E-Mails from Heaven

Dear Struggler,
You might not have seen it as such, but I intervened on your behalf tonight. When my servant shared at tonight’s Bible study, he was telling the truth. Even though he’s not always perfect, as is true of all of my servants, I am proud of his boldness – his willingness to say what needs to be said.

I would encourage you to hear my word on this matter of the relationship between sin and death. And I will admit that when the Spirit chose death as an image of what it means to be following after the flesh instead of being led by the Spirit, it was no accident.

Think about death for a minute. What does it look like to you? What qualities do dead people exhibit that distinguish them from those who are alive?

In death, there is no movement or consciousness. Dead bodies have no feeling of either joy or pain. At the very moment that someone dies, their bodies begin a very rapid descent into decay. Oh, it might not be apparent at first, but it begins to take place one second after they take their last breath. Death is irreversible. It is final.

Even though some people die suddenly and without any warning at all, most people die after a period of declining health. Too many times, it is the result of years of abusing their bodies that began with a seemingly harmless decision they made earlier in life. Maybe they drank too much or they smoked too many cigarettes. One thing is sure, it wasn’t the first cigarette that killed them, but their death began with the first one.

As I said, death was specifically chosen as an appropriate metaphor for what it means to be in rebellion against my father’s will. Unfortunately, spiritual death is not quite as easy to spot as physical death is. But one thing they do have in common is that spiritual death doesn’t occur overnight either.

This is especially true of those who at one time loved me and had committed their lives to me. The final act that drove them to resign themselves to a life of sin began long before. Spiritual death also comes after a time of declining health – your spiritual immune system has been compromised. Your faith has been weakened. When that happens, you have to stay away from the infectious disease of sin and temptation. Avoid it like the plague that it is.

If the connection between physical and spiritual death isn’t enough to make you shriek back in horror at your temptation to gratify the cravings of your flesh (a temptation I fully understand, by the way), maybe some of the other representations of sin I chose to put in my book will do the trick.

I view sin literally as a prison (Galatians 3:22). I see it as darkness (Colossians 1:13; Romans 12:13 and a host of others). I could go on, but you get the idea, don’t you? Sin is ugly! It will suck the life right out of you. It will imprison you. With sin, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Here’s what I want you to do: pour your heart into reading my word, my original message to you. Read it knowing that I am working with all of my might to snatch you out of the jaws of that roaring lion, Satan. He only wants to devour you: I am trying to rescue you. Don’t fight me on this. No matter what pretty picture he is painting for you, it is a lie. Remember – I am the only one of us who loves you. He hates you and wants you to die a hopeless death along with him. I want you to live. It's that simple.
In Love,
Jesus