Jun 26

Not only is God worthy of receiving my highest gift to him of my soul, he has made this act of reverence and worship the crucial, single act that determines whether or not I will keep that soul. I keep only by giving away, by giving back to him, what he first gave to me.

How could it be otherwise? Since he created me, all that I have comes from him. What could I give him except what he has first given me? And since he is the highest of all that exists, he therefore deserves the highest I can offer him. Yet all the while I acknowledge that I can really give him nothing, for all I have has come from him. But I can give it back to him, like a child giving a father a gift which really is only giving back what the father has given the child.

But there is another aspect of this that deserves our attention. Since nothing can exist apart from God holding it and giving it power to exist, it is therefore impossible to not give God one's soul and still go on existing. For Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the One who sustains all things by his power. All things includes the human soul. Therefore, if that soul refuses to come to the source of continued life, that soul dies. That is hell. And hell can be experienced even on this earth while one is alive, for to exist without him who is life and the sustainer of life is hell.

Without Jesus, no one can keep even what he has.

"Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away" (Mt. 25:29).

He who does not have life in Jesus may have a minimal form of life, but in the end, at death, even what he has will be taken away from him.

Scripture for today: Mt. 25:14-30
Thought for today: Death takes away life for those who do not know true life in Jesus, who is Life.
Prayer for today: Thank you, Jesus, for being my life that cannot be taken away from me by death.

JUN 26