Dead Or Alive

Why do people bother saving lives?

Why save someone from committing suicide by jumping off a building or stabbing with knives?

Why save someone from a raging fire or flood or the bitter cold?

Why someone young or old?

What is more important to them, the finite or the infinite?

Do people not see that whether dead or alive we are the Lord's and should unite not fight?

Is to be in Christ not what it means to be truly saved from the ultimate death of Hell?!

Why not pick up your cross, a true loving sacrifice, and fight the good fight to truly save those around you from perishing under this world's spell?!  (Matthew 16:24)(Luke 9:23) (1 Timothy 6:12)

Without God's love I am dead inside already. (Ephesians 2:1)

You cannot save me with a fire hose or by providing something warm to eat like spaghetti. 

Saving others for Christ is the real emergency! 

Saving from the fire with haste, urgency mixed with rational fear and mercy, hating the stained clothing of the corrupted flesh, revealing the King's saving grace and majesty! (Jude 1:23-24)

My heart, my heart, to beat, but to not live.

My heart, my heart, disregarded, laid to waste, rejected, always striving for this unsatisfied world, taking more than they give.  

This world loves to pretend that it is my savior, but I already have a savior.

He laid down his life for me so that we may live; in his love, he does not compromise or waver!

What, oh world, without him are you really saving?

Just an empty shell tossed to and fro by the waves of the world and the riptide currents taking. (Ephesians 4:14) (James 1:6)

This cruel world that pretends to love.

This cruel world that pretends to be as gentle as a dove.

I see your fangs!

I see the truth! Wolf in sheep's clothing! The lies on which the world hangs!

How sinister is that world, wolves never satisfied with their insatiable appetite, lying with a smile,

they do not know that their guests are devoured and laid waste in the realm of the dead all the while. (Proverbs 9:18)

Satan, you false fallen angel of light, the little g god of this world and age, blinding the eyes of those around to the glorious gift of the gospel of God's son, that no one should boast, alone! (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) (2 Corinthians 4:4) (Ephesians 2:8-9)

His one and only truth, name alone, salvation saves, and reigns from high on the throne! (Acts 4:12) (Ephesians 1:20-21)

Saved by grace through faith alone.

Still faith must have works or it is dead; these works come from being rooted and abiding in his love, bearing righteous fruit from the Holy Spirit where we are forever safe, loved, and known! (James 2:26) (Proverbs 12:2) (Colossians 2:6-7) (Galatians 5:22-23) (Proverbs 18:10) (John 15:4-5) (John 15:7) (Isaiah 40:8) (John 14:6)

Working out your own salvation first, not someone else's, (Phillipians 2:12)

with fear and trembling, lest you be a hypocrite with the log in your own eye, nice person on the outside, but thorns that ensnare or entice like a rose's. (Matthew 7:5)

Don't let your guard down and get up in the enemy's hidden fowler snare, 

doesn't seem that bad until a trap snaps shut over the once innocent dove unaware. (Psalm 91:3)

Called to be as innocent as the dove, yet as wise and cunning as the serpent, not diabolically.

Not straying to the left or to the right, a mere form of godliness, your own self-portrait forming concurrently. (Proverbs 4:27) 

You are the clay and he is the potter.

Who are you to think more highly or lowly of yourself, left or right of the Creator? (Isaiah 45:9) (Romans 9:20)

His ways are always higher, his plans behind the scenes; he works everything together for good.

The master of the universe, master architect, painter, and sculptor, working in the details masterfully, everything to be as it should.

Someone in a war or running a race is not called to be distracted by the deadly enticing things of this world. (2 Timothy 2:4)

While the devil steals, kills, and destroys, God wants you to have life and life abundantly, his truth and masterpiece finally unfurled.

Heaven is like a seed that is planted in good soil every day.

But while everyone is sleeping, the enemy can be allowed to uproot, cause delay, or take away. (Matthew 13:34)

The seed planted in the heart must be watered, examined, and guarded as a precious treasure. (Matthew 13:44) (Proverbs 4:23)

Until the roots grow deep unseen, Heaven is raised up in full bloom, ready to be harvested, reaping what is sown exceedingly abundantly and joyfully without measure. (Galatians 6:7)

Selling and getting rid of everything else for the one precious pearl by the precious blood sanctified, (Matthew 13:46) (Hebrews 10:10)

Jesus gave his life for you, dear one, as the wheat seed to bear fruit, be harvested, and find new true everlasting life in him in new clean garments of righteousness in him alone, Christ, humbled, and thus glorified. (John 12:24) (Galatians 3:27) (Matthew 22:1-14) (Phillipians 2:5-11)

Therefore, I call heaven and earth as witnesses.

There is set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose. No more excuses. (Deuteronomy 30:19) (Romans 1:20) (Romans 2:1)