Life so dear: Peace so sweet

“I WANT TO TALK TO GOD BUT IM AFRAID CAUSE WE AINT SPOKE IN SO LONG.”

  So for me Jesus walks was my way, my way of not turning from my wicked ways. It was my way of  keeping my music, living my lifestyle, but thinking “Jesus Walks” could save me. A foolish concept, that I think I knew even then, was not true.

  I was literally “having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof”. (2 Timothy 3:5)

  I write this because as a rapper and musician, people are “alarmed “ about the transition of Kanye West from “Jesus Walks” to “I am a God”. But when you study his life you see that there has always been a trend.

  The real  question is, when we say “Jesus walks with me”, what does that mean? Does Jesus really “walk” with you? Do you really know what it is to “walk with Jesus”? The Bible says that the only way two can walk together is to agree on where they are going. (Amos 3:3). So ask yourself, in your life, would you say that your lifestyle agrees with that of the Jesus of the Bible? If not can you really say “Jesus Walks with me”?

  -       Peace and God Bless

CHURCH AND THE WILD:

Why Jesus Walks, is not about Jesus.

 *Dear reader, the following contains a lot of “Urban vernacular “, if you are not familiar with some of these words or terms,contact me,I am very open to any response. *

From the beginning, it was the beat, that beat was one that came in with a military type feel, and then immediately after that it was matched with a choir singing in the back round. I was allured, I was secured, I was mesmerized.

   “Jesus walks, God show me the way cause the devil tryna break me downnn, Jesus walks with me”

  I was hooked. It was unbelievable. Here was a rapper, Kanye, rapping about “Jesus”. I was in High School, living a Christian lifestyle was basically the furthest thing from my mind. I was going to be a, well to be honest; besides aspiring ideas to be a rapper or clothes designer, I did not have any aspirations to be anything. My History and English teachers were the only ones who made me ever think differently about my future. Yet the song lyrics defiantly blaring through my headphones immediately grabbed me.

  “You know what the Midwest is young and restless…”

  I had just moved from Omaha, and I was infatuated with Chicago rap music.  I was already agreeing with the lyrics. On and on Kanye went. The chorus however was what got me. In it Kanye mentioned “How he wanted to talk to God “ he was afraid because they had not spoke in “so long”.

  I swore that song was gospel. Then.

  As I grew older, and began to live for Jesus, I just assumed that the song “Jesus Walks” was based on a failed perception of Jesus. That the “Jesus” of Kanye West was not really an accurate portrait of Jesus Christ but was a passive Jesus, a Jesus who let dealers deal, and strippers strip. And was perfectly okay with that.

  This is obviously NOT the Jesus of the Bible.

  But one day; while doing break downs of music with my homie Jordan, he looked at Chris and I , and stated;

  “YO JESUS WALKS ISN’T EVEN ABOUT JESUS!”

  I responded “well not Jesus but the Jesus he wants to believe in”.

Jordan responded “Nope it’s about KANYE!”

And then it hit me, the Kanye lyrics came back “They said you can talk about anything except for Jesus…but if I talk about God my record wont get played HUH?”

  Jordan broke it down for me, “Yo Jesus Walks is about how Kanye can make a song about anything and still make it get plays in the club, its about Kanye’s pride, it is about Kanye buying his own way into heaven without Jesus”.

  To those who think Biblical conversations do not occur amongst Christian musicians, that right there should challenge your thinking.

    Another thought; which could be reaching, is the double entendre as a whole of the song, and that is that Jesus Walks, is actually an ode to addictions to drug dealing  and heroin and cocaine usage. And Jesus Walks, being the “drug dealers prayer” to not get caught.

  The crazy thing is, is that this song was a song that attributed a “Christian vibe “ to people. It was this song, in retrospect, helped me realize the containing of Jesus or God in a song , does not make that song a Godly song.

  Let me state that again, the containing of Jesus or God in a song does not make the song Christian.

*Dear reader, the following contains a lot of “Urban vernacular “, if you are not familiar with some of these words or terms, contact me,I am very open to any response. *

  Black hoody on, pants a little, no way to big for his own good, belt just on enough to negotiate out of his mother’s “we raised you better than that young man”, the young man drifted down the high school hall cd play, yes portable cd player in hand. The young man sauntered thru the hallway and begin to chant along with the cd lyrics as it played.

  “What if somebody that was ill from the Chi’ got a deal on the hardest rap label around cept he was talking coke and birds it was more like spoken word …cepts hes really putting it downnnn”

  The young man felt satisfied with those lyrics, and couldn’t wait to get to class , not because he wanted to study, but if it should happen that their was downtime, his rhyme book would reappear in the midst of his notes.

  You see the lyrics in quotation, are those of Kanye West. And the student, well is not Kanye West.  Or not even Kenya East (a name that the young man’s father thought was Kanye’s) . No , the student in question was me. Caleb. Good ole Military Kid, Caleb.

I did not idolize Kanye, at least not in the  way a High School me would view idolization. Nor did I at the time swear that “Kanye was the sickest rapper ever”. But I was enamored with him. Kanye was different. You see I had become accustomed to what people would call “the bad rappers”. The rappers who boasted of holding guns the size of Shaq, that would put holes in you the size of the Grand Canyon. The rappers who bragged about the way they explicitly pulled females, or the rappers who decided to tell you in detail how to “work the Pyrex in the kitchen”.  Nope, Kanye came off as different, a more realistic different. He now made the rap game a series of bars and metaphors that did not allow me to have to feel the need to portray rhymes of cocaine dealing or picking up girls every night; something not permissible by the upbringing I had, yet nevertheless glamourized around me and was attempted at by those in my crew; no Kanye exposed me to the world of backpack rappers, those guys who well wore backpacks and self-righteously exposed what they viewed to be society’s woes.

The problem was he was self-righteous. See Kanye, and rappers like him, despite their prowess in lyrical delivery, the ability to take old school songs and flip them into masterpieces of beat samples, and even to make not sagging and wearing a polo cool. Lacked one thing, the reality of Jesus…..

Of Funerals and Weddings

Scene 1, Scene One is an interesting one, it’s noon on a Saturday, the sun is very nonchalant in its slothful  peek through elephant colored clouds, there is a hint of a small shower in the air. Vehicles adorn both the front parking lot and the surrounding areas of the church. It’s a funeral. A dear saint, a pillar of the church, has finally been “upgraded to glory”. The scene isn’t a depressing one though, unlike most funerals, this one is dipped in old gospel medleys, and an up-tempo worship song. Yes this woman is dead but there is no sorrow here, only hopes and expectations to see this church mother on the other side of eternity.

Scene 2, Scene Two is pretty much populated with the same crowd as Scene 1, yet in a different location, here too there are tears. Yet these tears are tears of joy, tears of beheld beauty, and excitement.  A anxious man stands at the side of the same Pastor from Scene One, and then it happens, he sees his bride. The following scene is one of holy matrimony, union, food, and of course a celebration to rival any other celebration. Complete with Star Wars light sabers.

Funerals and Weddings

Are they so dissimilar? Many would toss their answer in the section of yes. This could be a valid opinion from many a perspective and yet, it is not so. You see to the Christian, funerals and weddings in the physical, mirror an action in the Spiritual realm.

To the Christian, death is a daily thing, why, because Biblically we are called to die daily, as is echoed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:31 “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” This quote has a double meaning, the Apostle Paul was suffering constant death threats due to his testimony of Jesus, yet he also had to die to his flesh.

Even more so as my friend and church Youth Pastor would state “ To die for Christ is the greatest honour ever”, this being his personal paraphrase of the Bible quote which states “To live is Christ to die is gain” as found in  Philippians 1:21.

Now at this point, you probably doubt the correlation between funerals and weddings. Well it’s complex yet simple. As Christians our call is to live for Christ and to die to our flesh, daily. Yet, there is another call that we have, the same Apostle Paul wrote that “…for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.” Now it may seem weird but we, as Christians are all called to be the Bride of Christ, (this being the Church collectively).  However, what is more intriguing still is that not only is the Church the Bride of Christ collectively, but the Christian individually gets to participate in the greatest wedding party ever, Rev 19:9 reads “….’Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ 

So what’s the connection you may ask?

 Well it is this, you see in order to be a part of that feast, that wedding, that Bride, we, you, me, we all our called to die.

 Death in the Spiritual is the dying out to our old man, and being born again of the water and of the Spirit.

 Death in that we die daily to our fleshly desires that cause us to have pride, hate, lust, and envy, among other things; the meditating upon , and acting thru of actions such as these cause us to be separated from Christ. Yet dying daily or rather denying these desires and chasing Christ, produce death to the flesh and a new life in Christ daily.

Ultimately, death in the physical sends us to Heaven, the “goin’ up yonder” as it were where we are in the presence of Jesus Christ forever more.

So you see the Funeral of our flesh, indeed leads to the Wedding that everyone is invited to attend.

Reading:

Song of Solomon 2:4

Matthew 22:14

1 Corinthians 15:31

Philippians 1:21

Revelation 19:9

THE VERDICT

The young man nervously rose from the wooden bench seat and humbly staggered to the podium in front of him. The silence in the room was unbearable. In his hand he clutched a blue folder, and in that blue folder a list of papers that he felt would defend his case.

He was in a courtroom, the judge sat in a black robe looking at him. “How do you plead?”

“Not guilty your honor”

The young man then stood by the law officer and nervously fumbled his way thru his self defense. All the while internally shaking in fear of the verdict and wondering if the judge would buy the truthful audacity of his plea.

Then it happened. The judge lowered his sentence, the young man appreciatively, thankfully exited the courtroom knowing, just as had all in attendance that he was undeserving of such grace and mercy.

They grabbed the woman, dragging her through the streets, half clothed, and desperately grappling for any remnants of clothing and or covering she could find to protect the fleeting grasps of her modesty. The jeers of the crowd were unbearable as she was dragged thru the desert streets, rocks cutting in to her skin as the angry men pushed and prodded her to the house of worship. She was no good, she was dirty, and the thoughts of her mind echoed the taunts of the people. Finally her moving stopped as the mob thrust her down at the feet of a man.

The one they called the teacher.

“Teacher” one of her accusers stated “We found this women caught in the very act of adultery, the law says we should stone her….” The accuser then sarcastically, gleefully turned his head in disdain towards the women then back to the teacher as he finished his statement “but what do YOU say?”

The Teacher did not speak; instead He drew in the sand. The woman was to afraid to do anything, the entirety of her life was being held in the balance of a Teacher, a teacher, whom many of her accusers honestly wished to see, stoned alongside her. The awkward silence was now unbearable. The accuser became anxious “Rabbi, Teacher, is you going to respond”.

The Teacher looked up in a voice that echoed supreme knowledge, power, authority, yet the kindest of tones stated “LET him who has no sin, cast the first stone”.

The women trembled at first, clenching her body preparing for the rocks to crush her skull and penetrate her skin. But they never did. She heard shuffling, but dared not look. After what seemed like an eternity she noticed that the men from oldest to youngest had all dropped their stones, and gloomily walked away. The mob was gone. The Teacher walked towards her, lifting her head from the dust He stated. “Woman where are your accusers?”

 She burst into tears of gratitude, the salty tears of joy mingling in the sweat on her face. “Gone LORD, there are none”

The Teacher smiled an all knowing smile, “Well neither do I accuse you, “ the gentle tone soothed her soul, but the tone authoritatively changed as He stated “GO, and sin no more”. She appreciatively would forever remember that day; The Teacher extended His grace and mercy in her undeserving stead.

The man stood, or at least tried to stand, his knees buckled, his heart pounded. This was eternity, by him stood his accuser, looming, foreboding, a serpent, a dragon, mincing eagerly to devour his eternity, his soul, his life his future. The man lowered his head in embarrassed shame as the accuser began to list a slew of his offenses to the Eternal Courtroom. The silence was unbearable, as the accuser ranted and raved at the man’s short comings. The man couldn’t endure it anymore. He was near the breaking point.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED.

The Judge, The Righteous Judge stood.

“Enough Satan, His crimes are not against you, “ then directing his attention to the man, the Judge asked, “Child do you have a lawyer, an attorney, anything you would like to say in your defense”?”

The man choking on his own tears blubbered, “Jesus, I call upon Jesus, who shed His blood for me, whose name I have applied to my life and whose Spirit lives inside of me”.

At that the court froze, The Judge walked from His throne, His seat of judgment, and walked towards the young man. The bailiff of angels tensed in anticipation, the accuser was washed in a state of confusion. Finally the Judge stood by the young man at the defense stand. Pushing the young man behind Himself the Judge stated. “The man has appealed to Jesus, and I am here”.

He turned to the accuser, “I Jesus have taken on his fines, I have paid his fees, and I have done the time for him.” In a Lion like roar of a voice The Judge then spoke “Accuser you have no place in this court and certainly no claims to this man, you are dismissed”.

The young man trembled, dropped to his knees in gratitude. “Thank You, Oh Holy and Righteous Judge for I am undeserving of Your infinite grace and mercy”

Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe sin have left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow.

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” 1 Tim 2:3-6

Peace and God Bless

Salvation in your love: This Ain’t Love

The sun shined into the store as the employee steadily swept the store floor, little crumbs trickled into the dust pan. As the young man swept a soothing song echoed, “In your love, my salvation lies in your love”. The song immediately triggered a thought in the man’s mind. That has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard he thought.

My salvation lies in your love…now that’s stupid.

Or is it?

“Love….a word that comes and goes, but to people really know what it means to really love somebody”.-Kirk Franklin

It should also be noted that there are different types of love; there is agape love which is unconditional, brotherly love, and Eros or erotic love.

We live in a culture where the term love, generally has been watered down and turned into something else. We are convinced that if we love someone, that it is right for us to give our bodies to them.

We have also been told that one can easily fall in and out of love, because love is no longer a commitment.

Since love is no longer a commitment but an emotional/physical high that we have to give of ourselves to receive in rewarding ourselves….

It’s kind of weird but in truth, I guess we really don’t know “how to love”.

Side note: why do artist’s who proclaim the very antithesis of what love is, somehow end up making one song about “love”?

You see we’ve turned love into something that’s always about what we can get and what we can conquest or dominate. It’s no longer about a mutual commitment to be together for richer or for poorer, in sickness or in health. Oftentimes our “love” becomes a self fulfilling ego booster, with the grand finale being an emotional and or physical climax. The ends becomes a means at the satisfaction level is focused on us and not them.

#ThisAintLove

But what if our salvation is found in love, well….someone’s love?

Salvation= the redemption from something.

Love =the intense commitment to something.

Crazy thing is, is our salvation IS found in love.

The name JESUS literally means “Yahweh is salvation” or the “Salvation of Yahweh/Jehovah”

The short of it is, Jesus, God manifested in the flesh, had a name that defined both who He was, and what His purpose was.

Love

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life”.

1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

At this point we have now discovered two things, God LOVED the world therefore He gave, what did God give to us, the only perfect thing He could give, the fullness of Himself robed in human flesh. (see 1Timothy 3:16, Colossians 2:9) To die on a cross to save us from our sins.

John 3:17 “For God sent His son not into the world to condemn (judge) the world, but that the world thru Him might be saved”

The fact of the matter is Jesus, who is salvation, was also God, who is love. Not the imperfect form of love or a jealous form of love, or even lust masquerading as love. Nope Jesus is love in its purest form.

Crazier still, there is nothing we can do on our own to say we earned His love. Yet God gave us His love freely.

This is why the Apostle Paul when writing in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 could tell us what love (charity) was.

When Paul says “Love is patient” in 1 Cor 13:4, he’s not talking about our love, he’s talking about the perfect love of God that we as Christians should have in our own lives.

#ThatIsLove.

God is love, and God in the flesh is our salvation. Our salvation from sin, our salvation from death, and our salvation from the thing that we call love that isn’t.

While I firmly disagree with what the artist in the song was attempting to say.

At the end of the day

Our (mankind’s) salvation is found in the love of Jesus, God manifested in the flesh.

Peace and God bless

THE UNDERCOVER BOSS

-A Narrative

Have you ever seen the show Undercover Bosses?

If not here’s the whole thing in the nutshell. A company exec of some form wants to know what it’s like to actually work at the lowest level of his company, to get his lowest level employees opinions of how the company could be better. And hopefully, improve the morale of his employees.

Follow?

Play story time music now.

Having said that there was once a company (as it were) called Earth, the founder was well….GOD. God created the company and He handed it over to His board of trustees, a husband and wife. The husband and wife made a horrible decision; they took the company and leased all of the Earth’s assets, wealth, and value to a horrible selfish con artist.

Let’s call him…the Devil.

The Devil corrupted the company in a variety of ways. Yet the original founder God still managed to insert Himself on a CONTINUAL routine basis in with the people who actually “worked” on earth. God did this by demonstrating plans to each new generation of people on Earth to tell them more about Him, and also how they could lessen the burden of the devil’s horrible job tasks and improper pay. We will call the tasks Sin, and the paychecks….death.

FOLLOW?

The original founder (God) knew all along however that the company employees would not understand Him, had been tricked by the Devil into hating Him, and ultimately were indebted by the Devil to work at this continually failing company forever.

But the Executive (God)  had a plan. Doing something unprecedented, He stepped into the actual work force. But He didn’t come as the Executive.

NOPE

HE came as… another worker. One who had to put on the company uniform, (became Human) and had to learn just like every other worker (human) did about how everything at the company worked.

Even though He created the company and everything in it ,He still had to learn how it worked. It wasn’t a façade, it was a legitimate learning process that HE, the Executive ,had to endure.

The Executive was a great learner, and obviously an even better teacher. He began to tell the other workers how the company was originally intended to operate. The other workers flocked to Him; they loved to hear Him tell stories of the company at Lunch Break. They loved to be fed by Him; they loved to work with Him. He was well….their hero.

But some did not like it.  The shift managers, now to some this may seem unusual, because it was to them that the The Executive had entrusted the “care of the company "to, despite the Devil’s current lease on the company. The shift managers began to devise a way to fire the Executive. They tried to catch Him stealing from the company; they tried to catch Him sleeping on the job, anything and everything.

They tried it all.

But He was too perfect. Beyond Perfect. He was the Epitome of Perfect Perfection.

Finally the unthinkable happened. The Shift Managers went to the Lease owner. They decided to fire the Executive that very night. The Lease Owner agreed because unlike all of the others, he began to suspect that this “New Employee” was SOMEHOW SOMEWAY connected to the Executive, and with the New Employee gone he could rule the company.

However this plan failed. Yes the Executive was fired. But something was overlooked. With no record of the Executive’s wrongs, the Executive could now file suit against the Devil and take back His Company from the Devil. Even better, the Executive as the “New Worker” had established a relationship with the coworkers who followed Him. The relationship with Him as a New Worker guaranteed that they now not only owned Stock in the Company. But that they now had direct access to the Executive. They could call Him on their cell phones, email Him, and expect the same from Him... whenever they wanted. Their future with the company was going places. Not only that, but the Executive told them that eventually He would destroy His original company, and remake it. The new company would be co-owned by all of His faithful employees and there would be no need to ever worry about the Lease owner (The Devil) ever corrupting the company again.

God=The Ultimate Undercover Boss. Who came as a “New Worker” in the Uniform of Humanity with the name tag of Jesus. It is with Jesus that we (The Employees) have worked. He has given us a new way to know Him. We are guaranteed a place in His new company via the Contract that the New Worker as a New Worker made with the Executive as the Executive. And we are a part of it all. Assuming you know the New Worker (Jesus) and have His name tag on you.

Peace and God bless

-Caleb aka MK

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:5-11

16And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.- 1 Tim 3:16

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. - Galatians 3:27

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7 Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah’s gift. 8 For it says:

When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity;[a] He gave gifts to people.[b]

#YouGotThemJaysThough

(A Cultural Reflection)

Imagine this, at 2Am in the morning, people are lining up in front of a shoe store, all across America. Be it Foot Locker, Finish line or any other shoe store, the people are lined up. Each person has their mind made up. Yes, today they will spend that 150 plus on this item. This one item that will change their life.

Yes ladies and gentlemen that is right, a pair of Jordans.

Concords, Chicagos, Cool Greys and whatever else, these  are items people will skip work for, go in debt for, skip school for, and evaluate the whole self worth of another person.

Yea you’re failing class yea you have a 1.5gpa but,

#YouGotThemJaystho

Now here’s something crazy to consider. While you’re out there spending upwards of 150 dollars on a new pair of shoes, the creator or founder as it were, lives entirely unaffected by your monetary homage to him. Granted, without us going out to buy his shoes on a monthly basis, he would not be as financially stable as he is, but Michael Jordan does not suffer any grief, nor does he receive any extra blessing when you buy his shoes.

The following is not intended to be a slant against him, but it should be noted that most informal interactions with Michael Jordan have been documented as rude, if not all out unwanted interactions. The point being made is that Michael Jordan, the one who we often idolize, and whose shoes we obsess over, has little care for most of us on a general level, except when it becomes time for his new edition of sneakers to drop.

#ButYouGotThemJaystho

The crazy thing is the same dedication doesn’t seem to be donated, at least on average to other things in life. It amazes me, how little time we, (yes we) will spend on things that are of little importance. For example, we are willing to stand in line for countless hours and wait for a 150 dollar pair of shoes, and if the wait takes too long, people become restless and are willing to break the glass of a store and incite small riots for a pair of shoes, and if that doesn’t work, some have gone to the far extent of robbing, even killing others. Yes it is unreasonable, yes it is illegal.

#ButYouGotThemJaysTho

Flip the coin once, the dedication to a “fresh pair of Jordans” in urban culture, is a lifestyle, the standard of total shoe mastery, all of this for the emblem of a man who could care less about your existence on your shoes sole.

Now let’s talk about souls.

You see in the same breath there once was a man, no rather, there is a God, who was so dedicated to the existence of mankind that He took on the jersey of a human as it were and “manifested Himself in flesh”. He wanted to be with us so much that He spent 30 some odd years on earth, all for one purpose, no not a basketball court, but a Roman court, and no He never soared high to dunk on a backboard, but He was lifted high with His back against two wooden boards.

Jesus the Christ, His Airness, died to purchase your soul.

Yet we treat Him as if He never existed, and worse yet, we (myself included) aren’t willing to wait thru a church service, or dedicate are free time to spend time with the One who made it all. The crazy thing about it is time with Jesus, is free. In fact the price of salvation is free; the freedom from our sins is free. Yet we’ve become so obsessed with pleasing others who don’t care, and living up to a lofty standard of living that in the end is worth nothing, that we ignore the One who saved our souls. I guess you could say our priorities are out of order,

But it doesn’t matter.

Why?

Well in all honesty it is because,

#YouGotThemJaysTho

1 Cor 7:23  You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

 1 Tim 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God[a] was manifested in the flesh,  Justified in the Spirit,  Seen by angels,  Preached among the Gentiles,  Believed on in the world,  Received up in glory.

Peace and God Bless

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE .............Right?

Or

#YOLO

An observation

The blaring, brightness of the blazing sun, shining throughout the afternoon sky, and beaming brilliantly off of the side of every passing car; was in direct contrast to the brisk, blowing breeze that winter’s day. In fact the whole mood was wrong.  A young man scurried inside the church house. The church house was generally alive with sounds of praise and worship, warm smiling faces, and an overabundance of tranquil joy, and more importantly, overwhelming peace. Today however was different, yes indeed all of those elements were still there but something was very different.  The sanctuary was dimmer than usual, the people sat still in their seats, soft music was playing, and everyone spoke in hushed tones.

It was a funeral.

Generally speaking I’m not a fan of funerals, I have never been a fan of funerals, or weddings for that matter.  Lately I have come to accept both, as a part of life

Or death for that matter.

The point is Biblically speaking it is actually good for us to go to funerals. The wise King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 7:2

“It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every man, And the living [takes it to ]heart.”

Why because, especially in this current generation people have started to think You Only Live Once.

But when you’re at a funeral.

You think to yourself

Do you only live once?

What comes after this?

Am I prepared for it?

Generally speaking at every funeral we hear how “so and so” was such a good person and how generally with the exception of Adolph Hitler, Hussein, and Osama, how they’re in a “much better place”

BUT what if that isn’t  always true?

What if there is a Heaven and a Hell

And WHAT IF no amount of your own “goodness” could get you there?

What if every “good person” who died had the opportunity to live twice?

But only lived once to die twice?

Now you have probably thought that this is a wild goose chase. But the fact is

IT is not!

 In John chapter 3:3-5  we read

“3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born ]again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

See Jesus (God manifested in the flesh) told us that we do not have to “Only live Once” in fact trying to “only live once” is such a cop out when Jesus says

“10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and [a]have it abundantly.”

The Bible also tells us that every person does live once but after that the judgment.

So you could only live once, but that is such a bad deal. Why live once when you live once, and then live again?

Peace and God bless