Tag Archives: death

The Goodness and Severity of God

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The prophet Ezekiel had just run down a list of problems still visible in a nation already in the process of being destroyed and taken into captivity.  But the Lord allows him to give them one more message of hope.  If they repent, they can still be spared from what looks like certain doom.

“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!” – Ezekiel 18:30-32 (NKJV)

“Turn and live.”  That’s really the message of the Gospel in its most reduced form.  We must turn from our sin and receive the life that God offers through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.   But the alternative is not living in neutrality towards God.  The alternative is not life at all, but death.  This is a harsh but merciful message.  This is the choice that each person faces.  Here we see that God is both love and light by His very nature and in His character is no darkness at all.

Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God… – Romans 11:22 (NKJV)

“Father, Glorify Your Son.”

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The disciples really didn’t know what was coming.  After the crucifixion – and even shortly after the resurrection had already taken place – they still didn’t understand.  

But Jesus knew all along.  He saw into the glory of eternity.  He saw every failure and victory in the history of the church.  He saw you and me right now.  He saw the resurrection and He no doubt saw the cross.  And this is how he began His prayer – knowing that trials and suffering and death were the first things on His agenda:

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.'” – John 17:1-5 (NKJV)

One Good Bible Study

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These guys were discouraged.  Life had suddenly become gloomier than it had ever been.  The man they took for the Messiah had just died a gruesome death.  Now what?

They were confused.  Some women they knew said the body of Jesus was gone and claimed to see angels who said He was alive.  Alive.  What?  This was all going to take some time to process.

What they didn’t realise was that they were walking and talking with the risen Jesus at that very moment. 

Then He said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”  – Luke 24:25-27 (NKJV)

Too often the Lord gets my attention the same way: “O foolish one!” (literally, “without mind, without sense”) In this case, He kept their attention for a long time – and the students took it all in.  Later, they recalled it:

And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?'”- Luke 24:32 (NKJV)

No question, that was the best Bible study we all ever missed.  Still, there’s one more thing Jesus said that we should all probably take more seriously. 

These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” – John 14:25-26 (NKJV)

May our hearts and minds be open to everything the Spirit desires to teach us.

Something That Lasts

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Let’s face it. Everything we do in this world is plagued by impermanence. Our own mortality – that nagging, irritating, upcoming appointment with death – can bring a sad sense of dissatisfaction to anything we hope will endure. “All flesh is grass,” says the prophet. “The people are grass.” That’s us.  

The voice said, ‘Cry out!’
And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’
‘All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.'”
          – Isaiah 40:6-8 (NKJV)

Because we mortals cannot keep going, the best we can hope for is to latch onto something that will outlast us – something like the Word of God. The Bible; let’s devote ourselves to it. The Scriptures; let’s keep them ever before our eyes. God’s thoughts, God’s words; let’s fill our minds with them…

Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because

    ‘All flesh is as grass,
    And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
    The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
    But the word of the Lord endures forever.'”
          – 1 Peter 1:23-25 (NKJV)