A friend posted that none of us are going to avoid the end of the world…. That reality she related to life being like a Catch-22 paradox.
Well, living for God is a paradox ….To live for SELF is to die; to die to SELF is to live for God in Christ. When we do that we, like Jesus, subordinate ourselves to the will of God, who is always First…..#1…. …Jesus submitted his own will to be #2 to his Father’s will. When we want to live for SELF we are usurping God’s position as #1. When we choose to live in submission to God’s will…… we become like Jesus……co-heirs with him of the position of #2. We are “caught up in Christ”, yoked with him …. We are IN UNITY with Jesus Christ. We ARE the “Catch 22” of God’s love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. (Smile!) Jesus stepped down from his unity with God and the Holy Spirit in the #1 position, n and came to live in the #2 position , on earth, so that we could be “caught up with him” (in the cloud of witnesses-the church of all saints in heaven and on earth). By his death and resurrection, that connection, created through faith in Jesus Christ, becomes a connection to him forever as the ultimate “Catch-22” and pray that others might also be “caught up” with him and live forever!
Each of us will most definitely face The End of The World as We Have Known It. Whether that transition becomes catastrophic for us, a battle to survive in the way we have known and continue to long for it ….or becomes simply a doorway into a better, liberated existence with God in eternity depends upon us. If we have trusted in God we are at peace in his hands and his will and accept with peace and joy the lot given by God. When we trust our lot having been cast by his hand we can know it will be for our refinement and blessing because he is sovereign, good, and loves us, beyond all we can imagine……God has created us for a hope and a future. This is not the Beginning of The End of Life As It Was….. It is a transition into The End of The Beginning of Life As It Is Becoming….. The Way God has intended…… joined with him forever through our union in Christ who became the Catch-22 paradox of the Kingdom of God that we, too, might become the Catch-22 of the Body of Christ. #iamsecond #inChrist