BODY, SOUL & SPIRIT

062 – OCTOBER 2008

BODY, SOUL & SPIRIT

A brief conversation released penitence and great faith from one of the men who hung next to Jesus at the cross.
Luke 23:43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Unless we are faced with it, we don’t spend a lot of time talking about death. We tend to avoid the subject. In fact, we only think about it during those occasional weekly spreads provoked by a death and funeral. It’s an uncomfortable subject.
And it’s a bit scary … especially if you believe that when you die your “life” will decay in the earth. Ouch! I don’t believe that!
Nor do I believe that you will come back to Earth as a caterpillar, a cow or a more enlightened human being (status dependent on how well you performed in your previous life.)

2 Corinthians 5:18 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

We are made in 3 parts – body, soul & spirit. I believe that my body is a temporary house for my eternal soul and spirit. And, when I die … I don’t!!! I just slip out of my body.
If a glove was my body and my hand was my spirit and soul - I could wiggle my hand and, as people viewed the glove, they might say “That’s Chris.”
Now, when I die, my hand will slip out of my glove. People will look at the limp glove, and say “He’s dead.” Yet, they will need to observe that my hand is still alive and my fingers are still moving. Through Christ, I am alive. And, as I move out of the glove, there will not be one millisecond of time that I am dead. I simply proceed from this earthly pilgrimage into eternity. I leave wiggling and … very alive!!! I am immediately in the presence of God.

We seem to be a bit preoccupied with the body. We seem to be overly troubled about what, when and how often we should eat. We observe ourselves in the mirror and wonder how cute we might be without certain blemishes and lines. Forget the full length mirror! We diet, shave, and shampoo. We trim our nails, wash our feet, and as we age, witness hair disappear from areas that we want it to be and travel to areas where we don’t.

We should not neglect our body yet, think about it - you can’t really tell a book by it’s cover.
It would be wise to inject time into the soul (will, intellect & emotions), to resolve an excellence of behavior and attitude, and to seize a desire to be more caring, more forgiving, more positive and more loving … to name a few.
The spirit is the pulse beat of your being. It would be most wise to discover your spirit. It is the heart of your soul. It is “life” itself – with God being the source for your spirit to be alive. Apprehend God and have Him be the essence of your life.

2 Cor 4:18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.