John 14: 19 KJV “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
I heard of two mothers whose children were involved in a tragic accident. A man who was drunk ran a red light, and in a drunken stupor killed a teenage daughter. Two mothers, two women, both hurting but in different ways. The drunk driver’s mother was full of guilt, disappointment, and pain (for her life was also in that car). The teenager’s mother was full of incessant pain, anger, and now she lives with the struggle of losing her only daughter.
Somehow in the grip of a dark situation, two mothers found solace in each other. As they parted ways in one particular meeting the one said to the other, “Hey, at least you still have your son. My daughter is gone.” Now we don’t poke fun or downplay anything that has been lost, but oh how wrong she is was. Her daughter was a covenant child of God. She is more alive than she has ever been. She is not only alive, but living. The son who is imprisoned drags out his days in darkness, lost and full of the wages of his sin, never able to repay this family or undo what’s done. He’s breathing and functioning with symptoms that most would call life, yet he’s not alive, and is miles from living. There is a difference between existing and LIVING!
Hunger is certain. All that is living must be fed. Hunger is evidence of eternity. For within the heart of every hungry human (saved or lost) is the element of desire. No one will ever eat and not be hungry again. The human sensation of physical need through hunger is a great analogy of my topic. Hunger is certain. Who ever walks into Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesday’s and shout’s, “I don’t know what to do, I am hungryyyyy! Someone help me!” Hunger is certain so you must accommodate it, or you DIE slowly. Many of us believers have had a mountain sit on top of our spirits and we quit chasing God. The danger is that the soul then tries to persuade itself it is no longer hungry. Have you ever had trouble to come and you felt and even told someone, “I could almost die”. Have you ever wanted to crawl in a hole for a couple of days due to your faithlessness and discouragement. It’s not that you want to die, it’s that something inside of you is dying. Jesus paid a great price just to get you to respond to your trial, so say to it, “Oh, mountain, I know you are alive, but I am as well.” When you are living for Christ you trust God with the very breath you breathe. When you are just alive with a head hung down you go through life pretending; go to work pretending, go to school pretending, go home pretending. You are pretending like you are so full of the life of God and joy just flows, but you are simply alive in Christ, not LIVING IN HIM. Life is when you are occupying space, but Living is when Christ has gotten inside of you.
This world by definition gives you a “better life”, “the good life”, and such like. The only problem with the world’s recipe of how to have a better life is that you find out that once you get to “the top”, there is nothing there! Sometimes the most wise people you could ever meet are social “idiots”. The strongest people I have ever met have been terminally ill or had crippling disabilities. Why? Because these types of people don’t take life for granted. He who has but a few dollars to spend must spend it wisely. We only have life here to be a LIVING SACRIFICE.
You’ve heard it said that time heals pain. Time doesn’t heal pain, it reveals it. God heals it. In our hedonistic society, all we have to do to see what you are living for is look at your calendar and checkbook (bank statement for those of you who only use check cards). You may think you are living it up. However, sin will cost! It will cost you your family, reputation, and steal your honor. Living means birthing something because of God, not just breathing because of God. Living for God means life around you blossoms at some point. Genesis 25:7 KJV says, “And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, and hundred threescore and fifteen years. And he gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, and old man, and full of years.” Do you see that little phrase “which he lived”. One translation says, “he took his final breath and died happy.” It’s hard to die happy if you don’t live happy.
Are you alive or living? For the unsaved there is no end to their troubles. No matter how many gold coins they roll up the hill they all roll down the other side. There is no future fulfillment. He is like the man who is so hungry that he is starving. Then one night he dreams of a giant buffet of food and in his dream he gorges himself and is satisfied only to wake up and realize that he is still hungry. His hunger is never filled with the world’s LIFEstyle. He does exactly what the world tells him to do in order to be “happy”, but he is lonely, miserable, and unfulfilled. King David sinned and wrote the following words: “Create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit in me, purge me with hyssop, wash me.” Then he wrote, “Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me.” Why did he not leave the last line out. Because to be alive with God’s presence abiding in you is death in this life. Romans 14:9 Message Version says, “Jesus lived, died, and then lived again.” So my question to you is, “have you done the same”? Are you alive or living? Paul said, “the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.”
