{"id":6272,"date":"2020-04-19T14:04:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T04:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6272"},"modified":"2020-04-19T14:04:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T04:04:28","slug":"a-death-leading-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/a-death-leading-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A Death Leading to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A Death Leading to Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Angelo Hanna<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Christ led a life pointing toward His climactic death, so we may have a death that leads to His promised eternal life. In this we live a life of true internal comfort; we mould into unbreakable fortresses that are hidden under the wings of Christ. No author, no matter how masterful, can fully express the comfort we gain once we learn to understand and feel the seismic shift Jesus\u2019 life brought upon us. We lose our comfort externally by enduring in hunger, prayer and\u00a0resisting temptation only to receive it tenfold internally. We wish not to live a life of glory, to the extent we see the glory of men as theft, theft from the beneficent glory of God. This is what the life of death looks like.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don’t belong here, we are not of this place, we belong somewhere else and we long for somewhere greater. If God was to lead the Israelites to a place on earth He described as \u201ca land flowing with milk and honey,\u201d <\/em>only if they would obey Him; how much more shall we strive for the transcendent Kingdom that Christ promised if we obey Him? Jesus tells us the Kingdom is in us, then why, Lord, do I not feel this? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018My Child, I AM this Kingdom. Open the door I always knock, allow Me into you. Only if you knew the wonders that are to come if you would just let Me in. I want you, just trust me, I yearn that you would only just neglect the exterior comfort. Comfort is not riches, it is not the love of men, It does not come from outside. No. No. No. Comfort is Me. I implore you to not worry about this life. Become an inner man so that you may dwell in the kingdom within you; the secret place within you where I shall preserve you under My wings.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have the chance now to be with Him, and we MUST yearn for the kingdom to come, not for His sake, but for ours. We MUST live with our eyes up. Christ came and \u201ccried out,\u201d <\/em>the teachings of everlasting life. It is to our benefit to have no benefit in the world. It is to our detriment to have no detriment in the world. Even St Paul says, \u201cwe also glorify in tribulations,\u201d <\/em>(Romans 5:3); why then seek a life of exterior comfort if not even Christ lived this? Christ willingly becoming the innocent lamb died for us so we may \u201cseek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old testament Scripture points towards this\ninternal struggle, and we see this through the narrative of the Israelites; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Babylonian exile, there were two very\npopular \u2018ways of exile\u2019 <\/em>which the Israelites would take; to ardently\nreject the Babylonians or to give in to their customs, ultimately forgetting\nthe God of Israel. To many, these were the only two ways possible to take,\nhowever we see a third way of exile, the way of Daniel. Daniel and his friends\nadhere to the harmless aspects of Babylonian life, without compromising his\nforemost priority, his Godly life. Daniel prays for the wellbeing of Babylon,\nand even finds favour in the eyes of the King. He lives a righteous life,\nwithin the exile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We who live now are in exile and have been since\nthe time of Adam and Eve. We too, have these paths to choose from. But one\nthing is inevitable within the Christian path – continual death to the world\nand its desires. Daniel fasted despite being told he couldn\u2019t and Daniel didn\u2019t\nbow down to idols but instead decided to seek a God that he may not see with\nhis eyes- depriving himself of the gratification of seeing this physical \u2018god\u2019\nof theirs. We too must live a similar life, a life of deprivation, hardship and\nprayer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, it is important to make a clear distinction\nbetween the soul and the body. We hear Christ say to His disciples, \u201cthe\nspirit is willing, but the flesh is weak\u201d, <\/em>Mat 26:41. Our flesh desires\nearthly and temporal life, and too often do we follow it, neglecting the will\nof the soul, a will guided by the Holy spirit. In reality, our soul truly wants\ndeath, it wants to be free of this exile from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our soul is like the Israelites,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being entrapped within Babylon,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ways and desires of our body meander the\nindividual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soul wishes to be free of our bodies through\ndeath, to enter true life. But just like Daniel and his friends in Babylon, we\nmust live a Godly life- a life which nourishes the soul so that it may be able\nto enter into eternal life. And then we will come to realise that truly, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death is what grants us life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Death Leading to Life by Angelo Hanna Christ led a life pointing toward His climactic death, so we may have a death that leads to His promised eternal life. In this we live a life of true internal comfort; we mould into unbreakable fortresses that are hidden under the wings of Christ. No author, … Continue reading “A Death Leading to Life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,171,267,295,268,44,292,293,294],"class_list":["post-6272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-christ","tag-comfort","tag-death","tag-eternal-life","tag-life","tag-resurrection","tag-saviour","tag-soul","tag-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6274,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272\/revisions\/6274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}