Mark 8:34-35 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

I have always liked the way that Luke includes the word, daily, when reporting this teaching, (Luke 9:23) but the following verses here really make the teaching as a whole very clear. This isn’t a teaching we’re very comfortable with! We can get very frantic about preserving our physical lives, all the while treating eternal life as though it were a fantasy, a nice fairy tale. We have great difficulty grasping the reality that we are more than our bodies. We tend to think of ourselves as our bodies, that have souls, (if by that you mean will and intellect and the like) with the vague possibility that we might have something beyond that, whether you call it a spirit or not. In actual fact, we are spiritual beings that inhabit bodies, expressing ourselves through our souls. Until we get that straight, our priorities are going to be scrambled. Our bodies, frankly, wear out over time. There is a lot of effort being put into slowing that, and/or extending the period, but physical immortality is a total fantasy. In contrast to that, the Bible is very clear that our spirits, and even our souls, are eternal, and they are actually what define who we are. We are destined to spend eternity with our Lord, so it makes absolutely every difference whether that Lord is Christ or the devil. Very few people, actually, consciously follow the devil, but the fact of the matter is that anything less than the Creator of the universe is, functionally, the devil. God doesn’t “send” anyone to hell. That is a place created as a prison for the devil and his angels. If we choose to follow “less than God,” that is where we are headed, on the basis of lordship. As Jesus says here, when we are focused on preserving our physical lives we are essentially worshiping our own flesh, and the result of that is never good.

The theme of my annual photo show this year is “Change,” with the idea and prayer that the pictures will cause people to be aware of our unchanging Creator. Accordingly, when my wife made posters for it, she included small pictures of the two of us, one recent and one from about 40 years ago. The differences are striking! I am in amazingly good health for my age, but that qualifier – for my age – has to be attached. Now that I’m in what the Japanese government officially describes as “the latter part of old age,” it is easier to understand that eternity is far more important than anything that happens here and now. That gives me far more impetus to share the Gospel with as many as possible, while I, and they, still have opportunity. The man I baptized on his hospital bed not long ago continues to decline medically, but when he saw my face on Monday he smiled, because it reminded him of what lies ahead for him. His wife and brother-in-law, who were in the room at the time, were floored! I think just about everyone needs a perspective check, even Christians, to think about what is really important. I have no idea how much longer the Lord will keep me here, but I don’t want to waste the time before I graduate to eternity.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the incredible privilege of guiding others into repentance and faith. That’s quite a party, going on in heaven, and even as I look forward to joining it, I want to take as many as possible with me. I ask You to use me according to Your perfect plan, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be established as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!