Death Row

The empty hallway with its closed and heavy steel doors on either side have always made you uncomfortable, but as chaplain at a high-security prison where inmates headed for execution as punishment for the heinous crimes they have committed are held, you know it’s your duty to minister to those 24 hours away from death.

You walk up to a cell where such an inmate is held in solitude. He looks up at you as you enter, sneers, then resigns himself to the moral preaching (as he calls it) he knows he has to listen to shortly before his time on earth is up.

Without a word, you press into his hands a book by a famous author in Christendom and exit the cell.

The prisoner looks down at the title, and it says “Your Best Life Now!”.

Right, you might now think I’m now attempting to write comedy, but I assure you I am not.

I’m just trying to show you just how preposterous it is that some pastors nowadays are teaching about living the good life today, sowing and getting rich, and basically treating God like a health and wealth vending machine!

You see, I was mulling over how I could best respond to some who have written me to say that they find nothing wrong with the prosperity gospel and that it has its merits when this scenario came to me.

So, to those who say that the prosperity gospel is alright, did you laugh at how preposterous that story was, or how inappropriate the chaplain was to give the prisoner that book?

I’m sure you did.

Now, my question is this: if you would not present a book like that to a prisoner on death row, then why are you presenting the same gobbledy-gook to people?!

Well, normal people aren’t on death row, you reason.

Well, I got news for you — people living in sin are on death row! People who don’t know Christ Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord are on death row! In fact, we were all on death row if not for the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Unlike inmates on death row, all of us do not know the day or hour when our time on earth is up. For that matter, even for inmates on death row, some might even pass on before the date of execution as well.

So why do you encourage others to live a life where there’s no pursuit of holiness, nor forsaking the world to work for their salvation with fear and trembling?

Preach sin! Preach repentance! Preach living a holy life!

You never know when you might be breathing your last, dear brothers and sisters, so while you have been given the time to do so, repent and strive to live a life that God has called us to.

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12:16-21

Though I don’t care much for the mutterings of those self-improvement ‘gurus’, they got one thing right — live each day as if it was your last. For us Christians, that means examining ourselves to see if we are indeed in the faith and working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

2 Corinthians 13:5

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

Philippians 2:12

NOT pursuing worldly riches and your best life now!

Because the last word you’d want to hear from God is ‘fool’ when He judges you.

Shalom Aleichem.

Photograph “Untitled” by Olkin11.