DEATH: Brought to you by the letter “D”

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A.W. Tozer said, “The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves.”

Most things are opposite in the Kingdom of Heaven. Scripture has countless examples of this. The weak, the meek, the poor, the child, the least, the last; all enter the Kingdom through Jesus. If we want progress, if we want purpose, if we want life, we must come to the end of ourselves…we must die.  I’m starting to believe death is inevitable for all of us because God ultimately wants ALL to come into true life. God backs this theory up by deciding to make the prerequisite for true life something that humans have consistently done well since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden…DEATH.

We all die.  It should be something that allows us to realize our humanity and weakness from an early age and turn to our Creator for his plan. However, in our pride and arrogance, we think somehow we will figure out another way. We make other plans. We set our own goals. We build our own kingdoms. We settle for a terrible existence trying to distract us from the haunting realization that we all die.  We even complain that there is no way a loving God could allow anyone to die especially when he says he came for life.  According to John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” There are a lot of thieves in our lives that steal from us daily. The biggest of those thieves is self- our pride, our arrogance, our feeble ways, our flesh, our selfishness. All of these things daily steal our true life from us.

Question: How do we get true abundant life???

Answer: Death.

DEATH IS THE FINAL DISARMING OF SELF.

In his divine provision God sends his Son Jesus to die for us, that in his death we might all have life to the fullest.  Then he does something even crazier– He rises from the dead. He conquers death. He springs forth to new life, everlasting life, from none other than DEATH. He takes the sting from death. He is victorious over death. So in the old way, in our own way, death leads to darkness, despair, doom, damnation as well as many other lifeless words that don’t start with the letter “D.” Yet in the new way, THE WAY, death leads to true, abundant, everlasting LIFE.

See, in the Kingdom of Heaven most things are opposite. Therefore death is not outside of the love of God. Death is the very way to God. Through death we get to see the very heart of a loving God who sent his son to die that we might have life. Death is not final nor is it the end of life. Jesus is our present and future hope.  Not just our future death, which is to be in the ultimate presence of God one day, but in our daily death that we might experience the Kingdom of Heaven here, now, on Earth.  May we no longer live as those running away from death trying to distract ourselves with purposeless lives, but live as those victorious over it. May we live as those who fully believe in the power of the resurrection. And through Jesus, may today be an invitation for all to come and die so that we might all truly live!