Happy Grazing

I have desire to throw consecutive notes out there for free range spiritual grazing. This first one is real chipper and is about death…or actually its end. 🙂

Romans 5:28 Sin reigned in death. Picture sin sitting on the throne in glum sneakiness. As far as the kingdom of sin touches, so too the reaches of death touch. The sign of this kingdom being at hand is death. Hmmmmmm sounds awesome (dry sarcasm – for those of you who have never met me. I’m not really impressed).

Romans 8:2 The law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. The wages of sin is death; death entered the world through sin. Christ, the lamb of God is the one who takes away the sin of the world. Sin and its power was crucified on the cross. We are (cheaky pun on Paul’s behalf) DEAD to sin. Therefore we are DEAD to sin’s wages–death…let me continue…

Hebrews 2:14 ….For only as a human being could he [Jesus] die [one king entering into the reign of sin to overthrow its kingdom], and only by dying [entering deaths kingdom] could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Good News flash: the power of death has been broken (-cue celebration and smiling…lots of smiling). This brings up the great and awesome question of ‘What has Jesus already done for us?’ Again…

2 Timothy 1:10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated [showed us] the way to life and immortality through the Good News.

I have some really great friends and I can hear some of their wisdom as I write this, “It’s not really about right or wrong anymore, its about life or death.” Does your choice, your lifestyle, your habits, result in life to you or death. When sin bears fruit it gives life to death. That doesn’t mean its referring to ‘all that stuff that looks bad’ i.e cigarettes, stealing, tattoos, drinking beer, or rather things that don’t appear ‘godly’ to the ‘christian kingdom’ rather than having anything to do with Christ’s kingdom. Selling yourself out in religious circles to gain the desiring gaze of people wanting you or wanting to be you, sexual relations happening within church leadership across lines of wedlock, people controlling other people’s relationship with God and acting as the Holy Spirit, are all things who’s fruit is not life obviously. Does quitting your day job and doing things that you’ve always wanted to do result in life to you? Does helping the person behind you in line in the grocery story result in life for you? Does finishing that college degree through lots of studying result in life for you? The behavior isn’t the qualifier, the heart is.

The earth’s sin, that results in death (Jn 16:9), is unbelief in Christ.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT SIN AND ALL OF ITS INFLUENCES HAVE BEEN FOREVER OVERTHROWN FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY’S FREEDOM.

Galations 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. My husband was sharing what somebody told him the other day, “It’s what we do with the freedom that we’ve been given that matters.”

Romans 8:10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, …

The spirit that overcame death is WHERE?!? Living inside of you right now. All of death has been overcome; all it’s influences, shades, and effects. Death in realtionships–gone. Death in your relationship with yourself inside your head–gone. Death in your outlets for the way you’ve been created to live, your gifts, talents, desires, expression–gone. Death from bad experiences in your past that don’t have ANY power over you anymore–gone. Death in your choices–gone. And here’s where it gets real crazy in a good way. All those family members that you loved that are no longer with you right now, that you can’t hug, can’t talk to, can’t reconcile with?? I tell you the truth, your seperation from them was crucified on the cross and all of us, with our very own eyes will see the reign of death, and all its influences on humanity for all time, be cast into fire. And we will stand with no influences of death remaining standing.

1 Corinthians 15:25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

Jesus is life; all life, anywhere, in any form. All of life is contained in Jesus; through him all things live (and move and have their being). His life is reality. This is the tree from which humanity was meant to eat. Any opposing force has been revealed as powerless against it. He swallowed up death for all people.

2 Corinthians 5:14 …One having died for all, His death was their death.

The wages of sin have been eradicated from your life. You will not die, but live, and the fullness of that life is why Christ came, so that you may have life more abundantly. This is where you live. It’s your place of origin, this kingdom of life. It’s the power that resides inside you. You are alive and it is a wonderful thing. You have breath that is a gift right now inside of you that has been passed down through humanity from the one who first breathed life into Adam’s lungs.

There is no place for death, or any grade or shade of it in your thoughts, communication, decisions, hopes, relationships, health, provision, it’s not our family’s culture, it’s just not who we are, it’s not your place of origin, it’s not normal for us. You are an ambassador of life that overcomes every shade of the influence of sin and death. The increase of his government of life and peace is without end. Life wins and your life. Life wins in your heart. Life wins in your home and in your influence on the people around you. The Spirit that lives inside you is the one that has overcome death. Christ in you the hope of glory.

Oh, by the way, you didn’t earn this, it’s a free gift. It’s your effortless state of existence. It’s who you already are, and what you’ve already been given. Do you know who you are? Do you know how powerful you are? Do you know how free to be loved by God you are? You are not a victim in this life, even to death. Christ’s form and life that wins has been revealed through humanity.