GOD'S ROSE OF SHARON

Death: The Crown that Adorn's the Abundant Life

When Jesus spoke to us about living a life full of abundance, he was also revealing a secret about death and the role it plays in our lives. Death isn't the end of the abundant life it is merely the beginning of it. It is the crown of warrior's who learned to conquer the fear of dying. When the fear of death is conquered then you are truly free.

In his memoir "Death Be Not Proud", John Gunther explores the process of death: discovery, fighting, living on, and then dying. The process becomes just a little bit easier, as humor, human kindness and courage all are woven in. More than just about dying, this memoir becomes a study of living.

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10

Death holds the ultimate secret of Christ's abundant life message. The only thing that can rob, steal or destroy your life today is your own decision's. The choice's you make are your true enemies or on the other hand, your path on the road to the abundant life. When we embrace the reality that death is merely just the door through which we enter another kingdom dimension, then death becomes the crown that adorn's the abundant life.

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"1 Corintians 15:55

When John Donne wrote his sonnet, Death be not Proud, I imagine he must of wrote it with 1 Corintians 15:55 in the back of his mind. For where is there any victory in death when death is the natual conclusion to any life. Read his words and ask yourself if John Donne let death be his master or if he knew death was only a new beginning?

Death,be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10) John Donne

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

AMEN

James Robert Kessler
Because of Him Art Ministry 2010