"Lead me to the Cross"

So I've seen a lot of death happen within the past year and a half. More than I would have liked too.


Cole Ellis, Hannah Ridling, Virginia Jacks, Mrs. Tricia, and Mr. Hopson. 


I personally only knew Virginia and Tricia, but from what I hear, the other three were amazing people.  Death has been making me think a lot about how short life can be. It isn't really even our life.  We don't know when our last day could be: it could be tomorrow, it could be next year, it could be that we die of old age. None of us really know.


Death also makes me think about what I'm doing with my life. If I'm not garunteed tomorrow, then shouldn't I live today as if it was my last? Yes. But how do I do that?


Well, one way is I can give my life away to others. It's not really mine anyway, not truly. We don't have control over when we come into this world or when we leave it. We should devote ourselves to serving and blessing others (which isn't easy, of course.)  This also makes me think about what my mind is set on right now. Is it set on things of the flesh or things of the Spirit?  We should hunger for holiness. It must be an active pursuit. 1 Timothy 4:7 says, "Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly." We are called by Christ to be godly.  There are two definitions of godly. One is this: "conforming to the laws and wishes of God; devout; pious."  This is a daily struggle a lot of Christians have. Can people look at our lives and KNOW that there is something different about us? Can they see that we have something they don't have? Are we lifting His name on high or are we dragging it through the mud?


We are called to hate our sin. "We should hate what put our Savior on the cross!" -Adam Coppock.  We should remember that every little sin we do, whether it's gossip, slander, lying, stealing, whatever...we should remember that it was THAT sin that sent Christ to the cross to die. How convicting!


We shouldn't fear death. If we are believers in Christ, then we should know that for us, it can only get BETTER.  When we die, we go to heaven and our bodies are perfected. We shouldn't fear death and we should long for heaven. After all, that should be where our treasures are stored up anyway, right?


Heaven=Jesus for an Eternity. Sounds pretty awesome to me!