Romans Chapter 14 cont'd
For we ourselves aren't the central focus of our lives or our deaths, loving and worshiping the Lord is. So if we're alive, Jesus is our reference point. And if we die, we’ll be face to face with our reference point! We are owned and wanted by him, "dead or alive!" It was for this very goal that Christ died and rose again, that he might rightfully exercise his claim of lordship over both the dead and the living.
Comments:
In the midst of his essay in chapter 14 on surmounting unrighteous judgmentalism in our lives, the apostle holds out a vital key for our success. If he continues to wait to return, you and I are going to die! And...our deaths aren't that far away. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenged us to judge with a righteous judgment and avoid the unrighteous sort. The excellent Bible teacher, Beth Moore, has recently said, "Perspective is everything." (I'm sure many others have said it before her.) Periodically contemplating our swiftly approaching death is one of the spiritual disciplines held out to us through the centuries by the Doctors of the Church.
Our consciousness of how we will soon be face to face with Jesus is an excellent way to maintain the proper perspective on earthly life and relationships and to guard us from petty and unrighteous judgments. We seriously don't have time or energy to waste on self-justification, jealousy, envy or on being cantankerous, cranky and contentious. Each one of us will give an account to God (and very soon at that!) regarding how much of his life and love we learned to allow into our hearts and be expressed through our thoughts, words and deeds. May Christ grant us great mercy and wisdom in this focused journey into his light and into his arms. Any and all deception we suffered with and held will peel off of us when he looks into our eyes. May we seek to gaze into his eyes, even now, and shed as many of those lies as we possibly can, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, before that Day.
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