We Paid for the Party with our Dearest Blood – The Death of Death

Greetings Dear Reader,

When pondering the sacrifice of Christ I often wonder why I falter in fully abandoning all so that I may follow him.  I want to do this.  I wish to be so committed to Christ that NOTHING else matters.  If I truly believe then why do I hesitate to die to self?  Why do I cling to things that do not matter?

I indulge time and resources in things that will not matter at all ten years from now.  I miss opportunities to serve others and to share Christ because I have died to my own wants and desires.  I have time as a gift from God and do not always redeem it well.  I have resources that I could use to help others that I do not always use well.  I have faith that I do not always share well.

As Christ faces death for me and in doing so kills death for me must I not then take up my cross, follow him, and die?  Christ did not hide at all that this was the cost of following him.  He bids us come and dine and bids us come and die.

So as I ponder my Saviour and his death I must also recognize that I must die as well.  In that dying to self is

where life begins each day.  I can love and live fully if I do so in his grace and mercy.  In the giving up all that I am and all that I can be to Christ’s lead is where I find the power and will to live more selflessly.  The journey to the cross becomes the journey to the tomb and then the journey to life.  If I would have life I must lose it.  If I wish to be free then I cannot avoid the cross.  If I want to be free then I must let his death lead to the death of self and life in him.

In that death to self is the request to be made whole. It is the desire to be alive.  It is the escape from boredom.  It is in death to self that we are freed.

If You Want to Get Free – Water Deep

In the gas station bathroom by the condom machine

I heard the word of the Lord

He said “Take off your shoes,

this is holy ground too

you know I came for the sick and the bored.”

Beneath the selling of beers

And the welling up of tears

Out beyond the beam of the remote control

There's a whispering voice

That the humble ear ears

that says “I am still waiting

for you to ask just to be made whole.”

And the bush it was burning on the mountain top

and though the leaves never blackened, the fire didn't stop

That's the way that it works in this old life of sin

You gotta let the fire burn you just to get clean within

I am so often deterred from my actual intent

by distractions in a cellophane wrap

And the cruel voice that taunts me when I open them up

to find just one more box full of crap

It's where you're mocked while you abstain

and then cursed when you give in

It's all a game that's impossible to beat

But there's a peaceful refrain God'll sing in your brain

when you put the nails to your hands and your feet

And the smell of our sacrifices

still fills up my head

There's just a few left at the altar, Lord

all the rest of them fled

And we've cried and we've tried

We've sweat and we've bled

But we don't just need atonement

We need to be raised from the dead

When they took down the cross from that dark hillside

The blood on their hands was the blood from his side

That's the way that it works, that’s the way it must be.

You gotta let His blood stain you of you want to get free

If you want to get free

Don't you want to get free?

I think you want to be free.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."