Death is still one-per-captita

Sadly, the whole world has been deceived into thinking that true happiness comes from within oneself. The fact is that this statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. The proof that this ideology is false is ubiquitous and unavoidable. 

Wherever we go, wherever we look, DEATH stares us through to our very core. We know deep down that we are only here for a short time, 80 years perhaps, yet we live the majority of our lives suppressing that reality by filling our lives with things that can help us avoid that pressing, inevitable reality.

It’s very true; we die. Death has been and continues to be one-per-capita. Everything around us dies and all of our money can’t buy us another second; when it is our turn, each of us will stop breathing and die. It is this reality that drives the wise to seek out TRUTH for themselves and not merely listen to what others have to say about what they think about it.

The cleverly disguised deception that true happiness comes from within ourselves can be devastated by this one, incontrovertible fact; we have no control over our own death. Some might say they have control… they can commit suicide, but that’s not really control…that is just making their death come sooner. If we could control our own death, what would we do? Most of us would say we would become immortal, right? Perhaps true happiness could be achieved if we could make ourselves live forever without dying but there is more to consider.

Since we can’t control our own ending, it must mean that we had no control over our own beginning and if we didn’t control our own beginning then we must belong to something bigger than us. Many “enlightened” minds of our day believe that we are the result of random acts of natural science but let’s not try to imagine that right now…let’s instead try to imagine that when we die, we are going “back” to where we came from.

One might study the musings of men throughout history and examine every mystic origin and every non-nonsensical religion that has come down the pike only to arrive at many dead ends along the way. It won’t be until we understand the REASON for death and why this is our destiny that we begin to scratch the surface of real Truth.

Our Creator us has placed within us a longing for Him. There is a God-shaped hole in the being of every one of us and true happiness will never be achieved until we fill that hole. If you think about it, most everyone in this post modern, industrial, humanistic age follow in the footsteps of everyone else and try to fill that void with THINGS and MONEY is the key to those things.

NOW we start to see the truth emerge. If we realize that in the scope of reality, those things, (whatever they are) fall under the same curse that we do… death, then the true vanity of life begins to make itself known. Things rust, wear out, rot, burn up, etc. and they are gone forever so our pursuit of those things is just a shadow of our desire and a cheap and temporary fulfillment of the longing that is in our hearts for that Permanent thing that we all desire.  Death is mysterious and nobody really knows why it is just as nobody really knows what LIFE is (except the absence of it is death)

Close study of the bible reveals that it has come down to us supernaturally because of the prophecy that has been fulfilled. We know by careful study that the book of Isaiah, for example, describes a Roman crucifixion 800 years before the method is ever heard of.

In the same book, we can read all about the crucifixion of a man whom the Romans put to death at the Jew’s demand for blasphemy against their God because this man made Himself equal with God. It describes the torturous death in great and gory detail right down to the casting of lots for His garments and the drinking of vinegar.

The rest of the bible is replete with these kinds of prophecies about things that were told about and then came to pass EXACTLY as told sometimes THOUSANDS of years after they were predicted. The precision of these prophecies is astounding and not merely worthy of remark but when the reality that these things are true hits home, it changes the person into a different creature entirely!

The death that this man suffered was a forfeiture of His own life which He gave up Himself so that whosoever that believes in Him should be saved from death by sin.  And that is the difference between “religion’ and a RELATIONSHIP with our Creator. Christianity is the only system of belief whereby God reaches out to man to make amends for the sin (which causes death). He explains that this was the ONLY WAY to do away with the punishment that was due to us and that was for God Himself to pay the penalty for our sin (which causes death).

When we study to the point that we find these things true and genuine, we BELIEVE that Jesus Christ died, and rose from the grave and we become “born of the Spirit of God” and He takes up residence in our hearts assuring us that we are saved from the penalty of our sin (disobedience to our Creator) and taking the fear of death away from us. This is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is the teaching that came to us from Him  and His disciples who walked with Him.

The bible teaches us that the only requirement for salvation is to BELIEVE in Him and place all of our Trust in Him. That’s it. That’s all we have to do to be saved. Simply BELIEVE and that’s it. THAT is where TRUE happiness comes from, not from within ourselves.