Life Is Hard Then You Die

Life is hard then, you die.  Or, so says a proverb of our world. 
This proverb reveals a bleak outlook on every breath one takes and the lack of there being any hope.  There is no hope of anything being good.  Everything is hard and no such thing as an easy button.  Only lament, grief that life is hard.  Then the letdown, it all ends with our last breath.

Life can be hard as the world’s proverb says.  I have my list of stuff that I admit to feeling defeated in or mad about or both.  It is hard to move on.  It is a mixture of things more than one thing that eats at us.  And, yes, then we all die.  However, God created us to live forever and not a hard, bad life (John 10:10).  God has rolled out a plan, it was revealed when Jesus Christ came to us. When Jesus was with he had come “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).  I know we are lost when we see life as pitiful and see the world through a lens of an empty heart.  All we can say in life without the love of Christ is, “Life is hard; then you die.”  That is a sad state of mind to have.  We waste a wonderful life given to us by God.

As I read the Bible I see an answer from the Apostle Paul.  I am sure he thought about this, and yes he had a very hard life.  Paul shared his heart with what the Holy Spirit had comforted him with, he wrote, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).  It is “not worth” the effort to wallow in the bad stuff.  We will see God, when we do His “glory … will be revealed in us.”  That is the blessed hope!  So, yes we will die, but there is a glory, which is being with God in what is our true home.

Do you believe that God, Christ Jesus loves you and came for you?  Then confess him to others, pray and ask for his comfort.  Then, live a life that is good and full of hope in Christ.  As you do, “rejoice and be glad and give him glory!” (Rev. 19:7)   As God answers your prayer His Spirit comforts you in the world we live, where “life is hard,” but, note hopeless.

 

I love you,

Owen <><




“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

When Darkness Lurks Let Your Light Shine

Too often we shiver and shriek, then back ourselves into a corner when things look the worse.  It seems that fear has its greatest moment and the evil one’s work to shines brightly.

We often feel attacked when all we did was to:  gather to worship; gently allow others to know about our life and how it is Jesus that enriches our life.  We think about the encouragement of Jesus’ love when he expressed, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  We forget the other part of that same verse by John.  The part where the evil one lurks in the darkness to pounce out on his mission, because he, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

With that in mind we get discouraged when life is not abundantly overflowing with the supply of our needs, all things pleasing, and unthreatening.  If we witness about Christ someone may respond with negative comments, we think that is persecution.  So, we are silent and only desire the overflowing “stuff.”  Satan laughs and floods life with darkness – he won, no need to send demons.  

If life is without tension, it is not due to your weakness.  Christ in you is the power to overthrow evil.  To not witness of Christ is silence and that is of no threat to the evil one.  When we know the Bible, and its story about Jesus and the early followers (church) we know that they faced trials, in fact, persecution – we shouldn’t think that won’t happen to us (see Matt. 5:11-12, 2 Cor. 4:7-11; 2 Thess. 3:2-4).  Remember, bad does happen in this world, it is due to satan, he is evil –

BUT, we in Christ we have had Jesus pray for us, and God answers prayer, Jesus prayed, “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one”  (John 17:14-15).

 

The presence of Christ is with you,

let Him be herd of and seen in all you do,

 

Owen <><

Know your hope and enablement, read John 17:6-26 – Jesus’ prayer.

In Bad Company

We, the contemporary church folks, have become great socializers with one another.  Not much different than the many Christians over the past century who have been good at “fellowshipping with fellow saints.”  We have become good at the avoidance of those who are not the same as us, the non-followers of Christ – historically called sinners. 

What is interesting is that Jesus was known as a friend of sinners.

Jesus joined those disrespected by and shunned by the religious crowd.  But, Jesus spoke of himself as “The Son of Man [who] came eating and drinking, and you the [religious crowd] say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners'” (Luke 7:34).  Are we indeed followers of Christ?  Are we a religious crowd that only marginally embraces those we deem immoral, a. k. a. sinners?

Would it hurt our stature in the church to be seen at dinner or in the home of someone other than church friends?  Remember, it was Jesus who “came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).  Should we be seeking the lost?  We do follow His lead, right?    

Just a thought,

Owen   

Read Luke 7:36-50, 19:1-10