The believers life is lived only in one place, the world, in enemy territory if you will, and there is only one way to enter into our home to come, our place of citizenship, and that is through the gateway of death for the mortal body. Unless you are part of the rare few that will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, (1st Thess. 4:17) you and I will go the way of the whole earth, and unless your life here is ended abruptly by our Lord, our bodies will begin to grow frail and eventually be unable to function, it will return to dust and you will finally go home.
It has always amazed me just how many Christians I meet that fear to recognize this truth, who desire in no way to participate in this conversation, of their finite time here on this planet. I do not know if it is fear, or perhaps the lies of the world that they believe, that one can be forever if only they lead a healthy lifestyle, or if it is a part of our sinful nature that refuses to accept that we all must have an end, when in fact all souls will continue throughout eternity, a knowledge that resides far deeper inside each and every human being than the fear of the death of the body.
I would suggest that it is fear, fear of the unknown, of that which has yet to be seen or heard, for it is one thing to speak on a subject, it is quite another to experience it. I cannot count the number of times that I have heard of or even spoken to those who have come close to the final moments of their lives, and in doing so have had what they called “a life changing revelation.” All of a sudden, the next day the sky is bluer, food tastes better, there is an ambition to live life to its fullest, for they now realize not only how brief life is, but how quickly it can come to an end.
I speak not here of those who claim to have either visited either heaven or hell while in this state, but only of those who have known for a fact within their own heart that they were going to die, and then did not. Whether it be because of illness, accident or any other form, when they come to the realization that life here on earth is going to continue, they are almost always changed, and what they thought once held great value and meaning in their lives is now counted as nothing.
Think if you will on Paul after the incident on the road to Damascus in the Book of Acts, he counted all things, everything in his past as dung, (Phil. 3:8) useless, a life wasted, until he met the savior. He had within him up until that point the three things that the world has always said are the most important attributes a man can have, ambition, initiative and drive, and of course these are the three main attributes the world tells us makes a man. Without ambition, we are lazy, we are a constant drag on society, and do only that which is necessary to maintain a modicum of existence, doing nothing more than that which is required of us. Those without ambition take no initiative to change either their lives or the lives around them for the better, they do only that which is set before them and nothing more, and when the particular task that has been set before them has been accomplished, they sit and wait for their next instructions. With no ambition or initiative, there is no drive, no desire to plot the next course of action, in fact the drive to complete the first task was only forced upon them by those who are in authority over them, and if the payment for the task was not dangled in front of them as a carrot in front of a horse is, drive would be nonexistent to them. These feel no qualms in accepting rewards they have not earned, have no inner problems living of off the goodness of others when they themselves are able to provide for themselves, they know there is more, and although they possess none of the attributes of these three traits, they have no problem accepting from others that they have learned to despise, those who do have ambition, initiative and drive, those things that they believe they deserve, simply because they exist, yet they have no desire to seek for them on their own.
This my friends is one of the oldest tricks of Satan being played upon the newest of the human race, the world that continuously informs us that we must learn from the mistakes of our past, but continues to walk directly into the traps that the adversary lays in its path. This new enabled society idea that the world is adhering to has led to it to Satan’s intended goal, depression in the human heart, the love of many waxing cold, the hatred of those that ‘have’ from those that have not, looking through the alternate sources of drugs and alcohol for escape, and a suicide rate around the world that has skyrocketed. Man is so easily swayed, and the one who is leading them down this path has traversed it many, many times down through the centuries.
Evil is being called good, and good evil, (Isa. 5:20) even within what the world calls “the church,” for many in it have decided that the way of man is more important than the commandments of God. “The age of man” is a phrase that is beginning to be heard around the planet, more and more, and why not, for “where is the promise of is coming,” (2nd Peter 3:4) it has been two-thousand years, and it is time we start to learn that we must do this on our own, that even if God is ‘out there,’ He doesn’t care, so with ambition, initiative and drive of our own accord we must strive to change the world for the better. O, the traps of Satan are concealed so well, and can be so difficult to spot.
A true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has no right to fear death, in fact it is to be just the opposite, but for those who have never trusted in His Name, this fear is very real and overpowering at times, for they are facing the unknown with only human hope to hold on to. With enough ambition, you can set your thoughts to the task of good works, with enough initiative you can accomplish these tasks for the good of yourself and humanity, and the drive to excel in them will guarantee that the scales of judgement will fall in your favor when you stand before your maker.
Do not be so far removed in your mind as to forget how you yourself used to think before Christ, those rare times that you did, about how you were planning to enter heaven, what you believed was required of you so as not to end up in hell. The more we mature in Christ, the more we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, the more difficult this can be, but we must not forget, for those we are to speak to are still there, and you cannot lead anyone anywhere unless first you go to where they are.
The lost still have within them a great fear of dying that can be hard for us to comprehend, difficult for us to recall exactly, for we know our redeemer lives, and so shall we. (Job 19:25) Sometimes though a ladder or a rope is not the best way to pull someone out of a pit, sometimes we have to crawl down into that pit with them. They are in great fear down there, they can barely, if at all, see the light above them and have no way to reach it, and darkness is all around them, and it is our responsibility to enter that darkness with them, to lead them to the light, we cannot carry them into the light, only Christ can do that, but we can show them that His hand is reaching down to them, and all that they have to do is grasp it.
We are to have no fear of death, the sting of it holds no power over us, (1st Cor. 15:55) “to live is Christ, to die is gain,” (Phil. 1:21) is to be our banner, and to live these words must be our purpose, and this purpose, these truths will place within you a confidence that is unsurpassed, a peace beyond all understanding, (Phil. 4:7) and the salt and light that we are to be will be seen by all, and their ambition, initiative and drive, if they come to Christ, will also be where it should be, for an eternal purpose, for the kingdom of heaven, and for the glory of God.
