Sun tan . . .

This is part of a song I wrote years ago, both music and lyrics. It has yet to be completed, since I only have one ‘stanza’.

Live everyday,
like it may be your last
You can mold the future,
but you can’t change your past
Your yesterdays,
they are all gone,
but tomorrow,
is yet to come

(Chorus)
The grave is not the end
It’s just a doorway,
to the other side
The grave is not the end
It’s just a doorway,
to Christ

This song is a reflection of how I have had to grapple with my own personal 'mortality' and the eventual, sudden exchange of all that I have known with something, well, something that I have never known. Death. I believe part of the walk of a Christian, or at least for this Christian, is the eventual replacement of fear and doubt of the unknown, with Faith and Trust in the One to be known. Notice I did not use the term religion. We are talking about the person of Christ. It takes time to put complete trust in a God whom cannot be seen, heard or touched - yet. For it is we that must learn His ways, not the other way around. It is as if we have been suddenly 'blinded' and 'crippled' by faith (like the Apostle Paul was on the road to Damascus, struck from his horse) and then we must ‘un-learn’ the way we used to think and process spiritual information and then ‘re-learn’ things from God’s perspective – re-learn God’s ways, ways which were lost as a result of the ‘fall of Man’ in the Garden. Isaiah says it so eloquently:

Isaiah 55:6-9
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way and
the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD,
and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

His ways are higher than our natural ways and His thoughts are higher than our natural thoughts. We who have come to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, and claim to be “born-again”, as Jesus put it, are still living and breathing, weak and human full of faults – just as susceptible to fear and doubt as the next non-believer. There are now many differences in the two, one of which is that we have made a covenant with the One Who Himself has conquered death, hell and the grave through the Resurrection and have now by faith opened a doorway to Christ – and another is that we are now in a different ‘position’ to receive the Son.

An example of this would be lying out to get a sun tan. You can lay out all day long under the shade of the board walk and tell all of your friends that you ‘laid out all day’ – you know what they are going to say? Where’s the tan man? You were not in the right ‘position’ to receive the sun’s rays! You wasted your whole day, as far as getting a sun tan goes, thinking you were getting something which you were in fact not getting.

I don’t want anyone to be deceived and miss all that God has for them in this life and yet so many go about their day putting off the inevitable. No, you cannot change your past, but you can mold your future. You just have to make up your mind and follow Christ and the two of you can mold your future - but you must let go and let Him take of your past. Forgiveness is one of His many specialties. It will probably not be easy, but then, anything lasting usually does have a price tag that comes with it. Especially something that is this ever-lasting.

Read in the Book of John, chapter 10 about the Good Shepherd who is willing to put himself in danger to protect the flock.
The Good Shepherd will also put the 99 other sheep on hold to go and look for that one straying sheep in order to bring it back into the fold.
Matthew 18:12-13
12 "What do you think?
If a man owns a hundred sheep,
and one of them wanders away,
will he not leave the ninety-nine
on the hills and go to look for
the one that wandered off?
13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth,
he is happier about that one sheep than
about the ninety-nine
that did not wander off.

You want to make God and all of heaven happy? You want to 'turn-off' the fear of death and the grave? Turn to Christ Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and all of heaven and it's inhabitants will rejoice and God's peace will be yours abundantly.

Good weekend to you and yours. George