Greetings all!
Forgive me once more. My schedule seems to be filling more and more by the day. How was your New Years?
I was in church one Sunday listening to our pastor speak, and one thing he said struck me. He said:
"We tend to think of ourselves as physical beings having a spiritual experience. But what we need to realize is that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience."
Wow. Talk about "oooh!!!". Think about that for a moment. We are not just humans stuck here on Earth so that God can watch us mindlessly go about our day-to-day lives or move us where He wants us (like a huge game of Zoo Tycoon). He put us here with a purpose. He made man in His image. He gave of the gift of having souls. That sets us apart from all the rest of creation.
Let me say it this way: a dog has, at the most, around a 15 year long life. What does it do during that time? Well, as a puppy, it learns the basics of good house behavior. It eats, it sleeps, it plays, and it takes care of it's business. After about 4 years, the dog has pretty much mastered all it will ever know. How does it spend the rest of it's life? Eating, sleeping, playing, and...well...you know. When that doggy finally keels over, it is buried and it's owners cry.
The End.
Now, all of that to say that many people believe like that about humanity. They think that we are alive to eat, sleep, and play our lives away until one day: BAM.
We're dead.
And once we're dead, we're flung into a hole and buried. Our friends and family cry, and then we're forgotten. Pretty sad ending, don't you think?
I am thankful to God that this is NOT the true ending to our life's story. For the Christian, when we die, it is only physical. Our hearts stop, and our bodies decay. But we are still living. Our spirit joins the Father for a time of everlasting peace and praises. For the non-believer, it is only a physical death as well. Only, this ending isn't a happy one. For them, their hearts stop, their bodies decay, and they are cast into never ending torment.
Not the ending I would hope for anyone.
Live your life to the fullest in Him. Be who God calls you to be, so that when the day comes for your physical experience to end, you are ready.
