“You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.” (Job 14:5 NLT)

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-10 NLT)

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” (Psalm 139:16-18 NLT)

“For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:24-28 NLT)

“So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.” ((1 Corinthians 15:21-23 NLT)

…I have been called…

…to help the children of God realize that it is our Father’s desire that as His children we live strong long lives worth living, without limit or end, with nothing missing or broken; therefore He designed us to live lives filled with purity, passion, power, and purpose; as in partnership with Him we expand the manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (here and now); regardless of our current age or condition.

“Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.” (1 Corinthians 15:22 NLT)

I don’t know about you, but I am ready to move beyond focusing on death (even if we are looking through the eyes of life). I am beyond ready to give all of my attention to the new life that I possess in Christ. However, I do have one more passage to look at.

Why is it that when I offer the possibility of positive promises from God so many defend their right to hold on to what they have and reject the possibility? Have we done such a poor job in presenting the Gospel and all of the benefits available in the Kingdom that what the world has to offer appears more attractive? Is it really that difficult to accept that there may be more than what we are currently experiencing? Are people’s hearts and minds really that hard?

It always breaks my heart when I share the opportunity to receive new life in Christ and the person walks away empty handed. When I share the possibility of healing many reject the offer. And now that the Lord has revealed to me that there is the availability of a better way than the common path of aging and death, I have already experienced skepticism and hesitation to believe. Why not take a chance on believing? After all, what have we got to lose? The worst case scenario is that we have hope for today and then simply experience what we would have experienced anyway if we had not had that hope. 

In order to understand the Apostle Paul’s statement of death in Adam and life in Christ, it is important to note that it is in the context of defending the resurrection of Jesus. Paul’s emphasis is on the fact that the resurrection is what validates the reality of the Gospel and gives us hope for eternity. Without the hope of the resurrection we are without hope and miserable. Once again, the emphasis is not on proving that there are no exceptions to death. He is not denying the reality of the examples given of those who bypassed this process. He is pointing out that death was not in God’s original design for mankind. It came through Adam, not the Father, and Jesus’ resurrection was confronting and defeating death. I could say so much more, but at this point I am handing off to the Holy Spirit.

“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.” (1 Corinthians 15:21 NKJV)

It’s time to move forward in sharing my “Late Life Assignment.” My hope is that by sharing these thoughts on the passages that I have found to be the foundation for embracing death I have cracked open the door to a fresh look at what is possible in Christ. I hope that by taking a fresh look at the positive alternative to aging and death as they are so commonly experienced, a spark will ignite your soul to pursue more.

Let’s change our expectations as we consider…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 381: Late Life Assignment: Part 17 – The Promise: Strong, Long Lives: Part 13