WAS & IS ETERNAL LIFE

Romans 6: ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

You know I've driven past, and walk past hundreds if not more tombstones, and I must say the one pictured here is a pretty fancy way to put a cap on the life of someone that has gone on into eternity.   I mean sometimes without knowing the person you still make assumptions based on what you see.   Think about it.....if this was someone's head piece, what would you think?   

Today's devotion is not about the decorativeness or expense of tombstones, but rather it is about realizing what are you doing with this thing, this gift called LIFE.  WHY?  Because someday it will end, and someone will need to make a decision on how you are to be buried, and what will the head stone be, or say.    But what's more important than all that is ........what have you done?  Every tombstone has a birth date seperated by a dash (hyphen) then death date.  The scripture says that we have turned from our old way of living and have traded in that life of bondage to the world & it's systems to become slaves of God.   We literally have swapped what we thought was living (really for ourselves) for ETERNAL LIFE (living for Christ's Glory). 

There's no candy coating it folks WE ALL WILL DIE; some peaceful, some in pain, some horrific, even some very very lonely...but the wages of our sins produce death, but have you accepted the BEST GIFT EVER; ETERNAL LIFE?   It is this comfort in knowing that the hyphen (between the birth date and death date) is filled with great works where one lived not for themselves or their gain but for the GLORY & GAIN of JESUS CHRIST.  The benefits of accepting this freely given GIFT are holiness which then leads to ETERNAL LIFE.  Since none of us know exactly when our lives will end on this side of eternity, it becomes INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT TO LIVE EACH DAY as if it were the last.........which means begining now we all need to focus all of our ENERGIES today and LGLP!