"Once Smitten"

"To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever." (Psalms 136:10)

  Besides the fact that God loves us and is passionately for us, our trust in Him must go beyond what is made available in this life. That is a hard pill to swallow for many people, because they give way too much of the hope they have in the temporary life, while the eternal life we have in Christ is sitting on a shelf, stored up for some other life. Some Other Life! I know, it sounds like the title of a movie; maybe it would be a good movie for an atheist to write, based upon how Christians are no earthly good, and illustrate how they continually focus and look to Some Other Life. If only it were more prevalent in the lives of Christians; but as soon as they are offended, or as soon as they are facing something that is beyond their control, this life here in this place becomes very near and dear to their hearts. I really have no right to complain about what others do, because I am just as guilty as anyone else! If you seriously look for what motivates such behavior, it will be the Vanity of Vanities spoken of by Solomon. Have you ever wondered why the firstborn in Egypt were killed? What was the significance in the firstborn? Jesus spoke to this, saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it: and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life." (John 12:24-25) Yes, it is a pretty serious subject; and no, Jesus was not just speaking about Himself dying on the cross. The firstborn represented the flesh; as much as we would like to hold onto it, it is what we are going to need, to have God's help in making it smitten. We are seriously not going to do it on our own, we simply care too much about it for that to happen. Don't think for a moment Jesus did not have any concern for His flesh, because He did! But this life compared to that of eternity, there is absolutely no comparison; which is basically what Jesus was saying about hating this life, because it falls incredibly short of the life yet to come. This is a heart thing, not a judgment thing! This is not Jesus saying that God will take your life away if you love this life; He is saying that you loving your life here we destroy your hope for heaven; literally and spiritually! "What good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again?" (Matthew 5:13 NLT) Believe it when I say, you really don't want to be that salt that gets used on ice covered roads...

"Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:5-11) NLT