Wrecks and Reckoning the Truth on Life and Death

Two days ago (Thursday), in the dark misty morning, I was in a dreadful car wreck on the way to work.  A car coming from the other direction, made a curve and came into my lane and hit me.  My car was knocked off the road, and totaled.  I am sore today, but gratefully, both the other driver and I were spared serious injury.

On Facebook, many, many people, having heard of the wreck and seeing the photographs, shared their concern, encouragement, and let us know that they were praying for my family and myself in the days ahead.  A multitude of praises were lifted to God for His protection, and rightly so.

Yesterday (Friday), as I looked at my Buick Century in the back lot of the body shop where I work, I thought over what happened, and how it so easily could have gone fatal.  In a moment, I would have been gone from this life.  Yet, God had shielded me from danger and delivered me.  Someday, He'll call me home, but it wasn't that day.  Here are some of the thoughts that came from those musings:

The Lord knows best.  He giveth "life, and breath, and all things".  If the Lord Jesus had willed for me to die in that crash, if it was my time to leave this earth, He would still be worthy of all praise.  I would praise Him in glory, and would desire for those I left behind to trust and praise my God too, even in the midst of tears.

"Blessed in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).

"For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's" (Romans 14:8).

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).

These are not just some poetry, or high sounding jargon.  These are the words of the living God, and they are TRUTH.  Therefore I "wreckin" them to be so, or rather RECKON them to be so...

I look forward to being in glory with my Redeemer-King and saved loved ones gone before, 
but I also love being with my family and serving Him here.  "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17).

I love all his blessings, including this life, my wife, and children, and I am grateful to be alive, so that I may meet my new son when he is born very soon.  

I RECKON that I need to value not only life but those God has given me with whom to share it.

I love the gift that my precious wife is to me (Proverbs 19:14)!  She is the wife whom I love, who honours me, supports me, forgives me, labors with me, and prays for me.  I desire to live long with her, to love her with Christ as my example, to labor diligently to provide and shelter her, to dwell with her according to knowledge, to lead, teach, and lay down my life in her defense.  I want to treat her with honour and humility.  To be there with her in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in activity and in rest, in joy and grief, in the battle field and the harvest field, in the play room and the war room, in turmoil and in peace, in persecution and in pleasantness, in youth and in age, so long as I have breath.   

I also love the gifts that are my children (Genesis 33:5)!  I desire to see my children come to know, fear, love, and serve Jesus Christ with every fiber of their being.  I pray for their salvation by faith, and their growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour! I desire them to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in wisdom and in stature.  I want them to love and hold fast to the truth of Scripture, to allow it to dwell in them richly, and work mightily in their lives.  I desire for them to be counted as those in this next generation who will in boldness and love speak truth in a world that loves lies, to warn the wicked and rescue the weak, to stand at the gates of death with the words of life.  And I'd love to be there to laugh and play and wrestle with them, to read with them, to do chores and explore with them, to cheer them on for Christ and faithfully chasten them when they need it.  I want my children to be straightened, sharpened, fitted, and fired out to hit the target for Christ, to the praise of His glory!  And I'd love to see them, and their children, and charge them to run the course of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus!

I yearn that my household reflect the truths in Psalm 127, 128, 133, and so many others.  Oh, that God would build our house, unite our hearts to fear His name, and send us in harness to His will for the work to which He hath called us; that He would bring forth much fruit in our lives, and that the fruit would remain.  

We are told that in Christ we have been given "all things that pertain unto life and godliness".  You see, the Christian has access to stedfastness in Christ both for this life and the next.  I do not want to go earlier than my time, but I am ready when He calls, and yearn to hear Him say, "Well done."  I know my own flesh, my own failings and fallings well.  I am weak, and baited to serve Self, rather than my Saviour.  I must RECKON truth, and say, "Down, Self, Christ is my King!"  If anything good is seen, or is well done in my life, it is the Lord working in me.  He will finish the work He has begun (Philippians 1:6).  God hath spoken and He cannot lie.  In times of weakness, trial, and pain, trust Him, and watch what our God will do!

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20). 

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13). 

Therefore, my brethren, let us RECKON truth about these matters of life and death.  Christ is victorious over death.  Why shall we, who are saved by the blood of the Lamb, tremble over the grave?  Whether it comes when we are young or old, by "accident" or "incident", martyrdom or in peaceful sleep, Death need hold no fear for the saved soul.  So let us not cower from venturing out for Jesus Christ!  And let us not embrace ease and comfort and neglect the call to battle!  Let us RECKON ourselves already dead in Christ, and thus alive in Christ (Romans 6), living not henceforth for ourselves, but unto Him who died for us, and rose again (II Corinthians 5:15)!

There is still time to win a battle before the sun goes down.

I Corinthians 15:54-58

54 "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 

55 "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 

56 "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." 

57 "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

58 "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

So grateful that God is sovereign, 
even over the "Wreck of the Century"!