I was blessed today to read an interview by Todd Bolen. You can see the whole interview at: http://rawchristianity.wordpress.com/ Todd led me on a trip through the Holy Land…of which I’ll always be grateful. Here’s the section of his interview which I found moving:

I have not suffered very much. I know a little bit of how the Lord uses suffering to bring maturity, and I tell others this. But I don’t want to suffer. The little suffering that I have had has taught me the need to hold more loosely things that are not eternal. It has taught me that God can always be trusted. It has taught me that faith is a muscle, and if not exercised, it atrophies. Suffering has helped me to long to be in the presence of Jesus, where he will wipe away every tear. Suffering sobers. Those who are drunk on life are less useful for service in the church.

Most people think of death as an ending. Instead, Scripture describes death as a PENALTY. Every human being is immortal. C.S. Lewis wrote, “You have never met a mere mortal.” We are all immortal, but not eternal. This gets a little deep but people can’t be thought of eternal because we have a beginning. God is truly the only eternal being because He has no beginning…his past goes back as far as his future goes forward.

Adam and Eve, along with their children, would have lived free of the penalty of death if they didn’t sin. They would have continued in the garden with healthy bodies forever. Sin was already in existence, being committed by Satan and a third of the angels. But when sin interacted with humankind the PENALTY was death. We are all still immortal, but death brings a breakdown of our bodies and a premature end to our life on earth and a beginning to an existence elsewhere.

As children of Adam we still are subject to death. Those who are children of God, are freed from the penalty of death, our bodies are raised one day with Jesus. Those without Christ still bear the penalty of death and continue in their immortality separated from all that is good. We all desire that those people will be annihilated one day, but Scripture teaches us it is just for their existence to continue.

No one has ever been able to shake this penalty (except Enoch and Elijah). Death is known as the last enemy. Alexandar the Great conquered every enemy on the planet, but in his early 30’s he was conquered by death. Osama bin Laden cannot hide from death. It is an enemy which wins every time. The wheel grinds slowly for some, but it grinds nonetheless. The miracle through Christ is that he conquered death. It took him on the cross, but He conquered it by rising from the dead. The death of death in the life of Christ. Those who believe in Him will not continue perishing but will follow Him and have everlasting life!

“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty,
suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it.”
“Well, why don’t you ask Him?”
“Because I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.”
- Anonymous