goes, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

The bad news first, of course:  This might be obvious, but we can’t always be happy.  We won’t always win.  And someday we’re all going to die.  Sort of depressing?  Not at all, when you consider the good news:  We can have lasting joy.  We can have victory in the battles that really matter.  And after we die, we can live forever in a place called Heaven.

Think I’m crazy?  I might be, but God certainly isn’t.  Please carefully read and ponder the following words from the very One who created you:

“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” – John 15:11

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – I Corinthians 15:55-57

Of course, these verses were written to Christians. So how can we become a part of this? There are many conflicting views out there on how to become a Christian, but the Bible is very clear. If you truly want joy, victory, and eternal life, you must:

1. Realize that you are a sinner, and that your sin—if left untreated—will result in death (“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. For the wages [result] of sin is death…” – Romans 3;23,6:23a).
2. Understand that you can’t treat your own sin problem, no matter how much good you do (“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses [good deeds] are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities [sins], like the wind, have taken us away.” – Isaiah 64:6).
3. Believe that God loves you so much that he gave His only Son Jesus Christ to take the penalty for sin and die in your place, be buried, and ultimately conquer sin and death by rising again (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life… Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” – John 3:16, I Corinthians 15:3,4).
4. Accept God’s open invitation to salvation and ask Jesus Christ into your heart and life (“And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” – Revelation 22:17, Romans 10:9,10,13).
5. Rest assuredly in knowing that if you just prayed and truly accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior from sin, you have been adopted into the family of God and you will never lose your salvation (“God sent forth his Son… to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons… And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” – Galatians 4:4,5; John 10:28).

I pray that even today you will find this lasting joy, real victory, and an eternal home in Heaven.  If you have just accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, I would love to hear about it!  You can email me at:  joestewart21@gmail.com

Embrace Life

Life is not a series of events.  It’s not a chronology of happenings.

It’s not even a collection of experiences.

Life is a celebration.

You could almost say it’s one big party.  And no, I’m not talking about alcohol, drugs, and bad choices.  I’m talking about spending time with people you love, and people who love you.  After all, what’s a party without friends?  If God wanted us to live solitary lives removed from those around us, He would’ve given us each our own planet.  It’s not like it would’ve been that difficult for Him!  But instead, we’re here together—all six billion of us.  And that, my friends, is what life is all about: being together, tight-knit, close.  Some call it community.  Others call it fellowship.

I call it living.

But life is a delicate balancing act.  And around every corner lurks a small, insignificant moment selling us a satchel of trivial contradictions.  For some reason or another, we often step aside just long enough to talk ourselves into buying a sack or two.  And when we do, a little part of us dies.  Those little differences—the thorns under each rose—begin tearing our relationships to pieces.  And before we finally realize how ridiculous it all was, the damage is done.

I’m not talking about things that really matter.  There are eternal truths that are worth fighting for, and even worth breaking relationships over.  But 99.9% of the time, we start something out of nothing, and then our pride won’t let us drop it until a little more death has entered the world.  Don’t let that happen to you.  Realize what it’s all about.  Draw close to those around you.  Ignore the trivial offenses.  Forgive the less-than-trivial ones.

And most of all, embrace life.

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” – John 10:10

If Today Was Your Last Day…

What would you do with it?  Who would you call?  Where would you go?  What would you set right?  Who would you forgive?  What would you finally forget?  Who would you want to see?  What would matter?  What wouldn’t?

Those questions might be a bit more appropriate than you are hoping.  The reality is that at least 154,000 people woke up for the last time today. You might be one of them.

Probably not.

But maybe.

If you’re one of the 154,000 who dies today, chances are you won’t see it coming.  When the drunk driver smashes into the side of your Honda Civic at Sunset and Vine it’s already too late to prepare to death.

But if you’re reading this, it’s not too late yet.  You can do something about your life.  You can still prepare for death.  If you were wise, you would live in such a way so that you were always prepared for death.  You would live in the shadow of death, yet without fear because you were ready.

But how can you really live ready to die?

The answer is simple, and it revolves around the questions at the beginning of this article.  Here’s my challenge to you:  Answer one of those questions honestly, and then act on that answer TODAY… just in case you’re number 3, or 546, or 154,000.  And if not, you’ll be ready to go when your number is finally up.

Who, What, Where…

When?

NOW!

The American Holocaust

It’s the difference between life and death.  You’ve probably heard that statement a thousand times or more.  Certainly it has taken on quite a few different meanings, usually referring to something of critical importance.  But what exactly does it mean?  What is the difference between life and death?  What is the quality that makes something someone?  If you’ve ever looked at the biological makeup of a recently dead corpse (and I honestly hope most of you haven’t), you’ll notice how similar a human body is—biologically—shortly before death, and shortly after.  Yet you wouldn’t have to be told that the body is dead.  Even to the casual observer, the body is no longer running.  It’s like turning off an engine.

My car’s engine looks exactly the same, and it actually IS the same—mechanically— whether it’s running or not.  In the case of an engine, it needs to be started somehow to get it running.  Usually this is done with the turn of an ignition key—resulting in the starter turning over the engine while sparking the fuel being injected from the tank.  It’s a bit complex, but it gets the job done; and once fuel is flowing through the cylinders, you’ve got a running engine.  However, fuel alone can’t start an engine.  After all, my fuel tank is currently about a quarter full, yet my car is not running.  Working spark plugs are equally worthless—in and of themselves—in starting an engine.  I have a full set of working spark plugs all hooked up, but the engine is still off.  In the same way, a perfectly good starter will do nothing to start an engine by itself.  Even if you have all the ingredients in place, the engine will not start alone.  It requires an outside source—usually a human with a screwdriver or a key—to exert a small amount of energy and set the entire process in motion.

A human body is quite similar to a car in many ways.  All the ingredients for life can be in place—food, cell structure, blood, brain material—yet the body is lying dead on the ground.  If you think about the end of life for a minute, it tells you something very powerful about the beginning of a human life.  It takes more than physical ingredients to start a human engine.  It takes that outside source of energy to set the whole process in motion.  The mother can’t provide that service by herself, just like one car can’t start another by itself.  If you’ve actually followed my reasoning up until this point, you’ve almost assuredly ended up at the same conclusion: each and every single human life that begins in the womb doesn’t “start” without an outside source turning the ignition.  What is that outside source?  For that, we can look only to religion, for godless “science” does not have a logical answer.

God tells us how we all became living humans in His Word through the inspired mouth of one of the first men on this planet, Job:  “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” – Job 33:4.  Further, in Jeremiah 1:5, we find out when this happens:  “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.”  This gives us a solid rock to stand on when we look for a definition of personhood—when an embryo becomes a living human being, protected under all the rights of the US Constitution.  Indeed, God starts our engines at conception:  “And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.” – II Samuel 11:5.  Notice the woman didn’t say she was with “a fetus” or “an embryo.”  No, as soon as she conceived, she knew she was “with [a living human] child.”

Are you beginning to see what this means for our country and the legalization of abortion?  Ever since 1973, the United States of America has legalized the murder of millions and millions of innocent people—unable to speak for themselves.  I am still blown away that people in America, who claim to be moral and upstanding citizens, are completely fine with this fact.  Listen, I know there are all kinds of emotionally charged stories about rape victims and at-risk mothers.  But come on people, let’s face reality.  That is the reason for abortion less than three percent of the time!¹  In rape cases, I realize that very real and intense pain on many levels in involved, but pain doesn’t justify murder.  Should we let the Colorado “Batman” shooter go free if his lawyer proves he was hurting mentally and emotionally while he shot those people?  But what if he was hurt by someone else, and did nothing to deserve the pain?  Of course not, and abortion shouldn’t be looked at any differently.  Being hurt doesn’t justify hurting someone else.

Human life is still human life, even in the womb.  In the words of the late great Dr. Suess, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”  Every time I think about the legalization of abortion in this country, it brings me back to the words of that great American founding father, Thomas Jefferson:  “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?  That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?  Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever…”

Dear citizens of these God-blessed United States of America: we need to stop playing games with human life and murder.  It is certainly not a game to God—“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” – Genesis 9:6.  The issue of abortion is a highly religious issue.  There’s no coincidence to the fact that most pro-life people are religious, and most pro-choice people are non-religious.  But whether you’re religious or not, the truth remains the same.  God will not hold anyone guiltless who commits the murder of innocent infants, or anyone who supports the same.

In life, there are battles to be fought, and battles to stay out of.  This is a battle that every single freedom-loving, God-fearing man and woman in America absolutely needs to fight.  Perhaps we can remove this great evil from our land.  Perhaps we can stave off the judgment of a just God before there is no America left to save.  Practically speaking, November is going to put you’re resolve to the test.  Obama is pro-abortion.  Romney—more so, Paul Ryan—is against abortion.  Who has your vote?

¹(http://realweb.ifastnet.com/stats.html)