"... set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-2)
There is flesh- a physical body, a mind- our soul/personality, and a spirit. The mind is a tunnel that links the physical to the spiritual. The mind is a gate and has the will to shut the gate on the spiritual. I struggle with focusing too much on the physical world- money, items, television and the list goes on. As I focus and become addicted emotionally to the physical world, I close the gate on the the spiritual world where God is.
When I open the gate to the spiritual, my life becomes free not controlled by man and the physical world. The spirit inside of me becomes strong and rejoices in the Lord.
Death will come upon us all, but if we believe in God, with our faith in Christ, only our flesh passes and our spirit is eternal. How fragile is life and any moment our breath could be our last. How important for us who are dead to become alive right now.
2 comments:
In the spiritually alive person, there is body, soul, and spirit. In those born of this world without being born again (see John ch. 3), there is only body and soul. The spirit is dead because of the curse of sin.
All those who are born in this world are automatically born with a dead spirit that is dead in trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1)
At physical death, the body separates from the soul and since there is no living spirit, the person will be judged and assigned to a second death (the lake of fire; see Rev. 20:11-15)
Those who are born of the Spirit of God through repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ has the Spirit of God coming to live inside him/her and his/her spirit is made alive by the Spirit of God because sin has be taken away by the applied blood of Christ through faith.
Here is a cool saying:
BORN ONCE, DIE TWICE
BORN TWICE, DIE ONCE
I can recall before I made my decision to follow Christ the rest of my life, I was indecisive and wonder what would happen to me and my own identity if I did. I felt at the time there would be too much 'pleasures' of this world to give up and it would be so very difficult to follow Christ all the time, because I didn't want Him to know I probably would still desire and attempt to fulfill those 'pleasures' . Giving up my life to worship and love God seemed like the wrong thing to do because of the satisfaction I had been receiving from this world.
I’ve also had many thoughts about whether there could be some kind of existence for me after my death. I heard about heaven, hell, and no existence at all. I didn’t believe in the nonexistence after death idea because I felt there was a supreme being that created the universe and everything in it, including me. Was heaven and hell for real? If so, I told myself that heaven was the place I wanted to spend my time. As for hell, I pictured it as the most rotten place and feeling you can ever experience on earth and even worst. Ok, if I wouldn’t want to spend my life that way on earth, why would I want to go to hell then? The question now was to find the way to get into heaven.
Reviewing my life then, I discovered that I was centered on me, me, and me. It was my world to make for my satisfaction. My thoughts were of this world and rooted to only satisfy myself. Eventually, I realized my error when the worldly satisfaction began to lack the luster it once had and my meager attempts to do good all the time failed and made me question whether I can still enter heaven.
However, someone had shared with me that once I acknowledge Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, God would look at me and accept me as perfect even if I still didn’t think so. God would also automatically accept me in heaven despite what I’ve done in the past, present, and will be doing in the future because by accepting Jesus Christ (He is perfect in God’s view), I would look perfect too. It was crystal clear that God understood my weakness and knows as long as I have my physical body, I am going to still have the desire for worldly ‘pleasures’ or sins (physical ones and thoughts)until the day I die on earth. God’s kingdom is sinless, and with Christ making me perfect and sinless too, I get my free ticket into heaven. This made it so compelling to accept Jesus Christ.
Since I have accepted Jesus Christ, the ‘gate’ as mentioned by Derrick has been opened. I can consciously or unconsciously open or close the ‘gate’ anytime because I am now spiritually alive. I know that when I am focused on Jesus, that gets me into thinking more about God’s kingdom and not of this world. It is not ‘brainwashing’. It is the spiritual awareness of God that I have tapped into by my simple acceptance of Christ. From a physical sense, I am of this world just like anybody else (believer or non-believer of Christ) and can continue to think of this world. However, as a believer it automatically allows me to enter into God’s kingdom to explore the spirit of God and discover things that are so amazing of Him. More of God and less of me reveals the love God has for not only me but the people he has created.
When I experienced God/Christ for awhile, all those things I was concerned or worried about losing, began to slowly fade away. Oh yes, those 'pleasures' continue to knock my door and sometimes I just can't help myself so I’d put out the welcome mat. God knows I’m human and knowing God/Jesus loves me no matter what, just increases my faith to believe in Him. God is alive and real.
Some thoughts I have had before and now have been answered –
What do I have to lose if I accept Christ just to enter heaven?
Would just doing good things or wishful thinking get me into heaven?
What will happen to me after my life on earth?
What’s my purpose or reason for my life?
Is there more to lose or gain when I accept Christ? How does my life change?
What makes me really happy?
Is it difficult to follow Jesus?
Warren
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