Damned

by Billy Williams

Luke 13:5 (MSG) ...Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die."

I don’t like reading these words, especially since they were spoken by Jesus. The Bible is supposed to be full of light, hope and great children's stories, isn’t it? Coats of many colors, giant boats filled to the brim with happy animals -- a kind of floating zoo -- cute childlike angels, babies in starlit mangers with big-eyed animals and shepherds looking on. Not death, not actual dependence on God for life.

But truth is truth, no matter how hard it seems, and the thing about this verse is it is not talking about physical death but something much worse -- spiritual death. Physical death is inescapable; spiritual death is a choice. In this we practice God’s greatest gift: free will. We have the choice to turn to God and avoid the death Jesus is referring to. I also think that even after turning to God and receiving His eternal life, we can still die a little each day in our spirit life if we don’t continue to turn to Him. We can let sin and life take small bites of our spiritual life and keep it from being totally alive in Him.

God, thank you for the choice to turn to You for my salvation and life. Keep my face toward You in my daily life, also; don’t let me be robbed of the life You have for me here on earth.