It Isn't a Riddle, Not Really

We didn't get the rain they predicted and I didn't wash my car but that's okay. I don't want to obsess over it and it still looks good anyway. The bulldozers have been quiet for about the past week so I haven't had any of that dust and dirt coming down, settling on my car. I don't know how good I'm going to be about washing my car when the season changes and it turns cold outside. I will do my best to keep it up. I really enjoy driving around a clean car. Now if I could just remember to vacuum it out once in awhile.

Michael got home Saturday late afternoon and has been unwinding from his trip. He really enjoyed his reunion and all his buddies signed his USS Brown T-shirt. He has plans to mount the shirt and frame it for his room. I was amazed at how good some of the signatures looked. Some of them were quite artistic and just about all of them were readable. A couple signed with a definite flair to their names.

I started my 5th scarf yesterday and am looking forward to getting more yarn. I'm down to doing a scarf with several colors of yarn, just trying to use up the partial skeins I have. After this scarf I will try knitting hotpads with my leftover yarn. You can't just throw that yarn away (or at least I can't) but at the same time, it's not enough yarn to really knit anything either.

My granddaughter came to my church yesterday. That was a very nice surprise. And of course I've had to tell everyone who she is and all. She said she's been wanting to go to church again for quite some time but was always scheduled to work. She still works on Sundays but she doesn't have to go in until 3:00pm and she and I are both hoping she'll be able to keep her new schedule so she'll be able to go with me every Sunday. That would be sooooo cool!

I think my repotted cacti are going to do okay. It's been over a week so I would think if they're not going to make it, it would be evident by this time. The front entry way looks much nicer than it did.

I'm late for my blog and I've run out of things to chat about so I think I'll just go right into my blog for today. It will be centered on one of my Daily Bible versus I got last week sometime.

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die..." (Jn 11:25-26).

This is an incredible Scripture! It sounds a lot like Jesus is telling Mary a riddle but He's condensed the hope we have in Christ into two short verses. His words make absolute sense if we understand one thing: In Christ we have eternal life!

"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." (1Jn 5:11)

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life." (1Jn 5:13)

Notice the verbs are all in the past tense or the present perfect sense. Eternal life is not something God will grant us after we die. No! We have eternal life right NOW!!! Amazing, isn't it? What the Lord is telling us in these Scriptures is that He gives us the gift of eternal life the instant we take Him into our hearts. Eternal life is something we believers possess at this time, for all time.

What Jesus is saying is that while we may die physically, once we have been saved, our conscious spirit lives on so it won't really be like dying for believers. And although we appear to have died to those around us, we really haven't died at all. We continue to live on. But how will we know that we have eternal life? We will know because we have been given a guarantee ... the Holy Spirit ... and there's no denying that He's real, living inside of each of us. (He 7:22). We will "know" Him in our every-day lives. And we will also know because God's Word says so right there in First John. And there are countless other Scriptures to back up John's claim. (See also John 6:40; 10:28; 17:3; Ro 6:23; and Gal 6:8 for just a few.)

Christ's life is eternal and we believers now live His life so how could it be any other way? (Acts 17:28; Gal 2:20; Col 1:27; 3:3-4). When we were raised to life again in Christ Jesus we "took on" His life. We are like electric fans which are AC/DC. Should the power go out, we have instant "back-up" power from the battery. (This is not the best example to use but it's the best I can come up with at this time.) Our "electricity" may be turned off but we fans keep right on running on the battery of Christ Jesus.

It is incredibly important that we grasp this Truth because once we understand it, believe it, and rest our hope in it, the whole of Scripture will make more sense and will give us a richer picture of our life with Christ. We mustn't get into the error of forgetting or not believing because it will water down the Message and poison the spring of Living Waters God gives us to drink.

Write this down: You and I both have ... right this very instant ... eternal life. We won't ever die. Can we fully grasp that? It is impossible for us to die because we have Christ's eternal life in us, powering our "fans." (Gal 2:20; Php 1:21; Jn 14:6). We will never die. We may shed our flesh the way a snake sheds his skin, but we will never die. Our spirit, that part of us that makes us, us will not even dim, much less go out. To know this and to believe this and to live this is to free ourselves of the terrible fear of death. We are finally free to enjoy life because we don't have to fear death any longer. Death, the physical act of shedding our human flesh, will be inevitable for all of us until Christ comes again, but we are no longer slaves to the fear of death. We have eternal life. We will never die (Col 1:27).

Go forth now and live this Truth in your life. In every aspect of your life.