Just Die!
Merry Monday by Parris Bailey
There is a saying over at Marysong, our women’s restoration center. When the girls begin to all harmonize about their hurts, issues and what have you- Debra McNabb yells—JUST DIE!
A.B. Simpson says it like this, “Perhaps, you say, How can I reckon myself dead when I find so many evidences that I am still alive, and how can I reckon myself risen when I find so many things that pull me back again to my lower plane? It is your failure to reckon and abide that drags you back. It is the recognizing of the old life as still alive that makes it real and keeps you from overcoming it. This is the principle which underlies the whole Gospel system, that we receive according to the reckoning of our faith. The magic wand of faith will lay all the ghosts that can rise in the cemetery of your soul; and the spirit of doubt will bring them up from the grave to haunt you as long as you continue to question. The only way you can ever die, is by surrendering yourself to Christ and then reckoning yourself dead with Him.”
We have been bought with a price but then He comes condescending to us and waits for our voluntary surrender. This will take the rest of our lives, surrendering and reckoning ourselves dead. While at Bible school we were often sent tree planting in the mountains of Oregon. Tree planting always happens in the winter months. I believe I can still feel the cold! Ha ha. I remember one of those trips, I was probably 17 years old, with my toddler son living in tents for months at a time. This particular day I received a precious letter from my sister in law who was a new Christian. I walked into my tent from the cold pouring rain to read it and noticed our sleeping bag was soaking wet. The air was damp and Jeremy was cold, our diet of starch had my weight under a 100 lbs. Hot tears begin to roll down my cheeks—it was one of those days. The next thing I knew was that somehow my contact fell out from all the tears. There was no holding back my torrent of frustration. Realizing finding the contact was a lost cause I finally opened the letter and begin to read the following scripture. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” What seems like a random scripture became like living manna to me that day in that cold, rainy, wet tent with a toddler and a contact in one eye! It was time to die! Again! Funny how even now the circumstances seem so real but yet the presence of God even more real. I knew that that season wouldn’t last forever. I was hungry and cold but even more hungry for God to do His work in me. As you can see we came down out of those Oregon mountains in one piece and only had His grace to thank.
Through the years we all have had circumstances and situations that can rock our world. It will turn over our apple cart, so to speak, or even be a season that becomes our turn to roll in the barrel. I found out that day, years ago, that we are not alone. Let’s read in Duet.33:12 “And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders. And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew,and for the deep that coucheth [to crouch (on all four legs folded, like a recumbent animal); by implication to recline, repose, brood, lurk, imbed: – crouch (down), fall down, make a fold, lay (cause to, make to) lie (down), make to rest, sit.” Did you read what I just wrote? He coucheth in the deep. Your depth of despair, your depth of pain. What is your part? JUST DIE! When you do, He is there.