Day 4037 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Isaiah 64:6 NIV

The reality

It’s that our very best is but a betrayal of even God’s worst. That our most upright action is only one taken in what is an obvious opposition unto He who is positioned upon the throne against which we’ve thrown our lives as if tantrums against Him and His call for all to come unto the Son and receive from the same the salvation found in only the Name of Christ Jesus who died to free us not from lives lived as if these perfecting angels we think ourselves to be.

No, rather He came to set us free from a life given so fully unto sin and slavery that we indeed grew to love this life more than He who gave us the opportunity to live it.

And the same who’s now seen us lose it to living as if He doesn’t.

Which is what now forms the foundation of our collective fear of forever being something found not in the many places we’ve assumed it found or still continue to imagine we might find it now. No, the reality is that we’ve searched for so long through so many other things that, having had our hope itself become weary of looking any further, we’ve rather given ourselves up to failure.

And that in regard to everything else we should still try and all the more we could still be.

Indeed, all of us have become the sum of something which shouldn’t be done under the Son. But the issue is that things done undeserving of the Son, as they insist upon Him an almost insinuation that He’s not done doing what He’s done, such are the things that this both this way of life we’ve come to love have won and thus still win within what are hearts so afraid of change that we don’t.

And granted, there is some reasonability to be revealed inside our not doing that of which we are afraid. So long as we have a valid reason that’s been built atop a logical excuse that is justifiable thanks to it having something to do with, say, our very survival or that of another. Yes, if we refuse to do something because we know that the end result could be the loss of our lives or another losing the same, then sure, we’re plausibly right in the not doing thereof.

But the problem is that what He calls us to do is to come away from all the ways in which we’ve walked that have all but insisted this war being fought still between God and man continue onward within the same perpetuity that our putrid vanity continues to all but insist is as needed today as it was before that day unto which was that for which the Christ came to take away all the sins that His suffering should tell us shouldn’t be allowed to stay.

But again, it seems that we’ve seen some reason or perhaps even something of a righteousness in our doing of nothing any different. Not that there is as, again, it’s only at best plausibly justifiable to do nothing so long as the doing of something would likely come at the cost of life, be it ours or that of another.

Issue here is that what we are doing is what is costing both us our lives, in an eternal sense at least, and indeed that of another who is He who did die to open our eyes to the life that we’ve lived as if, again, He didn’t and thus doesn’t still.

Yes, God has given us all free will but unfortunately we’ve taken said liberty and misused it so liberally that we literally live as if loving God and being loved by the same is among the worst possible things a human could ever experience.

Why?

Because He who came to lay down a life as was lived among what still is a perfectly sinful flesh dares then ask us to do the same in what is a show that we do know that He has came and is coming again. Not to pay for our sins, not this time. No, but rather that He is returning unto the rewarding of those then found doing as He’s asked us all to do, and also then the punishing of those many more whom He has said will be found being better off dead as where this ends the dying part won’t.

At least not for most.

Why?

Because we continue to live this life only afraid of our having to die because, to us, this life has become nothing more than a party, a game, some glory-seeking treasure hunt in which we’ve indeed found so much stuff and have still so much more we still hope to have that hope itself is something only had whenever we think about all that’s still here that we still want more than where it is that He’s told us we have now the opportunity to go.

Indeed, this world is painting still this reality in which the vast majority here continue to live as if hell won’t be that bad because Heaven’s just not worth the work, the worry, the waiting for that day when we don’t have to work in worry of our not being ready anymore. For such is a hard thing for us to do. In fact, all of the above are things none of us want to do as none of us find anymore all that much reason to.

Not in a world in which so many do nothing and thus seem unworried about everything as instead they live in this seemingly almost serene surrounding filled with all the things that this world has inspired us to assume we just have to have.

Things wanted so very bad that we’ve even stopped wanting more life.

Granted, not that we’d say that outright as, well, it doesn’t sound right. Doesn’t feel right. In truth, it isn’t right! But the fact of the matter is that the way of life we’ve all come to live is that lived in love with this life we’ve come to live. We love the life we have at least the opportunity to live in this world. We love it because it’s filled with so much stuff that seems so amazing, sounds so wonderful, looks so beautiful and feels so special that we can’t anymore even begin to fathom His calling us to lay it down and walk away.

No, this is in fact why so many here still consider the message of the cross foolishness.

It’s because, unto us, willfully laying down what is a perfectly good life filled with both plenty of things we’ve come to already enjoy and too only then a widely-held estimation of only the even more that this world has still in store, it makes no sense at all.

But friends, such is still the call.

Why?

Because again, as we’ve been talking about, the fact of faith (and that whether we have it or not) is that God will in fact test our hearts. He will weigh our words. He will judge our lives! And while that, to us, may seem unkind or uncaring, friends, truth is that He’s the One who’s created us, who’s carried us, who has in fact carried our cross as was deserved by all the image of Him that we’ve lost in what have been lives in which we’ve lived as if this life is mine and your life is yours and none of them then belong to God.

All because we’ve taken that free will that He’s given us and used it as a license to sin. We have indeed used our freedom as a reason to do wrong. We’ve taken His mercy and made it into a matter utterly forsaken and taken for granted. We have managed to even take the image of the cross and turn it into nothing more than a tarnished piece of jewelry dangling around the neck of someone doing something that has no business being so associated with such a reminder of Christ having died to pay the price for their doing thereof.

Yes, we’ve turned His suffering into nothing and use His very Name as if it means the same as we say it inside jokes and use it as punchlines and drop it inside petty conversations as if it’s nothing too.

And we still think that God’s just supposed to be okay with this? That He’s going to just let it go? That He won’t again, if only but once more, come back to this earth to show us all once and for all that He is God and that at the surprise of most who then find that they aren’t?

You see, this is the problem with this version of reality in which we are still the very creation of the very Creator that we now live as if neither created us nor is even there to have created anything else either. It’s that we now exist as if we truly insist that we’ve no one to answer to and thus nothing we’ll answer for. No, instead we all continue to do things that are, at best, nothing better than filthy rags. We continue to use words as if weapons meant to hurt rather than warnings meant to help.

We give still our very lives to the doing of things, the saying of things, the thinking of things, the believing of things that haven’t life to give us in return.

Where does this leave us in regard to His coming return?

Indeed, He asks this idea plain within Scripture:

“However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

A question asked as part of a verse that begins with this promise:

“I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”

Who’s they? “His chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night”. For no He will not keep putting them off who call upon Him from down here within what’s, to them, a place that has long since become nothing but a scene taken straight out of some horror movie that they thus cannot wait to leave behind.

But can you not see any of the massive issues in this? It’s that terrifyingly few of us do live crying out to Him as rather most of us live at best only even acknowledging Him whenever we either want something or just need someone to blame for life not going our way. It’s that those same few are the only ones who do see this place as living so vastly lost inside what is a disgrace so disgusting that they can’t bear be here anymore.

And yes, it’s those same few who are willing to uphold His asking us all to count all things here, even the life we live here, as if things lost so that we’ve nothing left to lose standing in the way of our walking in the Way of He who came to lead us home out of what is, to some, the closest to hell we ever care to be.

But you see, that’s the issue. It’s that few here care about anything anymore. In fact, the only things that most folks seem to care about are only those things so worldly that thus their every hope, every plan, every priority, every promise, every reward is then destined to be the same. Yes, so many of us are living to have our reward here, something that He both allows us to seek and will let all of us keep should that be what we determine as best.

Only problem is that there is nothing in this place nor then about the way of life lived by all herein that anyone could in any way honestly say is anywhere close to anything even decent.

Not when compared to Heaven.

And yet that seems to be the foundation of our every failure. It’s that we live in a world that knows only to deny Heaven. Not that that makes any sense at all considering it’s told to be this place of surpassing peace in which there is no more death or hardship or even pain or crying. Instead we’re told that Heaven is this place of peace and joy and hope all so perfected that those who are welcomed in are to live forever with Him who is all of those things embodied.

But those who will be welcomed in are only those who deserve to be, as is to be determined by the presence of righteousness and holiness as is demanded by He who is righteous and holy.

That’s precisely why He calls us to be holy in the understanding that so too is He.

That’s in fact why He created us in His image!

It wasn’t for us to so forget it, forget Him as we have! No, rather it was for our to have an understanding of who we are that’s found so easily as our looking in the mirror and seeing at least some semblance of Him. But what do we so often see instead? Shame. Guilt. Regret. Arrogance. Pride. Vanity. Ego. Evil. An enemy even. I’ll be as honest as I always try to be in my saying that I’ve seen every single one of those things staring back at me at times in my life thanks to how I’ve lived it.

And that’s a problem! Because none of those things should have any place in the life of a follower of Christ. And I understand that our ego has us convinced that we’re supposed to be the leaders as if we somehow know the way to something other than a life depraved. None here want to follow Christ both for the humility and the horror seen in His path.

No, we don’t want anything to do with that.

But friends, He’s told us that if we don’t take up our crosses and follow Him then we’re not worthy of Him. And if we’re not worthy of Him in what have been lives lived denying Him, then so too will He deny us. Yes, if we deny Him before man He will deny us before God. And we have all denied Him inside of our doing things as if He wasn’t even worth our taking a second to reconsider if it’s something we should do.

But friends, whom else shall we have to intercede on our behalf?

Truth is we have nobody, we have nothing, in fact, we are nothing! Without Jesus we are nothing and we have no chance of finding anything at the end of these lives but the everlasting death that He has promised unto all of those who continue to live in sin despite our all having come to know the price thereof.

Yes, He has now shown us what is good and so if we continue to do anything else then we’re only continuing to be everything less. And as this is in truth something all of us have done, our fear then of change defines it as a way of life welcome to remain the way of life most here will continue to live.

But friends, those who love their lives will lose them because what we’ve come to love in this life only inspires us to hate Him because no one can serve two masters as we’ll all only grow to love the one and hate the other and, well, it’s easier to keep hating what we’ve always hated because that also means that we can go on loving whatever it is that we’ve come to love. But the issue then is that all of us have come to love living in sin.

So much so that our very best is but a blatant betrayal of the very God who came among us to bring unto us a way to be made right again.

Problem then is that the majority here will continue to live that way of life that knows only to reject said gift because most here think still they don’t need His grace simply because it calls still from that grave in which we’ve all been asked to lay down our lives, take up our cross and kill daily upon them what are all these losses that we’ve lived to look for so long that the same we’ve come to love.

Yes, we’ve all come to love the very loss of life as is found every single time that we give way to sin simply because sin remains death as it stands violently against the Son who came to put an end thereto by His dying in the place of we who have done so much so wrong that, again, our very best is but everything vile. And in truth, I think we all know this to be true because, well, why else would we continue to run away from the One who came to save us unless we think we’ve messed up too much to be saved?

Honestly, we have. We’ve done God wrong so often that He has no reason to want anything to do with us. But friends, we’re still breathing for a reason! And sure, maybe it’s nothing more than for another day spent doing whatever it is that we’ve come to enjoy more than the hope of Heaven and the joy of seeing Him who was willing to die for us to have that eternal life.

But living another day without the hope that is Heaven seems a sadness that I can’t seem to fathom anymore.

Because I can’t imagine that the Son of Heaven would have suffered for nothing more than my doing nothing more than whatever I’ve done in every day before I knew of His Name and all that is meant by what He came to do and has now done.

No, rather I contend that we’re still breathing because He sees in us something still worth saving. Issue is that we probably don’t see it ourselves as rather most here live still as if they needn’t be saved from anything. And again, perhaps that is the case.

But the Gospel hasn’t gone away nor become changed despite thousands of years of fallen men trying their absolute best to disprove the veracity thereof.

No, the cross has some staying power that is for now only rivaled by our foolish desire to stay where we are which is so lost in sin that most here still enjoy denying the Son despite all He’s done for them to have the hope of life lived forever.

Sure, maybe we can find something here better. But then again, reality is that our best is still nothing even close to anything even decent.

What makes us think we can change that as these dying wind-tossed leaves we’ve all lived to become?

#LeaveNoSoulUntold