The Dying Christian to His Soul

 

      I've been working on a research paper about the death and resurrection of Lazarus. After praying and meditating on that passage (John 11),

I began to think about how Christ has provided victory over death. Setting aside His great resurrection from the death; Jesus took the time to raise to life the beloved brother of Martha and Mary.

     What's more, Jesus tells Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life." Not only does Jesus provide eternal life through His resurrection, but He IS life. Christians have a hope and joy that no other people can understand. We have the hope of life after death -- eternal life with the God we worship -- where there will be no more pain or suffering.

     This is a poem by Alexander Pope that I felt described this feeling well...

The Dying Christian to His Soul

Vital spark of heav’nly flame!
Quit, O quit this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, ling’ring, flying,
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.

Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

The world recedes; it disappears!
Heav’n opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy victory?
O Death! where is thy sting?

Don't Stress

     With the school year in full swing, we are now getting to the time when due-dates, assignments and projects are needing to be finished. Time is running out and stress is running high. If you're anything like me, the week before an assignment is due, you freak-out! I desire so strongly to do my absolute best that I melt down right before I have to turn it in. Much of the time, I feel as though no matter how much effort I put into a project I could have done more.

     However, in these times of distress -- or seeming distress -- my mother tells me her favorite saying.

"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

     At first I want do scream, "That doesn't make me feel any better!" but then I realize that she is right. The only way to complete any project is to START and to start by taking ONE step at a time. No matter how large or insurmountable an assignment might seem the first thing to do is get started. Nothing will complete itself, but remember that the best or most that you can do is all you can give.

     One of my favorite quotes is from Mother Teresa, "I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much." God will never put you in a situation that is beyond your ability -- we often times put ourselves in situations that we cannot handle, but God never does. If we are positive that we are where God want us to be and we are doing what He wants us to do, the rest is up to Him.

      If you feel like you are drowning in schoolwork remember that there is an end. You can finish. God is with you the whole while. Allow Him to strengthen you and there will be nothing that can stand in your way.

Danté -- The Divine Comedy

I was reading Danté's Divine comedy for school, and I noticed something interesting...

What many people today probably don't know, it that most people's idea of hell comes from The Divine Comedy rather than the Bible. Kinda sad since there is so much clear doctinal error in Danté, but people will beleive what is popularly told, not necessarily what is true.

The section (or canto III as it is called in the book) goes over the region in hell where the people who didn't make a descision go. As in they neither chose God's team nor the Devil's team.

"They are mixed with that repulsive chior of angels
     neither faithful nor unfaithful to their God,
     who undecided stood but for themselves.
Heaven, to keep it's beauty cast them out,
     but even Hell itself should not receive them,
     to fear the damned might glory over them." (37-42)

Danté seems to believe that it is possible to be a neutral force in the universe -- neither for God nor against Him. Neither entirely good nor entirely evil. Danté must have either forgotten or simply ignored Matthew 12:30:

"He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters."

There is no middle ground with God. If one is not fully and wholeheartedly for the cause of Jesus Christ he is automatically set against Him. There is no limbotic, neutral middle ground. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way, as much as we'd like to believe so.


I'm sorry, Danté, but there are somethings that you believe (or at the very least, you wrote about) that don't line up with scripture. Your name is either in the book of life, or it is not. There is no arbitrary list that says, "These people never made up their mind." Not making a decision is a decision in and of itself, a decision of rejection. Rejection of Jesus Christ's provision.