{"id":7230,"date":"2014-07-20T01:35:56","date_gmt":"2014-07-20T05:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=7230"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/dying\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT ARE WE DYING FOR?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calvin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>When we reflect upon the cross of Jesus, we are impressed by the fact that He invites us to share death with Him.\u00a0 In following Him we expose ourselves to a cross-like life.\u00a0 His promise is that in losing our lives we will find our lives.\u00a0 Love has no greater expression than laying down one’s life for another.\u00a0 The gospel is a cause worth dying for and many martyrs have made the ultimate sacrifice.\u00a0 The Christian life is a risk-taking adventure.\u00a0 We cannot escape its call to death even as it offers the highest quality of life.\u00a0 Because life is our most precious asset we cannot make a total commitment until it too has been offered.\u00a0 We can never overestimate the power of dying love.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is a sense in which we are all dying for something.\u00a0 Some folk are dying for cigarettes.\u00a0 They are smoking themselves into the throes of lung cancer.\u00a0 There are those dying for excessive use of narcotics.\u00a0 They are drinking themselves toward alcoholism and cirrhosis.\u00a0 They are popping pills with fatal implications.\u00a0 Some people are dying for their careers.\u00a0 They are exhausting themselves into workaholics.\u00a0 They are losing the joy of their work in the addiction to work.\u00a0 We are beginning to see more and more people dying for food.\u00a0 Poor diets and gluttonous eating habits are creating serious health problems.\u00a0 There are any number of people dying for attention.\u00a0 They worry so much about being neglected it eats away at their nervous system.\u00a0 Yes, in one way or another we are all dying for something.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The big question which confronts us is this: Is what we are dying for, worth dying for? This is where the gospel comes to our rescue and offers us something bigger than ourselves to which we can be committed.\u00a0 Giving ourselves away to worthy causes is what the Christian life is all about.\u00a0 From the time we are born we begin the process of death.\u00a0 Hopefully on the journey we can find a life worth living through the things worth dying for.\u00a0 Some people are dying for no good reason.\u00a0 Other people are dying with a peace and a purpose from God.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The cross of our Lord becomes our model for both living and dying.\u00a0 The spirit of sacrifice is necessary for abundant living and peaceful dying.\u00a0 Our Lord taught us that unless a seed falls into the ground and dies it cannot produce life.\u00a0 Dying daily to ourselves we are resurrected in fulfillment.\u00a0 Giving ourselves away to that which is high and holy exposes us to that which is high and holy.\u00a0 May the Lord God of the cross give us a cross-bearing witness in a world which still crucifies innocence.\u00a0 Since we are all going to die at some time, let us make it worthwhile.<\/span><\/div>\n

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     When we reflect upon the cross of Jesus, we are impressed by the fact that He invites us to share death with Him.  In following Him we expose ourselves to a cross-like life.  His promise is that in losing our lives we will find our lives.  Love has no greater expression than laying down … Continue reading “WHAT ARE WE DYING FOR?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-7230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-christian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19168,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions\/19168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}