I'm Not Dead!

What beautiful weather we’re having. It’s pouring down rain and everything is soaking wet. I awoke this morning to the sound of birds singing their praises to there maker for the rain and it won’t be long before all nature will be blooming, dressed in its new spring garb. Everyone is anticipating a wonderful season of Texas wild flowers this year and rightfully so. There’s nothing like it when a late winter wet spell entices the dormant seeds of spring, rewarding those of us on the top side of the dirt with a spectacular array of colors. Millions of pictures will be taken and shared because it’s hard to let the awesomeness of the moment to be stored only in ones memory. Well, I for one look forward to a beautiful display of spring, coming soon to a neighborhood near you, but as any South Texan knows, don’t miss it, because it doesn’t last long. Mind you I’m not complaining, but my schedule and the rain have been clashing for the past few weeks. The lack of drying time matching the lack of spare time on my part has my lawn looking like an embarrassing jungle. The weeds are loving the attentive watering their getting and they’re standing tall mocking my displeasure in them. That’s okay. My day is coming and they’ll rue the day of their insubordinate display. Sunshine, ambition and a sharp mower blade is all I’ll need to end their reign. The sunshine is promised; the new blade has been purchased; the ambition is on back-order.
Five-year-old Johnny was in the bathtub and his mother was washing his hair. She said to him, “Wow, your hair is growing so fast! It looks like you need another haircut already.” Little Johnny replied, “Maybe you should stop watering it so much.”
An irate subscriber stormed into a newspaper office waving the current edition demanding to see “…whoever wrote the obituary column”. When referred to a young reporter, while marching toward his desk the man barked, “You can see I’m very much alive, but you’ve put me in the obituary column. I demand a retraction!” Calmly the young man replied, “I don’t retract stories, but I can do this for you. If you’ll give me your mother’s full name, I’ll put you in the birth column, giving you a fresh start.”
Another man was dumbfounded when he opened the morning newspaper to read that he had died. He quickly phoned his best friend. “Fred. Did you see the paper?” he asked. “They say I died.” “Yes I did”, Fred answered. “Where are you calling from?”
[John 3:1-8; 1 Pete 3:8-22; Romans 6:1-4] “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 3:23). The resulting death is death of the spirit. Remember, we are first spirit, for we are made in the image of God and God is Spirit. We must conclude that heaven is a spiritual place and we cannot enter it as a physical being. Jesus told Nicodemus that he could not enter heaven unless he was “born again”. Peter wrote to the churches in northern Asia Minor explaining to the believers the importance of living a spiritual life, even suffering for living God’s will for man, because it is the life that leads the way to everlasting life. Paul’s letter to the Romans deals with the subject of sin quit a bit. In the reference given, Paul, writing to those already baptized, reminds them that they cannot continue to live their old life and expect the grace of God to abound. In baptism they died to their former lifestyle and have entered into a new way of life, one guided by the Spirit, not by the world and self indulgence. An obituary is inevitable, but my name is also in the Book of Life.