Monday, March 15, 2010

death and life

What will we die for?  What will we live for?  Surely these are two of the "ultimate questions" that each of us addresses.  We give our all in living and dying to gain or protect what we hold most dear.  Today young Americans are serving on the far side of the world geographically and culturally in our armed forces.  They are putting their lives on the line, willing to die, to safeguard our way of life and to protect each other.  Our willingness to die for something shows how greatly we value it.  Having faced death, many of these young veterans come back to their homes to find something to live for.  Sometimes they struggle because, having laid their lives on the line on a continual basis for an extended period they cannot find something to live for that matches up with that battlefield intensity.  Death and life were also the measures that Jesus used to show the object of His love.  This stood out in sharp relief this morning as I read from Romans, Chapter 4.  Verse 25 says: He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.  I was amazed and moved to consider that Jesus gave His all in death because of my sin...dying in my place on the cross and then conquering death and clearing the path to Heaven for me with resurrected life.  Truly we are of great value to Jesus as He demonstrated through the ultimate measures of His death and His life.  Such love calls for a response: and now we can love Him in life and death, as well.
 
blessings,
Rob Smith

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