I turned to God to live and to be alive. Jesus said “Let the dead bury the dead.”. People over the centuries have thoughts and have opinions about that statement. You could sum them up this way. Scripture is full of urgency. Be urgent about following Jesus. Be urgent about responding to his calling. Be urgent about doing his will. Don’t assume you will have a chance to do it later. That day may never come.

The moment you are born, there is an unbroken line between you and your grave. We have heard with lines like “time stops for no one” which is quite true. A lot of people are so concerned with life after death they never stop to question whether that are alive to begin with. The only way to be truly alive, to be filled with ecstasy, with joy, and experienced life beyond temporary happiness, is to be in harmony and unity with God. We see people chasing happiness like it was something you could find on a store shelf. It is near and it is free.

Happiness is in Jesus Christ and his redemption. Nothing is life brings more happiness than being forgiven. When you can find peace when you are pursued, persecuted for your faith, is when you experience happiness.

Death, the fear of it, haunts the human like nothing else. Though the Christian has no immunity from death and no claim to perpetual life on this planet, death is to him a friend. “Everything which happens prior to death is a preparation for the journey. Death marks the beginning, not the end. It is a solemn, dramatic step in our journey to God.

For if we have been united with [Jesus] in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.