"No Cheating Death"

 "There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain it; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it." (Ecclesiastes 8:8 KJV)

  "They trust in their wealth and boast of great riches. Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death by paying a ransom to God. Redemption does not come easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave. Those who are wise must finally die, just like the foolish and senseless, leaving all their wealth behind." (PSALM 49:6-10 NLT)

 It might seem as though we are somehow changing the subject; as if the topic of death is not somehow associated with the point of what it actually takes to be ready when the Lord returns, to take up His bride? What, pray tell, could that association be, if there was one indeed? 

 To start with, our spirit belongs to God; no matter how hard you can try to work something into your body, to try to keep your spirit in; or have something that tries to keep your spirit inside you, you will never succeed, because that spirit belongs to God! Sorry if that is something you might not have known, but it needs to be something you can except and can understand that you cannot charge facts, no matter how much money you might have. 

 Additionally, before we can be filled with God's Spirit, (totally different Spirit than the one just talked about,) we must first be willing and able to die to ourselves. The Holy Spirit is willing to come into us, who have been cleansed from our sins, because we have been reborn and made new by the power of Jesus' death and resurrection. 

 Paul confronts this mysterious topic in his letter to Rome, saying, "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in sin? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives." (Romans 6:1-4 NLT)

 I find it rather interesting that Jesus shared about the 10 virgins after talking about the evil servant that thought his master would not be back for quite a while. There were five virgins that had oil in their lamps. and five that didn't have enough oil in their lamps. Those that had their lamps filled with oil were able to go with the Lord; yet those that did not have enough, were left behind. 

 Does anything here make sense? Is there actually something that can be put inside us, that will allow us to cheat death? Something to think about...

"And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him." (Hebrews 9:27-28 NLT)