The Common Thread between Garbage and Glory

Most people wouldn’t think that the garbage of the world and the glory of God have anything remotely in common with each other – and, technically, they’d be right. But while the two reside on absolute opposite sides of the ‘manifestation’ spectrum, they nevertheless share a common thread that – despite being generally overlooked – cannot be dismissed.

What could Glory and garbage possibly have in common? Well, it’s actually sort of a “universal characteristic” indicative of how they both get here – that is, ‘here’ in the natural, on this earth. A few Scriptures should help illuminate things a bit:

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it [whether ‘death’ or ‘life’] shall eat the fruit [reward] thereof. (Proverbs 18:21);

“Just like the psalmist who wrote, ‘I believed it, so I said it,’ we say what we believe.” (2 Corinthians 4:13, The Message);

“The tongue is a fire… it sets on fire [ignites, starts] the course of nature [the circuit of natural, physical events]…” (James 3:6).

Wanted: Dead [and] Alive

What would you rather be, dead or alive? On the surface, seems like a pretty stupid question, doesn’t it? But then when have you ever known me to just let things stay “on the surface”?

Contrary to popular belief, it’s possible to be both – at the same time. In fact, as born-again Christians we’re commanded by God’s Word to do so. Romans 6:11 tells us that we should “consider ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (New American Standard). Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

In actuality, it is simple: there’s nothing truly complicated about it. Have you ever heard the phrase “You’re dead to me!”? It means the speaker has totally cut another person (or thing) out of their life: they’ll never speak, hear or acknowledge them ever again – in other words, he or she intends to treat that entity as though they actually do not exist, and will consider them no longer to be worthy of so much as a response of any kind. Simply put, it’s blatant “ignoring to the nth degree” and, as such, can be regarded as the highest level of disrespect.

Is God ‘Selfish’?

We’ve always been told it’s good to do God’s will. Additionally, we’ve typically been taught that actually desiring His will somehow also makes us better, more “spiritual” people. And since God the Creator is Who He is and we are who we are, most Christians generally don’t bother to try to challenge the point too much – and wisely so. I don’t, either. After all, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself said that we should “seek first [God’s] Kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), which is basically the exact same thing.