"In His grace there is life; weeping may be for the night, but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5......"I had to choose fear - or completely trust Him. One cannot exist if the other is true." A woman named Sarah, in the midst of a terminal illness that would take her life.
Someone once said something to effect that it is the believers call to demonstrate His resurrection life in a world where death gets all the attention. The beautiful lady named Sarah, lived a life that demonstrated that even in the midst of a diseases that would eventually take her physical life, but could never touch her life in Christ. To a watching world, it was the disease that first got their attention. To Sarah, and to those who were really looking on, it was His life within her that showed forth in ever greater ways. Her physical life was fading away. Her life in Him glowed ever brighter. It could not, would not, ever fade away.
How about you and me? Someone said that the Church, which is us, is to be a "colony of heaven in the country of death." This is a fallen world, and all of our best efforts, even as believers, is not going to change that. Only His return can. In the meantime, we are to occupy. Not in a passive, accepting way, but in an active, shining witness of the resurrection life found only in Him. A life that death cannot extinguish, even if all the rage of hell is unleashed against it. We can occupy here, as more than conquerors, because we live totally occupied with Him, the Author of Life. His Life courses through us no matter what is happening around us, or to us. Yet to live that life demands a choice, a decision; just as it did for Sarah. We either choose to live as captives of fear, or as the children of victory, whose trust is in Him. The first only increases the power of death. But fear cannot exist when we are truly trusting Him. It's there we learn the truth that "perfect love casts out all fear."
Death is all around us. We know this. What is at work within us? Our senses and lives will be assaulted by this power, and the only counter we have is His Life showing forth in us as we trust Him in all of it. Ann Voskamp, a personal friend of Sarah, wrote, "Fear is banished in this present moment when the presence of I AM fills it." Where I AM is, there can only be life. All the power of death in every form it takes, is rendered powerless in His presence. This is to be our witness. Is it our witness?
Today, tomorrow, next week, until He comes for us or we go home to Him, death in some form will come calling. What do we choose in response to it? When we choose to trust Him, we choose life. God is on the throne....breathe in, breathe out. Christ is risen....breathe in, breathe out. He lives, and because of this, we not only can face tomorrow, we overcome it....in Him. So breath in, breathe out.
Blessings,
Pastor O
Pastor O
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