Tag: original sin

When we die?

Today’s Reading Joshua 18-21, Psalm 15, Luke 23 

 

This week as we remember, recognize, reflect, and celebrate the Lord and everything that happened this Holy Week, a portion of today’s readings focused on death. This led me to think about what happens when we die. I know this sounds pretty scary, morbid, or even a bit weird, but because of Adam and Eve and the choice to sin, every person ever since will eventually sin and die.  But wait…

Psalm 39:11 says Surely every man is a vapor.   So as the gray hair comes in, the wrinkles become more prominent, and the body can hurt from almost anything to nothing.  I’m reminded how our time passes with lightning speed. Unfortunately, this truth sadly includes the unforeseen events we have experienced with friends and family who have gone before us.  We are on this earth briefly, so we must diligently live wisely and well. 

The beginning of Romans says, “For the wages of sin is death….” 

What happens to people after death depends on the choices we make while we are alive. Those who don’t need God or those who decide they do.  The end of Romans gives us all hope from eternal death in hell.  Romans 6:23 says, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus came over 2,000 years ago to die for the forgiveness of our sins. All we have to do to receive life in Heaven forever is believe that Jesus chose this Holy Week to die for us and that we choose to follow Him.  Even the criminal that was crucified next to Jesus was granted this gift in the last hours of his life.  

Luke 23 ends with the death of Jesus and being buried.  I’m thankful for this week. We get to celebrate what happens next.  We all will one day die.  I pray for many things to happen for myself and my family before this, but if I were to pray for one thing, it would be for us each to know our Lord so that in the day, whenever it may be, we will live eternally with Him in paradise.  

Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Luke 23:43 

 

I Will Follow – Jon Guerra

For God’s Glory

Tearing up another crumpled paper ball for the pile

Deuteronomy 21; Psalms 108–109; Isaiah 48; Revelation 18

I sat and sat trying to find the perfect story to explain Isaiah 48. I wanted to tell how we all take Gods promises and use them to glorify ourselves. Like the time that God honored my prayer for more business and I decided the growth was because of my superior product knowledge. I also wanted to tell about how we all have carved idols, we just name them other things. For example, I asked God for a car so that I can get to work more easily and he granted my request. I bought a Cadillac and quickly rose to the top of the parking lot. I am sure thankful for his great provision. Heck, I even tell anyone who asks that it was a gift from God.

If I were to write that story, I would also have to explain that these prayers are just like the Israelites. Isaiah lashes out at them in the very first verse. He illustrates that we are quick to invoke God’s name in all things, but our actions don’t reflect his commands. This is where it gets hard because people don’t want to hear about God’s commands. They only want to know about how loving and merciful he is. Besides, if he didn’t want us to sin, he wouldn’t have given us the desire to do so, right? That conversation would have taken us all the way back to the Garden of Eden. I would have to remind the reader that our bad choices demanded that God establish rules, even rules that are impossible to keep. Our failure to keep them illuminates the Truth. They can show us when we are stealing glory from him. The story would conclude with an explanation of why we are here. It would say God created us for his good pleasure and to give him glory. The answer is easy really. In fact, the answer to all of our problems lies right there. Give him the glory. When we do, he returns peace and righteousness. When we don’t, we get cut off and destroyed. In the end, I wonder why we didn’t pray for his glory and our righteousness in the first place.

If I were to write that story, I would feel really awful for having gotten it wrong all these years. I would wonder if there is still hope for me and if God could still love me. I would shed a river of tears feeling hopeless and guilty. And then I would remember Jesus.

Someday, I will write that story.