“Are you afraid to die?”
During any military campaign, there is an objective. It’s like the game “Capture the Flag.” But on the way to that objective, there may be many battles along the way and any one of them could take out a comrade…or you.
They say the best soldiers are the walking-dead.
These are those who have somehow reckoned themselves already spent for their objective. I wouldn’t want to run across these guys in battle, but I’d sure love to have them on my side.
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A GREAT Father's Day Present:
Applying this analogy to the Christian walk and to historical Christianity, we see it’s the same. The journey to the objective for Christ and all of the disciples eventually led them to death-on-behalf-of-the-objective.
It brings me to today. “Am I afraid to die today?” What will be asked of me that will shed some of earth’s weight for heaven’s weightlessness?
We are all marching toward a multifold objective that includes Christlikeness and kingdom-building with battles along the way. At any one point, we may be asked to give up our lives spiritually or even physically.
The question that stares me in the mirror: “Are you afraid to die?”
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: The campaigns and eventual physical deaths that soldiers go through is a clear portal to heaven in that it shows just how committed someone can be to an objective. It so easily correlates to the very path of Christ whose march was marked with battles until he finally took the hill.
As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem…Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’
Luke 9:51 NIV, John 11:16 NIV