By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Tricia_K_Johnson]Tricia K Johnson
"Ye shall not surely die." We read that one sentence and if we know anything at all about the Bible, we know that this was the statement that the serpent made to Eve when she contemplated taking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. "Ye shall not surely die." She believed his lie and ate the fruit. But Eve did die. Spiritually, she died that day; later, she died physically. Her sin immediately separated her from her God and she found herself in desperate need of a Redeemer.
The idea of death seems ludicrous to us. We are genuinely taken by surprise when someone dies, even if they've had a terminal illness and we were told death was imminent. We always hold out a hope, to the end, that is completely unreasonable in the face of medical logic and sometimes even in the face of their symptoms. We deny it. Denial is even a stage of grief; we just can't really grasp that they are truly gone and will never come back. It's as though the very idea is just ludicrous. It usually happens to other people; it's unreasonable to us. We think, "They shall not surely die!" But, they often do die; and it's not really so mysterious.
When our son was deployed to Iraq the first time, we had to face a reality that I fought with all my might. We had to sign Power of Attorney papers to cover the affairs of our 19-year-old son because he might not come home. We had to face the daily news and hear how many Marines died that day, if any, knowing that some of them were in the same platoon as our son. The idea that my son could die was unthinkable, yet it became a very real possibility. Because my daughter was also a Marine at that time, I learned from her that if he was injured, we would get a phone call. But if he was killed, we would have Marines, in their full dress blues, at our door. One day during his deployment, I was out running errands. As I turned onto our street on my way home, I realized with a start that the SUV in front of me had a license plate that said NAVY - it was an official US Navy SUV. The Marines are a division of the Navy. I knew that the Marine Corps did not have chaplains of their own; they had Navy chaplains. My heart sank and my hands began to shake uncontrollably. As I followed them, they pulled into my closest neighbor's driveway, right beside my house. I was not encouraged because people had often mistaken that driveway for ours. I parked in my driveway as fast as I could and ran into the house. Still wearing my coat, I stood by the front window where I could clearly see the SUV. I was completely transfixed on that SUV and I felt sick. I became so nauseated that I felt like I was going to be sick. I was still shaking. For 5 full minutes, the people inside the SUV just sat there. All the windows were dark so I couldn't see them at all. While I waited and stared, I made a plan. I simply would not answer the door. If they came to my house, I would just let the doorbell ring and not answer it. That was my solution to possibly hearing that my son was dead. Denial.
As soon as the plan formed in my head, the door of the SUV slowly opened. I held my breath, afraid to see who got out, but unable to take my eyes off that SUV. Finally, a man got out wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt and went next door. No Marines were coming to my house. I collapsed at the knees and sobbed in relief. It was one of the scariest days of my life. While my relief was incredibly sweet, the reality was also brought right to my face. My son could surely die. It was no longer unthinkable; it was reality. I was fearfully startled. I stepped up my already frequent prayers for him.
Country Music artist, Tim McGraw, sings a song called "Live Like You are Dying." The song depicts a man who, in his early 40's, is diagnosed with a serious illness. His response is to do all the things he had been putting off till he was older. The song shows how time is a gift; that the diagnosis itself was a gift because it helped him see how short and fragile life really is. It helped him to embrace life and do things instead of putting them off. As Christians, we know how fragile life is. The Bible teaches us that "It is appointed unto man once to die" (Hebrews 9:27). It teaches us that there is a "time to be born and a time to die" (Ecclesiastes 3:2) Death is real; death is inevitable and death will come to everyone.
Satan's lie, "Ye shall not surely die" is just that - a lie. It's so plausible and so much more inviting than the reality-based alternative, that we quickly embrace the idea that we have all the time in the world. We shall not surely die! The reality is, we shall all surely die. It's really not ludicrous at all.
Because of recent flooding in our part of MN, a portion of a road over a culvert recently washed out. A driver came upon this and discovered a 20 foot portion of the road missing with 15 feet of flood waters beneath it. He called 911 and was told that they could not get there for a period of time. The man left, going on his way, leaving no warning of the missing road. Another man was driving along the road at 55 mph and didn't see the missing portion of the road until it was too late. Because of the way the road dipped, it was nearly impossible to see until you were right upon it. The man's truck went right into the pit at 55 mph and he was killed. Soon, another car did the same thing, but the travelers survived. They helped discover the man under the water because they realized that their vehicle was sitting on top of another one. It was quite a tragedy. My husband and I drove out to see the scene and it was very traumatic and unnerving. I didn't like being out there and wanted to leave. Perhaps the man who drove away leaving no warning thought, "Surely no one will die." Perhaps the man in the truck survived the impact only to drown, thinking, "I surely won't die." He did die.
This is not a pleasant topic and I know many Christians who avoid it altogether. But, as Christians, we don't have to fear death. While we may feel, and rightly so, that we don't want to die and leave loved ones behind, our eternity is sealed and there is no personal fear for ourselves. A world without Christ - our neighbors - have no such confidence. The best they can do is hope with a worldly hope that they are "good enough" to get into Heaven. We have the opportunity to show them, through our lives, and our words, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Send out the signal! It's urgent! The song says, "Live like you are dying." Not bad advice. As Christians we can say, "Live like they are dying," because they are. http://tuesdaytheology.blogspot.com/
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Live-Like-They-Are-Dying&id=6690086] Live Like They Are Dying
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