devotionals with Yah. +2

we opened this morning, called in babylon august 10, 2016, 6:15am, to:

"i confess to you that after the Way that they call a lie, so i worship the MightyOne of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the torah-law and in the prophets.  and they had a hope in our MightyOne, which in their testimony reveals, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust."  (acts 24:14-15)

what struck me first upon reading these two verses was the part about the resurrection. the resurrection is a pretty big deal; it's one of the defining characteristics of the bible, the claim which sets it apart from all other sanctimonious and so-called-religions. the idea that the dead will ALL be raised from their present slumber, and be sorted like a flock of four-legged grazers into a saved and lost lot. 

in this season i have been walking next to someone going through the valley of the shadow of death, in the darkness of a cloud filled with thoughts of suicide.

this place is so dark, there is nothing real here to grab onto.. except Yah.

The problem with suicide is the carrot it dangles, the idea that it's way is some kind of escape from this life's torment.  the verse in acts is sobering because it reveals clearly, in no uncertain terms, that the speaker stands on the claim of resurrection as an idea not his own, but a rock of truth taught in the ancient records.  This is a huge mountain of defense.  There is no escape in suicide.  You will wake back up in time, and once again face what you didn't want to today.  Only then you will face it in the Presence of the Light made visible, which will lay you bare and un-hidden.

what hits me like a wrecking ball is the realization that it's not going to be what people did wrong that brings so much condemnation and shame when they face the Judge, and their live's books are brought forth and opened up in heaven's courts.  It's not going to be the way they fornicated, the drugs they did, the acts of selfishness, the insecure roots of their guilty baggage.. it's going to be what they missed out on while they stumbled around blind and hurting themselves and others, refusing to come unto their Creator for a healing balm and restoration.  It'll be the future they could have had in the Kingdom, the Kingdom where they had a safe place to escape, the Kingdom they finally see they are going to be missing out on; the torment will come of that reality.  That the treasure they threw away for the dung of this world is gone forever.  And how simple a change in heart, a simple turning back to the Source, would have rendered the sad story of their soul a different ending.

This final revelation of Truth will be agonizing, but they will recognize it and bow the knee to the One who loved them all along and wanted them and died for them, but they refused His ticket home, His Way to life; they refused to get on the Ark of salvation and now the door has closed.  Forever.

Shalom.