We have to come up from here, out of this place of death, in which we live and move.  For where do we really have our being?  Is it not already established in the Kingdom?  Yes, but he who sets his hand to the plow, and looks back, is “not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.” Remember Lot’s wife!

Oh, the seeming contradictions and puzzles we find in Scripture!

Once saved, always saved.

Not once saved always saved.  You can lose your eternal security and burn forever in Hell.

No, I can’t.

Which is it then?

Both.  “Today,” if you hear God’s voice.  Today.  Today.  Not tomorrow.  Listen today.  Hear today.  Do today.  Do not harden your hearts as have all who have ever rebelled against the LORD Jesus Christ and his word.  Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

Repent.  At hand!  Repent!  Kingdom.  Repent.  Gospel.

Jesus says, “Follow me.”

We say, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.  Let me do all the things of the world that I have in my heart to do.”

Jesus says, “No, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the Kingdom of God. Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

We say, “I can see (the idea of) the Kingdom of God.  I have believed in you, Lord, and I have been born of the Spirit.”

Jesus says, 

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or suffer loss? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I tell you a truth, there be some standing here, who shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:23-27 KJ2000)

The word translated “life” above comes from the Greek word psuche (pronounced psoo-khay’).  The word means “soul” and is to be distinguished from the Greek word pneuma which means “spirit.”

We only lose our souls in this life, thus saving them for the next, when we do things God’s way.  We must wash daily in his holy water of the word.  Then we do what that word says.  This is walking in God’s ways.  This is taking up our cross daily.

But, the dead cannot take up their cross.  They cannot do any work that Christ will reward.  “Let the dead bury the dead,” says Jesus.  “Let the living follow me….”