I Refuse Death!

I thought it was about time to share what’s been happening in my life. Lately I’ve been going through some heavy stuff. Death is breathing down my neck. Everywhere I turn there is death. People were stabbed to death in my hotel the other week. People are overdosing literally next door. I can hear women being beaten, last night a man was shot in the head outside of our coffee bar. It was the first time that I’ve seen something like that – less than five feet away from me was a man bleeding to death.
We are surrounded by death (in my case it’s a bit more literal), but nevertheless it’s all around us.
Isaiah 25:8 says the Lord will swallow up death forever and wipe away all of our tears from our faces.
I cor 15:54c, 57 – Death is swallowed up by victory. God gives us victory through Jesus.
Ephesians 2:1 says that He has made us ALIVE, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
(Also check out Romans 6:9-10)

As I was reading these verses it hit me. I turned to Ephesians and read 4:1 – I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Eph 5:14 “Awake o sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you”. Walk in the light. Walk in life. CHOOSE LIFE.
I am pro life in every sense of the word and I urge you to choose life over death. Walk in victory not defeat!

Living in the downtown eastside, living in the Balmoral hotel, right next to a safe injection site where people are overdosing daily, I can get overwhelmed with death, or I can recognize that: I am the light of the world (Matt 5:14) and I am an expression of the LIFE of Christ (Colossians 3:4). In Romans 12 it says – do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

Is not our mission clear? Do we really need to be beaten over the heads with this?
Let us be LIGHT, let us be LIFE, let us walk in a manner that’s worthy of the calling. We hear it preached a lot here that we need to be light in dark places; rightly so. We also need to be LIFE in DEAD places.

Choose today whom you serve – Life or Death???

(I wrote and saved this blog a few days ago, so there's more to come! God's revelation is still streaming in. Praise the Lord!)