WHICH DO WE GIVE.."LIFE OR DEATH"?
One of the most difficult things for me to understand is the human response to someone who would dare to love them so completely without any commitment to repay that love given?
Although I am bothered by it I am rarely surprised by the response many give to someone to accept that kind of love. To accept the love of that caliber in the first place means that your heart is touched by it, and it opens the possibility of our own love commitment to be made to someone else. We must first be able to understand God's perfect love before we can truly accept it because by doing so we now open ourselves to giving that same perfected love to others. I can tell you that on the surface alone that is very scary. The deeper we go with it the more challenging it becomes until at some point it is all-consuming. When we understand that we then also know that "come follow me" has a final goal of us giving our lives in return for the love that God gave us.
Apart from reading scripture we instinctively know that this means giving up our lives here for something that we believe in more than what we can see and feel (or sense) around us. In order to do that there must be a transformation of who we think we are into a new person who can withstand that kind of life and ( might I say it ) death to this world. How do we respond to this love when we can fully comprehend what it means? Do we seek LIFE, or DEATH in response to love? According to what Jesus has told and shown us there is a bit of both involved. We, first of all, have to believe enough to conquer the fear of death as an unknown thing, and then we must be willing to be resurrected into a new life where we are no longer in charge but become ruled and used by the Spirit of God to do His will and bidding. We actually no longer live here but it is Christ's Spirit that is alive within us and in charge of all things.
Now, what is this in terms that we can understand it? You are right if it sounds like spiritual possession by God. It is the same spiritual things that happen in a demon possession except we are now filled with God and not self or the deceit of this world. That you see is why the world hates us so much as Christians because the world can no longer gain possession of us when we are filled with God. These are the things that God continues to tell us all along and yet we are too busy with distractions to pay attention. That is why we have the choice of two masters or two different possessions. God can possess everyone when they accept Him but Satan is limited in his ability to possess people that is why everyone is not possessed by him. He is limited and cannot create so he has to pick and choose where he strikes. Just as Jesus has taught us we must die and be buried to this world before we can begin to grow and blossom. Both death and life are needed to fulfill the promise that God has given to us. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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