There Is No Middle Ground – In God’s Kingdom

HOW GREAT ARE YOU
My English teacher in the secondary school would always admonish us, to focus on our academics, which was the main purpose we were in school; rather than partying. He would end up with this quote “it is better to die once and live forever, than to live once and die forever”. For over 35 years since I left school, this quote has always been a recurring decimal, in the affairs of my life; especially when confronted with certain major decisions. Decisions that would make or mar, decisions that the outcome are mutually exclusive, thus once made it becomes irreversible, which ever direction it takes one. This irreversibility of the final outcome is always a major input for the wise, when taking such a decision or making up one’s mind about a situation.

This comes to play, when we make up our mind, on how to relate with God, or as some would question, whether there is God? The way you choose to relate with God, or your reasoning that led you to conclude there is no God, is influenced by “how great you think you are” in your own estimation.
However, one tends to forget that, a man’s greatness, power and possessions cannot save him from death! He will still die like animals, or a mad man (Psalm 49).Even if one dies in an Air conditioned room, or on a Waterbed, with golden frames and buried in a marble grave; whereas another were to be drowned in the Ocean, that the corpse was not found; it still does not matter. The common denominator is that there is no more life in them all! No matter how loved by anyone, none of them will co-habit with the living, even if the body of the drowned was recovered. They must be disposed of, to avoid polluting the environment.

During the disposal, which we call burial, it requires only a small portion of ground for the grave, because the living would not want to waste much land to “dump the manure, the dead body”.
Thus, man cannot take his greatness, his wealth, the power he was wielding, or that thing which he cherished most when he dies, to the grave. If man is satisfied with his life, and is praised because he was a philanthropist and successful in man’s eye; is God satisfied with that life? Nothing is hidden before Him.
Man may “enjoy” a maximum of 70 effective years in this world, filled with violence, fear, injustice, cruelty, sickness and disease. Let one imagine you are one of the richest men on earth - a philanthropist, business tycoon, a diva, very-kind hearted, what will determine where you will go after death, is dependent on a decision you made in life. That decision is actually between this - “to live once and die forever”, or “to die once and live forever”. Thus, “to live once”, is to live one’s life as one wants it, indulge the flesh, test the ‘good” things of this world, - fame, power, wealth, women, wine, but without one’s pivot on one’s creator, the Lord Jesus Christ! Your wealth or greatness cannot save you from dying; neither can you use them to pay for your life. As king David captured it in

Psalms 49:6-20

“They trust in their riches and brag about all their wealth. You cannot buy back your life or pay off God! It costs far too much to buy back your life. You can never pay god enough, to stay alive for ever. We see that the wise people die and so do stupid fools. Then their money is left for someone else (who they may not know). The grave will be their home forever, though they once had their own houses ……..”.

David continued...

“Here is what happens to fools and those who trust the word of fools (that there is no God) including those who worship their achievements in life as their god): they are like sheep, with Death as their shepherd, leading them to the grave”. The only person, according to the scriptures that can redeem you or pay God for your life of sin, that you can live eternal life in His kingdom, is Jesus Christ. The same scripture makes us to know, that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, that no one comes to the father, except by Him.