“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
James 2:26
Most people, at a certain age, learn the “golden rule.” ‘Treat others the way you want to be treated.’ This comes from God’s Word. The verses go: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And there’s lots of them. Stated many, many times throughout the Bible, this phrase is quoted. But, do we understand it?
I think first, we have to understand the situation we’re in, better than we do.
From a biblical based standpoint (in which I’m taking), where the Bible is the inerrant Word of God (which it is), we are dying. Not just a physical death, but a spiritual death. The Word says that we live forever, in terms of spirit… we “go on.” Whether we die and go to heaven with God, or we die and go to hell, without Him, according to the Christian Bible, there is life after physical death. And here’s the thing… We gotta get it right to experience the afterlife with God.
(Please lend me grace and believe the best of me when I say I shan’t complain, and do not desire to. This is a topic which gains a sour tempo without the ability to use inflection.)
The day I learned there would be time away from my family, I walked twelve miles.
Early in the morning on a Monday, in mid-spinout from nicotine and pretty much all the bad habits I gave up quite rapidly, I left my home in a huff. Not really mad. I wasn’t even upset really. I was… concentrated. I was determined to get to Jesus, and at that point, I may have left my family, I didn’t know. I needed to know if I had to! I didn’t know what following God, fully, meant, but I was going to figure out how to do it right, no matter what. So I left to go, as far as I needed to go, wherever that was. I found myself, after a few hours in the woods, just sorting out the next step, and listening for His instruction.
I quoted verses and weighed their meaning. I reasoned, with God’s Word, on how to continue. He eventually told me to “go home and get {my} wife back.” Little did I know, getting her back was a much longer process than a couple of miles’ walk home.
That day, I walked from church to church, to mental health center, searching for help, sanity, a place to sleep…anything, but by the end of a 10 hour day and a twelve mile walk, back and forth through the city, I was alone, empty handed and rejected. And since then, my plight has been an absolute struggle, for me to be seen. To be loved the way I’m trying to love others. To find someone who sees better than me to help me out, in a spiritual way, out of passion for the Word. Not forced interaction, but intentional growth.
I grew through it all, though. I don’t blame a soul for it. There really may not have been anyone equipped enough, around me, for me to benefit from. “The Lord is my shepherd,” I felt God had emphasized on one occasion. He is my guide. He has affirmed it to me over and over again.
Maybe it does take time. But I think it takes people, moreover. We need more people equipped for rescue. Matthew points out that; “The harvest is plentiful! The workers are few!”
I did need the help. I still do! And others do need that help, too. Part of what loving my neighbor as myself means to me is becoming the thing that someone like me needs. A strong person. An attentive person. A person looking to help someone who just doesn’t fully get it yet, but really, really, wants to. Someone willing to get down in the dirt and look me in the eyes and say, “We can do this.” Someone who really loves God.
I can be that guy.
I’m out to get you. I need to get you. If you are lost and can’t see the reality of reality… If you are bored and think life is unfair… If you hate yourself, or can’t stand people, I want to show you something. But you can’t see it until you renew how you see. And with what you see. Cause it’s really, really hard to see.
And I know, maybe you can’t see right now, but I want to do what it takes to get your soul repaired! I desire the things I need to do to give these revelations to others. It’s vital. It’s the only thing I want to do.
Why? Cause I love, love what I see. And it changes everything when you see it.
I sat in the bathroom today, hiding from the kids, honestly, and was looking around the little room, listening to God. As my mind wandered, I thought about the similarities of a life lived only in a single bathroom on the inner parts of a building, compared to a spiritual life without the knowledge of who God is, what He’s done and the vastness of all of the beauties of a life in Him.
In the bathroom, there is no sky. There are no trees, lakes, hills or stars. There is absolutely no sun. I believe though, with the right nutrients and diet, you could survive an entire life in that one room.
But is that real life? Is that great? Is that a life worth rejoicing over? To someone who lives under the clouds, and sun and moon, it sounds absolutely miserable!
Well, I found out that all the limits and restraints of life that bothered me so much, are not real. There is more life outside these walls. We do die, but life does not end. We are not trapped by physical limitations or natural habits. To live such a closed life with absolutely no way to see the wildly beautiful motions of wisdom and the never ending, never boring extent of eternity, would be absolutely depressing and deeply saddening to see happen.
Proverbs 18 puts it this way:
“The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?”
“You can live three weeks without food, three days without water and one second without hope,” I once heard someone say. (Though 40 days without food and water is possible…even for more than Jesus.) When life gets heavy, it’s as if these walls close in on us. We begin to feel helpless, trapped in a small room. Despair can crush a man, no matter his possessions. Hopelessness is a dark, dark place.
I want to be a pillar. I want to stand in the gap. I want to hold up the part of someone’s faith that is failing and show them, it’s way better than this. I want to sit on the living room floor with someone, in the middle of the night, figuring it out with them until we know we’re God’s beloved.
I’d buy someone a new fridge to show them Jesus.
I’m willing to live inconvenienced and uncomfortable for you. I’m willing to shake a dirty hand, eat a meal by the tracks, or even skip some. I’ll cook, clean, give, build, sweat, cry or bleed if one more person can see Jesus with me. And I’m willing to do anything God tells me is best.
I could say more. But, Jesus came to get me. Roaring, raging, ninja kicking the door down and destroying my captors to give me a real life, a life that’s worth living. I’m willing to do the same for you. And when people say “oh I’m a Christian,” but aren’t willing to do the same, I just keep doing it around them and for them. They’ll see eventually.
Abundant harvest. Servant-leadership. Wreckless love.
Let nothing stop you.
God bless you, guys and girls.
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From Death to Life 
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