My Hill To Die On

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Anyone with conviction has their hills worth dying on. To make things even more complicated, those convictions can shape a whole mountain range of hills that people will say are worth dying over.

Many hills are stacked with the bodies of those who were convicted to stand. Different ideologies, worldviews, and beliefs have capsulated the mind and dictated what hills are worth pursuing. We could sit here for years debating what is worth sacrificing life, but one hill stands apart from all others.
One hill stands apart from all the rest. In fact, without this hill, everything else only provides temporary value.

Golgotha, (from Latin calva: “bald head” or “skull”) is, a skull-shaped hill in ancient Jerusalem, the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion.

Without this hill, everything else is either pointless or holds only temporary fading value. Not to depreciate the value of the temporary that must battle the constant threat of entropy. But on the grand scope of things, is life more than just surviving?

This week we celebrate and remember that without Golgotha, we are still in our sins, and even worse if the event that occurred on the hill of Calvary proved just to be another hill where manmade ideas go to die, everything is futile, and left to subjective opinions or relative truth, which can vary based on context or personal perspectives.

Life only becomes the focus of survival and pleasure (the comforts that make survival more endurable).

If the event of Jesus's death and resurrection is true (and with surmounting evidence I 100% believe this to be so), the hill of the skull is worth dying for.

Not in the sense that the hill is our hill to climb but in truth that Jesus did what we could not. He was the atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Eternal salvation provides a perspective that there is more to living than just survival. There is more to life than just pleasure.

There is a way that stands apart from all other ways. A way that stands on the precipice of eternal life and death.

Galatians 2:20 ESV
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Philippians 1:21 ESV
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Christianity has its fair share of martyrs but to contrast between religions that demand the sacrifice of earthly life, the Christian is to live as beacons of hope. Death does not discriminate, the Christian knows that in death so much more is to be gained.

Our tombstones read from birth to death when in reality we need not a date of death as death is only the transition to eternal life.

The dash between is critically important because what we choose to do between is the difference between eternal life or eternal death (which is eternal separation from God).

A separation that if one could imagine a place with no joy, hope, happiness, self-centeredness, and hatred towards God. A place where evil is imprisoned and just as the fall of man brought chaos, this place of Hell will be a place of apocalyptic suffering.

If we think the result of sin and the fall of mankind was bad with war, disease, natural disasters, etc. This place seems to be void of light (God is light) but also painstakingly hot. The absence of God leaves us to our worst natural desires with no restraint or guidance from God.

God doesn't send anyone to Hell, they choose which destination they wish to go based on who they say was on the hill of the skull during that critical Passover week. Lord? Savior? Myth? A madman? Or just a wise teacher?

He gave His life so you could take on His righteousness and be brought into perfect holiness which is the only way one could stand in the presence of God. Any speck of sin/evil could not enter the presence of something holy. As exemplified by the Jewish temple Holy of Holies.

In conclusion, we all must choose what hills are worth pursuing and potentially dying for. I challenge the reader to examine What hills have you been pursuing? Are they truly important? Who do you say the man on Calvery is?

Life is sacred, do not waste it climbing hills of legalism, poor ideologies, corrupt worldviews, or the deranged visions of men.

Pursue God, Embrace Jesus Christ.

Although perfection is not achieved in this life, the necessity of learning the didache in order to strive for perfection indicates the need for perseverance or to keep on learning and growing spiritually until we die physically (PHP 3:12-14). Thus, although learning any specific part of the didache is not GRFS, a person who does not “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (MT 5:6) or want to learn “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (MT 4:4) fails the self-examination Paul commanded and Jesus implied.

Amen! Timely post. We embrace JC by accepting Him as Messiah and Lord (as in 2CR 4:5 & CL 2:6), which means:

1. There is a/one all-loving and just Lord or God (DT 6:4, JN 3:16, 2THS 1:6), who is both able (2TM 1:12) and willing (1TM 2:3-4) to provide all morally accountable human beings salvation or heaven—a wonderful life full of love, joy and peace forever.
2. Human beings are selfish or sinful (RM 3:23, 2TM 3:2-4, CL 3:5), miserable (GL 5:19-21), and hopeless (EPH 2:12) or hell-bound at the judgment (MT 23:33 & 25:46) when they reject God’s salvation (JN 3:18, RM 2:5-11).
3. Jesus is God’s Messiah/Christ and incarnate Son, the way that God has chosen (JN 3:16, ACTS 16:30-31, PHP 2:9-11) of providing salvation by means of his atoning death on the cross for the payment of the penalty for the sins of humanity (RM 3:22-25 & 5:9-11), followed by his resurrection to reign in heaven (1CR 15:14-28).
4. Thus, every person who hears the NT Gospel needs to repent and accept God’s justification in Jesus as Christ/Messiah the Lord or Supreme Commander (LK 2:11, JN 14:6, ACTS 16:31), which means trying to obey His commandment to love one another (MT 22:37-40, JN 13:35, RM 13:9)—forever (MT 10:22, PS 113:2).
5. Then God’s Holy Spirit will establish a saving relationship with those who freely accept Him (RV 3:20) that will eventually achieve heaven when by means of persevering in learning Truth/God’s Word/sanctification everyone cooperates fully with His will (JN 14:6, 17&26, RM 8:6-17, GL 6:7-9, EPH 1:13-14, HB 10:36, 12:1, JM 1:2-4).

Although perfection is not achieved in this life, the necessity of learning the didache in order to strive for perfection indicates the need for perseverance or to keep on learning and growing spiritually until we die physically (PHP 3:12-14). Thus, although learning any specific part of the didache is not GRFS, a person who does not “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (MT 5:6) or want to learn “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (MT 4:4) fails the self-examination Paul commanded and Jesus implied.

If we truly believe in Jesus as Christ, the One who represents God the Father, then we will also accept Him as Lord (LK 2:11) or God the Son (MT 16:16) or God in the human dimension (CL 2:9). When we truly accept Jesus as Lord, we will want to please Him by doing His will (MT 7:21, EPH 5:8-10). Learning the manifold teachings or doctrines describing God’s moral will takes a lifetime. Thus, the need for perseverance/loyalty/remaining faithful, which is as easy or simple as an act of will. Remain faithful until the end.

Paul taught the importance of continuing to learn God’s Word (LGW) in 2TM 3:14-17, saying “Continue in what you have learned and have been convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I have two questions. What is GRFS? And is didache part of Jewish Christianity or something else?

God's requirement for salvation, which I call the Gospel kerygma (preaching) or essential doctrine to distinguish it from secondary additional doctrines or didache (teaching) or all truth that build upon the foundation of faith in Christ.

You may find the fuller version of this at our website <truthseekersfellowship.com>

I call it our website because I offer to include appropriate submissions from CC folks.

I took a look at the site. I read a bit of the section on the Holy Spirit since that is the subject which most intersets me. I found that the discussion of three dispensations in regard to our relationship with the Holy Spirit raised more questions than it answered. Also, your statements about truth and Scripture being the same thing alongside your statements that the Spirit is identified with such brings in a bit of confusion. Although I didn't read it all, I didn't find any indication of the life-change that takes place when God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come to live in our hearts.