Some among us consider life is unfair and so they dare to die soon; many others esteem there is nothing to gain after death and so they plan to live.
The Living Faith
Some among us consider life is unfair and so they dare to die soon; many others esteem there is nothing to gain after death and so they plan to live. This kind of confusion, distortion or negative view about life is a pest bugging all humans at one time on another. However God does not want us, his disciples, to live in that suffocating mindsetup. His Spirit instructs us to go deeper into some Scriptural passages to help ourselves erasing these negative thoughts and to live our earthly life contently, smilingly and fruitfully.
One of the best advice the Scriptures offer us for our life’s survival and success is to clearly understand and uphold the glorious vocation of our life. Paul elegantly portrays our life’s vocation in his writings (Eph. 1: 3-14): Our essence and existence, he writes, are already predestined by God the Creator who chose us even before the foundation of the world. The reason behind this startling deal of God to us is to accomplish all his endeavors fully and realize all his intentions totally in his Son Jesus. God’s main intention for his calling us is every one of us to be holy and without blemish before him like his Son; and he chose us so that we might exist for the praise of his glory; and to sum up all things in Christ in heaven and on earth.
This is how all God’s friends and disciples esteemed highly about their vulnerable lives. Let us take for example Prophet Amos. He was a humble shepherd but he was fully convinced that he had been called by God to prophesy. As he narrates challenging the king that he was in no way a ‘professional’ who is employed to prophesy, in order to earn his livelihood; rather he insisted the One in Upstairs urged him to do this hectic job and he obeyed him. (Amos 7: 12-15) When he was threatened by his king who ordered him to flee off from his territory, he challenged him with his audacious tenacity that “I am not a prophet, nor do I belong to a company of prophets. I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamores, but the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, and prophesy to my people Israel.”
Of all the Prophets, Jesus has been the best rolemodel to us in handling life’s problems by our inner conviction. He showed it first in his own life and taught his disciples the same. He kept in his heart and mind that only God the Father called him for performing his Prophetic role as People’s Messiah; as Amos, he claimed it in public quoting Is. 61: 1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives…” and at the end of this quote he too confirmed his inner conviction: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Lk. 4: 16-21) Therefore being too zealous of God’s will and his Kingdom-values, he esteemed God’s will as his food and life. In the Gospels we read that Jesus chose all his disciples, first to abide in him, meaning to become fully imbibed with his inner convictions of their Godly predestination and then to be sent out as the proxies of his Prophetic role, to bear witness to God’s love by preaching and healing. “He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits”. (Mk. 6: 7-13)
He bestowed to his disciples authority and power to drive out unclean spirits, first from themselves and then from others; knowing how humans can easily be subdued by those unclean spirits, he commanded his disciples that they should detach themselves from worldly things, instructing them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts; but must totally cling on to God for their needs; he too advised them to shake the dust off, perhaps referring to the dust of feelings like resentment, anger, hatred and revenge in order to be free enough to let our faith in Jesus Christ shine not just in words but also in our actions. Then, he wanted them to drive out the demons from other people.
Even though we are proud to be born and bred in the postmodern Age we are living in a world which is still in desperate need of prophets and apostles sent by Jesus. Our human race continues to be enslaved by so many unclean spirits. The saddest happening today is many of his modernday disciples are indifferent to Jesus’ reasons for choosing us. Let us fully believe in the truth that we had been called and destined from all ages to come and to be born and reborn at this hectic period to continue the work of Jesus joining the team of messengers sent out by the Spirit to walk the walk of Jesus (being intimately connected to him); to talk the talk of Jesus (preaching his values); and certainly to work the work of Jesus (casting out unclean spirits).