A Life Worth Keeping

TITLE: A Life Worth Keeping
DATE:  September 21. 2019
TEXT: John 12: 25 - - ESV- 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
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Everybody invests their life in something.

Which leads me to ask, “Isn’t it better when people  invest it in something worthwhile?’

One of the saddest things in life is to watch someone dedicate himself to that which is trivial, inconsequential and unimportant.

Now let me be clear, I can’t vouch for the following story. All I can say is I am presenting it as it was told to me. During World War II, the Nazis were trying to crush the resistance movement in Italy. Hastily, they rounded up anyone who seemed suspicious, including some who had been totally uninvolved.

When the officer in charge was unable to separate the guilty from the innocent, he ordered the entire group to be executed.

On the day of execution, one man totally lost  his composure and began to plead:  "I am innocent; I didn't do anything." A resistance leader turned to him, looked him in the eye and spat out the words  "You didn't do anything? I don't understand How is it that you could do nothing?. Our life was being destroyed. Minds were being warped; institutions were being subverted. How could you not do anything? “

The resistance fighter concluded: “If those things weren’t enough to make you do something, then you deserve to be punished."

2,000 years ago, the Heavenly Father took a stand against sin, Satan and death. These invaders had destroyed the perfect way of life which He had created for our ancestors to work, play, praise and glorify

What is worse, they were incapable of throwing off the oppressive yoke of slavery. To rectify our fallen estate, the Lord  sent His Son into this world. That was accomplished with the birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For thirty-three years, Jesus resisted every sin, temptation and terror they could throw at Him.

Jesus invested His life in us, so that we might have new lives. He gave His all, so we might have all.

Now, as we have been saved by the work of the Christ, the Father asks us, in gratitude, to lose our lives in Jesus. He wants those who have seen, and who believe, in the Lamb of God, to invest themselves in giving thanks to Him.

Every day He asks us to become part of Christ’s resistance movement who are committed to the struggle against humankind’s enemies. So, when Jesus says to me, “Do you feel you have lost your life?”, I can proudly reply, “No Lord, not lost, but given to You, Who first gave to me.”

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, there is so much in life that is meaningless. Grant me the wisdom to find the one thing that is needful, the one thing which shall never be taken way. Give my days glorious purpose in serving You. In Your Name I ask it. Amen.
 
The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html