I was reading yesterday about Charles Spurgeon, a famous preacher in England in the 1800s, called the Prince of Preachers, during the Cholera outbreak of 1854. Where he lived and preached, some parts of the city had 12.8% mortality rates, and yet he continued preaching, visiting the sick, and sharing the Gospel. From the Pulpit, concerning his own safety, here is what he said: “Who is the man that does not fear to die? I will tell you. The man that is a believer. Fear to die! Thank God, I do not. The cholera may come again next summer—I pray God it may not; but if it does, it matters not to me: I will toil and visit the sick by night and by day, until I drop; and if it takes me, sudden death is sudden glory.” How often do we live like this? Do we consider our own lives to be more important than others? Isn't that a contradiction of Jesus' own words? And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”(Luke 9:23-27)
At times, we're too concerned with matters of the flesh. We forget that Jesus is building in us something that will never die, and through us by His Spirit, He's building a Kingdom that will never end. We get too concerned with the things of this world, that we forget about the eternity to come! It is my prayer, and I hope you'll join me in it, that we do not need to wait for the day of His return, but seek to set aside our flesh, our desires, and live sacrificially, loving God and all others as God pours His love for us, no longer being concerned with our health or safety, but to consider eternity, and not our own eternity, but those who live with us, work with us, are our neighbors, family, and whomever else the Lord puts in our path. Our sin disqualifies us from God, and is more deadly than any pandemic! Because of it, we're destined by default to eternity apart from God, where there is no rest. But Praise be to God, that He did not leave us this way! He sent His son, that we may be free from the burden of sin and shame, that we now have an eternal destination. If we live, may we live for Christ, but in dying, may it be so that His Kingdom and His name would be made great! Let us, in humility and gentleness submit ourselves to God, that we may see His Kingdom come, and His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Ephesians 2:11-22
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
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