I am older, maybe too old to hold a job anymore. After all I’m over 60 years of age and “Well…I’m better off, sitting back and waiting on Social Security…than taking away a job from some young father.” That is the picture of life today…right? I would have to disagree. There is one part of today’s thinking that is overlooked continually by the young, which in years past was considered a foundation: Age.

Back then…AGE was something to be revered, something to look forward to, when the people of the world would ask the AGED…the burning questions about success in many areas of life. Unfortunately, this respect of honored time is long past and for the most part has come back in angry tirades, or forgotten all together. See your local nursing home.

2 Thessalonians 2.10-12, emphasis added:

“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

I can’t help but wonder about today and all the people in the world. The days rush by and I become more and more aware that these verses were actually being fulfilled even quicker than the days could turn. We can read in the newspapers and on the net, that UFOs are quickly becoming the newest sensation. We saw a period of time when the “Ghost Busters” were sensationalizing everything concerning the paranormal and they have since fallen into obscurity.

I believe they have become obscure, because it poses the question of the “After Life.” It is rather obvious that those who believe in extraterrestrial life would fend off time more equitably, than paying attention to Ghost Busters. After all, who wants to discuss the dead? It seems that to be inclined to ghost busting is more depressing than exhilarating. One could quickly see that these are “fads” more than anything else. I decided to do a bit of investigating in this area of fads.

Come to find out, “fads” are about fashion, fashion accessories, cars, where one vacations, etc., etc. And usually followed by what celebrity’s choose. It would appear that “fads” have nothing to do with the paranormal in any way whether it is ghost hunting or UFOs or the like. “Fads” are all about what we do today and where and what we wear or engaging in to a lesser degree, innocuous things.

We are not endeavoring to include those that swing to the outer reaches of society of any “fad.” We traditionally speak of thing sin the past like bell-bottom pants, long dog-eared collars, muscle cars (GTO, 68 Chevy Malibu, etc.) and the like. Ghost hunting and UFOs are strange in that they create feelings of dread, speak of the things we would just as soon NOT think about… and give you the “heebie-jeebies.”

They do indeed have their place, but considering the state of the world as we see it today, so many strange events seem to be taking place and the world is indeed worried. Therefore, the musings of yesteryears young, have fallen away and everyone is consumed with the “new revelations” of today.

I can’t say that I blame them! In the last one hundred years, world events seemed to equalize to a degree and yet, in the last two decades we have seem the worst catastrophic events take place and the up-tick in sheer numbers of these events has increased two hundred fold. This is bound to catch the notice of the most stubborn hermit.

We have watched as politics and greed change and almost eradicate the “middle class” here in America. This alone, would tell even the best optimist that doom is coming or something close to it. If ever there would be a scenario of “shooting oneself in the foot,” this is it!

The “one per centers” along with most in governmental politics and big corporations think that they should have the most of everything, regardless of the outcome.

In the end…it has brought about the second greatest recession since the “Great Depression” of the ‘30s. And to note here, it still isn’t over by a long shot and it possibly never will be. Will this be the legacy for our young to remember us by?

It is well spoken of in the Bible, in Proverbs 16:18:

“ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

The adjectives used here can also include greed as well. How foul PRIDE is! And yet, all one needs to do to have this arrogance of pride shown to them, is speak of Jesus Christ in a public forum of any type. What more does one need to examine the effects of pride, than almost everything going on around us? Crime is almost the greatest indicator. Try murder and theft for example. I sort of had a feeling of what was to come, when Madonna’s song “I’m a Material Girl” first came out and then we had the saying “It’s all about ME!”

Jeremiah 9.23-24, emphasis added:

“Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”

It is quite evident that the world knows little to nothing about those verses!

James 1.17, emphasis added:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does NOT change like shifting shadows.”

Can you imagine, what the world would be like if the world took this verse to heart? We all know when we SIN, we also know there is a God, who is just in every way and HE hates SIN. Therefore we must come to HIM and ask forforgiveness of our SIN. The problem is when we are so puffed up about ourselves…PRIDE…we can’t understand or even see the problem, to begin with!

This is why the Bible is so unique, in pointing to the humility of our heart…before such a just GOD! Because of PRIDE, people in general don’t understand why some things happen, then they excitedly state it was: “Being in the wrong place at the wrong time!” How far from the truth that thought could ever be!!

If there ever was a SIN…so heinous, so blinding, so vile, it is definitely PRIDE!! It makes you and me deceive ourselves into thinking we are more than we ought to think we are worth. At work, we like to think we are indispensable. At home we think we are always right and everyone else is wrong and then we wonder why our children grow up believing they are the “one and only” when that place is reserved for the Lord and no one else!

Romans 14.10-13, emphasis added:
“But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”

I believe those verses say it all and not only that, but speak of everyone saved or not: We WILL be made accountable for everything in our lives. Accountable for what we see and how we act, what we say and where our hearts are, whom we love and whom we hate, absolutely everything! What is even more unique is, everyone…KNOWS…this is true, you KNOW it in your heart (which is your spirit).

It’s just like knowing when you SIN, of which the majority of pastors will NOT preach about! All to the detriment of their congregations! And then these same churches wonder why they are NOT successful? “Prosperity” preached in the pulpits today does nothing more than speak to the PRIDE in every person sitting there, when the Bible expressly speaks of GIVING!!

Does anyone still remember the idea that says, “MONEY stays here? It NEVER leaves this planet!” The Bible continually speaks of the Father…GOD…as SPIRIT!! If that is the case, what has MONEY to do with HIM? NOTHING!! The bottom line for us is to understand that the Lord looks at the content of our hearts NOT the content of our wallets!

Big fancy church buildings and how wonderfully upholstered the pews are, mean nothing to the Lord! These things may even be a hindrance to someone who has no money, even for the offering plates! How odd…the Bible speaks of humility before the Lord…so what does man do, he builds lavish churches and then says this is a sign from God!

“Prosperity is NOT humility”!! Just like wearing $1000.00 suits and dresses makes you look down on those who are filthy, cold and hungry and need help!! I tell you what: You decide which side of the fence you want the Lord to find you on!

We’ve talked about this subject before at least once in my articles posted on Rapture Ready. I believe it is a very deep and sobering subject and at the same time…so necessary! Everybody that is ever “born” on this planet must deal with one’s own “death” at some point in time.

As a matter of fact you can NOT have one with out the other. If there is NO birth, then there is NO death either, except in an abortion! As serious and heinous as abortion is…I am not talking about that at this time. Every single person on the planet KNOWS…abortion…is the murder of a child!

It would seem that there are two ways to be “memorialized” and oddly enough…anyone can be, regardless of economic or professional level. The first is always the one we see on the news channels as some professional (of whatever) as his likeness recorded in some way. Usually with a statue or maybe his picture on a plaque, either way it becomes very notable and carefully placed for all to see.

For the rest of us, it’s usually in lieu of a funeral service and viewing, which in my personal opinion are a waste of time. ONLY…in that, I would never want to be put up to be viewed, whether alive or dead, somehow it seems to me to be very UN-necessary…and if dead…a bit gross. BUT…that is me!

In the Bible, we are told that our lives are very short…like a “vanishing vapor” and then we’re gone and we are also told that all those left behind will forget us in time, never to be remembered. I must admit that’s a little sobering to think about! In my own family I can see this.

My daughter was 4 years old when my dear Dad passed away and she doesn’t remember him at all. The same goes for my sweet, Mom. I remember her vividly and yet my daughter remembers very little of her, even though she was 11 years old when my Mom passed away.

I am sure this same thing runs in all families, bewildering though it may be. We talk about President Lincoln or any other person, what all they did in their life and yet, we know little about that person to begin with. They are an enigma. Judge Roy Bean was considered “A hangin’ judge and the “Law West of the Pecos.” But few know what kind of man he truly was on an everyday basis. It’s like learning about and knowing about a person will always be two very different things and so it is with everyone that is born. Someday those monuments will disappear and they…will be forgotten in time.

This is the “crux of the matter” as my sweet Mom used to say, it is the focal point…in being a human. We desperately do NOT want to be forgotten by anyone, especially those we love, like our families, and yet the Bible reminds us continually of this same situation. Thus, when we think of our own death, we know it is coming for each of us, we hope and pray it will be quick and painless and sometimes this comes true and not so in others.

So we see death as two-fold: Our actual death as a human and then the hope that we are never forgotten. Oddly enough, the first one is a “given.” You can NOT do a thing about it. It would seem that this is the more fearful of the two, the one where you stop breathing, the lights go out and then…what? Shivers run up and down our spine as we contemplate this inevitable situation! Gosh…the end.

Wow…what a concept to endure at the end of your life. Scary! It is comical in some ways when we think everyone will no longer remember us! So: We run out and build the highest skyscraper in the world, we die and in ten years and no one remembers who built it…disaster! Let’s see, who was Charles Lindbergh again? Or…who was Ramses II?

For hundreds and hundreds of years, the best minds did not understand “mortal death.” They also had a hard time recognizing that each of us has a soul and a spirit, the “unseen” part of us that provides life for our bodies. Everyone knows that these two exist inside our bodies, whether we are “willing” to acknowledge them or not…they are there.

There are Greek and Latin translations for this situation:
Body= Σώμα =e-o-s-a (In Greek) In Latin= Somes

Soul = ψυχή =ps-u-he-é (In Greek) In Latin= Animus

Spirit= πνεύμα =p-i-e-m-m-a (In Greek) In Latin= Phasmatis

We already know that there is the body (Σώμα =e-o-s-a, In Latin= Somes) the baggy, fluid and bone-filled housing, we use to walk and talk in. This is the part of us that one day dies and no longer works, that we must discard. It is said that the soul ( ψυχή =ps-u-he-é, In Latin= Animus) is the part of us where we actually think and feel emotion in, as in sayings like: “She had such a sweet soul.”

And then there is the spirit ( πνεύμα =p-i-e-m-m-a, In Latin= Phasmatis) that part of us that is the “Image of God” which is the only part that deals with spirituality, which is “of God.”

Most important in this last area is that which continues on after the body dies. In the Bible, it is broken down in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray Godyour whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And the Bible states that we can be divided, as in what the apostle

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:1:

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”

This is Paul who says he was speaking so that our bodies could hear, not in a Spiritual manner. And the next is in:

1 Corinthians 2:14:

“But the natural man receiveth NOT the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

“Natural” in the original Greek is “soulish.” And we can then see that Paul is talking about our “soul” as the “soulish” man, the one with “feelings and emotions.”

And then we read in 1 Corinthians 2:15-16:

“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

And so now we see that “God is Spirit.” Therefore to KNOW God is to be in “Spiritual” contact with God. In order to be in Contact with God, we must first belong to God, which is always through Jesus Christ and HIS blood on the Cross.

Now that we know the three parts of a man (body, soul, and spirit) we can easily see how any man or woman on this planet can be a “good person” and never see a moment of heaven with the Lord. With our body we are able to move and read, we read or hear the Word of God and then the soul is “moved” to want to know more, then the Lord God Almighty touches our spirit and calls us to HIM and we answer that call, by giving HIM our lives.

Not everyone follows this prescribed method, somehow they have fooled themselves into believing that their “good” manners and kind-heartedness makes them candidates for heaven. How wrong they are. Jesus Christ stated in John 14:6, emphasis added:

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

And so, that is the name of that tune!

We see now, that the body is close to the soul and yet these two are as far from the spirit as the east is from the west! We feel everything with the senses of our body and yet the emotions of our soul can give an action or situation an entirely different meaning (confusing?).

We know in our spirit that there is a God, a Creator, but way too many people want to be able to measure the spirit (science?), when they don’t understand that measurement is a “physical” thing, the “spirit” is already eternal and infinite.

The spirit is made in the “likeness of God.” God is Spirit therefore we must worship God in Spirit! Now that I have either deepened your understanding or have lost you entirely, it is at this very point that we must inject a bit of thought

How can you KNOW and UNDERSTAND our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (who is God in human form) IF all you ever use is your body and soul, but NOT your Spirit?

I’m sorry, crying in church is an emotional response, NOT a spiritual response! We must rid ourselves of the “soulish” response to a spiritual situation…and respond to God on a “Spirit-filled” basis…otherwise there is nothing there!

When your body ceases to function (you die as a human) and your spirit leaves your body and for the born-again Believer, your Spirit is with the Lord God Almighty…immediately…if not sooner!! Praise the Lord for HIS love for us!! Marantha Lord!!

To be continued!!