“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy I cannot find in my heart, and it keeps the fire burning to melt this heart of stone… keeps me glad to have been caught in the reckless raging furry that they call the ‘love of God. (Rich Mullins ‘The Love of God’)”
“I will gladly lay down my sword for the joy of seeing your country. (Reepicheep ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ movie)”
“…To die is gain. (Paul Phil 1:21)”
The quotes are numerous. The thoughts are beautiful, the ideas oddly, and providentially similar to one another. Christian theological writings are replete with these themes of the mercy of God and the joy of the believer in going ‘home’.
Most would call this a morbid obsession with death, but as believers we call it the beginning. I read on Facebook yesterday, “Death is the best thing that can happen to a Christian.” Not only do I wholeheartedly agree but also I often catch myself daydreaming of what it will be like to die. Not so much the manner in which it will happen, but what it will feel like and what my soul, that living part of me, will be feeling.
However, I have a fear in all of our looking’s to the end we will overpass, forget, or simply step out of the present. Don’t get me wrong; I’m right beside Moses looking to the reward because the reward surpasses all the treasures of America (Heb. 11:23-28). But we cannot, must not, nor ever should forget the first half of Philippians 1:21, “To live is Christ…”
To live-to take breath, to see creation, to feel emotion, to love, to read, to write, to speak-is Christ! Believer you are to be being made into the image of Jesus, therefore for you to live it is Christ. Every moment of every day of all of your gifted undeserved life is to be as Christ A.K.A to the glory of God. For Jesus is, “the radiance of the glory of God… (Heb 1:3)” Thus to live as Christ is to live as the glory of God.
It is a high calling (Ehp 4:1) and as such demands from God (it’s not what he wants from your life, he demands it) your entirety. It demands your thoughts to be made new. It demands your intentions to change completely. It demands your movie choices to change. It demands your heart to love God-honoring things rather than the mire.
“To live is Christ to die is gain.”
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