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The Twins That Keep People Open to The Gospel

 


 Athiests and those resistant to the Gospel of Christ have an easier time keeping their walls up when all is going well, when their health is good and death is not on their mind. Then the sobering twins hit, you are in hospital and your strength is sapped, or someone your age, even someone very young dies, and you come to realize that you are not promised tomorrow. Illness and Death help lend perspective, and urge people to come to repentance, and believe the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is a moment when someone is facing a debilitating disease, or death has struck in their life, to seek the only One who cured the sick, "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people," (Matthew 4:23) and defeated death, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:55-57). 

We tend to view death as punishment for sin, that our ancestors Adam and Eve brought death into the world (Genesis 3) by their disobedience to God. While this is true, it is also a gift. With Our Lord Jesus having died for our sins and tasted death for everyone, " What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9), it is a sobering aspect of this life to wake people up to the realization that at any moment as the song goes, "The Good Lord Can take you away!" (Dream On, Aerosmith). Illness serves a similar function, it can strip our delusions that we are in control and will keep having life the way we expect, it in point of fact proves God is in control, not that he is visiting the pestilence upon you (though in some cases that is true), but rather it being the consequence of living in a fallen world effects us to realize we need God, as the apostle said who could not be healed, "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-11). 

The reality is we are not getting younger. That your peak physical state and hard training to be toned will at some point not work, and you will be faced with the realization that you are taking your steps towards the tomb. The question you must ask yourself is what lies on the other side of that tomb? Are you willing to risk hell fire, and an eternity of torment? Will you still spurn a loving God who died on a cross for all your sins so that you can be reconciled to Him and be in heaven? And what of a disease that has taken away the life you expected to live? How will you cope if what you had planned for your days is stripped away and you must now follow Plan B? That is a moment to rely on Jesus, to trust in The Holy Trinity, and open your heart to what The Lord can do in that weakness.  Joni Eareckson Tada became paralyzed, and in that chair she has reached so many for Christ, not because its merely a pulpit but because God The Trinity has moved her heart, and given her strength to carry on, she by Grace of the Holy Spirit has been able to keep a positive attitude and loving disposition in the wake of losing her ability to walk.

I do not mean to belittle pain nor turn the shock of death into some collect souls game. My point is that these two sobering aspects of life open people to Christ. It is when The Lord of Life and The Healer (Jehovah Rapha: The Lord That Heals) can step in. While we are saints need to be ready to sow, do not demean the process of loss, people do not need be treated as Pokemon to be collected for heaven. But at same time, do not neglect the opportunity to share the gospel when it may bear the most fruit and they can find a partner in Christ to save them in every way. The balance is treat people with humanity while being ready to share about eternity. Amen.

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