Greetings in the name of our Lord! Last night was a lot of fun. First, our IM dodge ball team had two games. We lost both but had a blast and definitely lost with style. Then the college students and I went to church to take on the men's club in dart ball. For those of you who don't know, dart ball is where you throw metal tipped darts at a cork board that has a baseball diamond on it. It is very intense and heckling is the most important part of the game. I think I held up my end with the heckling, but not the throwing. Fun was had by all though nonetheless.
Here is my devotion on Psalm 6:
Psalm 6 verse 5
Christians, especially Lutherans, are kind of stuck in a tough position. I am confident in my salvation and eternal life. I am living my eternal life right now, I do not have to die to get it. When I was baptized I was killed, quite literally. This is not just a symbolic death or metaphorical death; I actually died the same death Christ died on the cross. I got my punishment for sin, because the wage of all sin is death and I have died that death. And now I live in Christ because if I died His death I now live His life. Romans chapter 6 explains this very thing. I am living my eternal life and am living for Christ by the grace of Christ. The only life or death situation I can ever face is whether I turn away from my faith or not. The only way I lose this eternal life is to deny God or reject the faith He has given me. A gun in my face, a car wreck, cancer, none of these things are life or death situations as long as one remains in his or her faith, because they already have their eternal life. We should not be scared to die because we know of the life we already have that will be there when “death” does come to us.
However, just because we are not scared of death, does not mean we should wish for it to come or want to die. This is what King David is talking about in verse 5. “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” If we die, yes we will still have eternal life on the other side, with peaceful rest in heaven in the presence of our Lord, and we will be part of the ultimate goal, that final day when Christ comes again and raises the dead and we are reunited with our physical bodies ready to enter the new creation of the new heavens and new earth. Nonetheless, if we die, we are no longer here on this earth to do the work of our Father, to be the agent through whom He works His Gospel. While we live here we are His servants meant to be witnesses to our faith, spreading the Gospel with as many people as possible so that as many people as possible can be part of the chosen elect and enter into the new creation of that final day with us. This is why we are on this earth, this is our purpose of living a Christian life. One of my favorite quotes goes like this, “God does not have a mission for His church as much as He has a church for His mission.” God wants all to be saved. The fields are ripe and ready for harvest and we are the laborers who are sent out to collect the yield. We are called workers and called servants as Christians who are meant to use our life to further the spread of the Gospel.
So yes, we should not be scared to die because we know of the joyous salvation and gracious gift of life we have that will bring us to our Lord, but we should also value and cherish every moment we have on this earth as a gift. We should view every day as a chance to continue to serve the Lord, to work for Him in order to try to bring as many people as possible to the good news of His saving name. Thank the Lord that through His Son’s death and resurrection we have our salvation, graciously being made dead to sin and alive to Christ, but also thank Him for choosing you to be a part of the elect, for giving you the faith to believe in Him and receive this gracious gift of eternal life. Then thank Him for the time you have on this earth to be His faithful servant and remember you are part of the church who is part of the mission of bringing salvation and eternal life to every people, nation, tribe, and language. All Praise be to His name that will hopefully one day be heard by all peoples everywhere.
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