“Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do”
One of my largest gripes with the modern day church is that we have inadvertently separated the power and strength within the Bible and teachings in the New Testament. Rather than reading the words and believing them to be true, we view the readings as nothing more than a pleasant story with a feel good ending. This could not be further from the truth.
When Christ speaks the following passage, what do you think?
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
What do you think?
When we are told not to worry about tomorrow, it is not being said as a good luck remedy or anecdote; it is being spoken as a command from the perspective of the one who knows the Truth.
Let me put this in a simple format for you…
If I enter a room and am able to see there is a huge trap on the inside and tell you not to enter the room, is that a command spoken from a dictatorial stance or one of care and concern? Is it spoken out of pride and cruelty or of love and knowledge of what is to come?
When Christ spoke these words on the mount, He did not speak them because He wanted to control us as little pawns, but because we have the human weakness of getting ourselves into traps on a daily basis; we are as little children who consistently make mistakes and paint ourselves into a corner. We cry out to G-d when we need something. We draw ‘close’ to Him when we have screwed up our lives. We worship Him only when we feel like it. We have made the Creator of the entire universe into a little box that we take out of our busy lives when it is convenient for us to do so.
Shame.
If we were able to soar above the heavens in our worship, out of love and complete adoration for our G-d, rather than only crying out to him when we feel like we need something, how much complete and enriched would our lives be? If we were able to serve G-d regardless of how we felt or the current state of our life, how much more would He be able to share with us and bless our lives?
I truly wonder what life could look like if we could walk the walk that Christ pointed out for us. When He said “Follow me” I believe that He meant it.
What does this mean for us? I’ve been doing a little bit of thinking about this and have come to the conclusion that it means that everything in our nature must be transitioned into a pursuit of His holiness; we must die so that He may live in us. We must make room for Him in our lives, which means clearing out the clutter we fill our lives with.
Every day, I hope to kill a little bit more of myself so that He may have more room to grow in me. I hope my pride, selfish ambitions, greed, lust, selfishness, anger, depression, lies, and internal wants/desires are able to be strangled out until there is nothing left but a heart that yearns to be close to our Father. As Crazy Horse said during the Battle of Bighorn – “It is a good day to die”
Let’s start living.
No Comments