Taking back life

I have walked around before with a disconnect about being in LIFE right now. I have experienced death, and it stung - stung badly. I have struggled before the Lord with the verse:

I Corinthians 15:55

"Where oh death is thy victory, where oh death is thy sting?"

These words rather than producing comfort, produced a frustration within my spirit. After the death of Nevaeh, my world went spinning out of control in many ways. For about 6 months, I would wake up every night in panic and fear. I would replay the entire day of her death over and over again in my mind. Then during the day, I would worry about every little and big thing my kids were doing. If my kids weren't up at their usual time I would wonder if I would walk into their room in the morning and they would be dead.  The fear of death had begun to take over my life. 


I remember the exact night the Lord freed me from walking in this terror. That night as I was replaying playing her death over and over again in my mind I realized that I was trying to change the ending of her story. I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I played it one more time, she would wake up. On that night, the Lord showed me that ending was the end - of that chapter - but it was not the end of her story. The Lord took me another step further through a conversation I had with my mom. She said, "So many people live their lives like they are never going to die, instead of living with the understanding that their life on earth is going to end." After these events, I was released from the fear of death that had been dominating my life. I also surrendered the life of my children into Jesus' hands, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Trusting in Him and the story He is writing has allowed me to release the "control" I thought I needed to have to avoid death.

In the last several months, the Lord has been taking me farther, challenging me to see that another reason I do not need to be afraid is because eternal life is now.  For the last month I've been reflecting on the following quote by Todd Hunter:  "Most of my life we've asked this question, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" But I think this is a way more interesting question, "What if you knew you were going to live tomorrow, next week and next year, and decades longer - what would you do with your life?"

Whenever I hear a new perspective I don't immediately jump on it.  I have to take time to let it sit and test it against Scripture.  The following are Scriptures that the Holy Spirit has brought to my mind as I've reflected on this quote:

• John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
• John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.
• I Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.
• I Peter 2:4-5 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
• Galatians 5:16, 22-25 So I say, Live by the Spirit! The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

We have been invited to - life - here, today, right now.  Obviously, heaven will be the culmination of our hope and there will be great joy in seeing Jesus face to face; but I think, as these Scriptures show, we were invited to so much more. 

When we live according to God's word, we are living a life that will never spoil, perish or fade.  We are a living stone in a house that God is building.  The Good News contains the message that we have hope that our life right now, truly matters and it has a purpose.  How then do we live our lives in life?  By walking according to the Spirit.

I entitled this post "Taking back Life" because I believe that is what Jesus came to do.  He came to give us life, abundantly, and it starts now.  This concept has allowed me re look at verses like 

I Corinthians 15:55
"Where oh death is thy victory, where oh death is thy sting?"

or

Philippians 1:21

"For me to live is Christ, to die is gain."

 

Through these experiences and the thoughts about eternal life starting now, the Lord has helped me step back and see the bigger picture.  We have been given life, now today.  We are part of a bigger, grander picture, called God's kingdom.  As Christians, let us take back life, today and walk with the knowledge that we are His living stones.

Finally, I leave you with these quotes from Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, Letter 15 (I heard this quote in a sermon by Ellis Brust called Celebrity or Service 5/24/10 @ Holy Trinity Church):

The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them for eternity.  He therefore wants them to attend chiefly to two things - to eternity itself and to that point of time which they call the present.  For the present is the point at which time touches eternity.  Our business, as demons is to get them away from the eternal and the present.

It's far better to make them live in the future, all their passions point in that direction.  The thought about the future inflames hope and fear.  It is also unknown to them so that making them think about it will make them think of unrealities.  In a word, the future is of all things the least like eternity.  It is the most completely temporal part of time - for the past is froze and no longer flows and the present is all lit up with eternal rays.  Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future.  Gratitude looks to the past, love to the present, fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead. 

In Christ,