The Axe To The Roots |
| What is Death We build tombs, monuments and memorials to comemorate lives as if they are gone and all we have left are the memories. Does the person who has tasted death still exist? If you answered, "yes," then why do we act as if they are gone? We seemingly exalt death as if it is a "grim reaper" who steals lives daily. What a cruel and unjust world. I can't help but feel death is hiding a great truth and blinding us from our peace and freedom. Could God be the power who gives us life and could that life-giving energy ever be destroyed? These are hard, puzzling questions to consider in the midst of what our eyes have sadly shown us. Can we explore death's veil and test its' bold statement and find error? Do you want to explore death or have you decided it is what it is? Death is a subject many of us do not wish to talk about. We just try and forget about it while believing one day we will have to face it. Most of us hope that day will not come anytime soon. Staying back in our minds it becomes a nagging fear for most people. Is death something to be feared? Paul said, "Oh, death, where is your sting?" Jesus' life was a triumph over death. He proved by his resurrection that death does not matter or change who we are. He proved we are eternal. Jesus couldn't really be killed. He lives on. We shall live on. Do we really understand death, as Jesus knew it? Is our definition of death the same as his? Why do we live now hoping for tomorrow to be better? It appears to me that we only have today, because the future is not here right now and yesterday is gone! Now, some want to live in the past, but that is an illusion. The past can only exist in the mind's memory. What if we could live right now as Jesus lived? I think we have come to believe it cannot be done. He lived in power and in control, overcoming all that this world could throw at him, right now. Most of us, however, want to wait until after we physically die, thinking death to be a quick fix. Is it? I am not sure, but I do know Jesus walked in the "right now." Did he teach to wait until after death to have peace? Did he ask us to put off today for tomorrow? Was he triumphant in death or resurrection? Was death important or life? Was not his life triumphant and incredible before his death? Could death triumph over Jesus? Did death direct and dictate Jesus' life? Question Fourteen: Did Jesus believe in death? Is death real? Question Fifteen: The scriptures indicate that no man could take Jesus' life. In fact, Matthew tells us the people tried to stone Jesus and throw him over a cliff and he walked right through them! If death is an absolute, why couldn't the people kill him until he laid his life down to be taken? (Luke 4:28-30; I John 3:16) Question Sixteen: If we truly understand death, then why did Jesus say the little girl and Lazarus, both of whom he resurrected, were not dead but only sleeping? By Jesus' definition of sleeping, what must one awake to? (Matt. 9:18-26; Mark 5:35-43; John 11:11-15) Question Seventeen: When a man who wanted to follow Jesus asked if he could first go home and bury his father, what did Jesus mean by telling him, "let the dead bury the dead?" (Matt. 8:22; Luke 9:60) Question Eighteen: Some teach we are not to speak to the dead on the other side of the grave, so why did Jesus speak to Moses and Elijah at the mount of transfiguration? (Matt. 17:3; Mark 9:4) Question Nineteen: If Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah, why did Saul get into trouble by speaking to Samuel through a medium? (I Sam. 28:11-15) Question Twenty: What did Jesus mean when he quoted scripture saying, "God is not the God of the dead but of the living?" (Matt. 22:29-32) Question Twenty One: Many denominations and doctrines of men deny the existence of ghosts as being possible. Why is this so, when clearly the disciples believed in their existence when they mistook Jesus for a ghost when he came walking on the water? What about the appearing of Samuel's spirit or ghost to Saul? (Matt. 14:25-26; Mark 6:49) 4 |
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