Life and Death in Focus
Theme of the week: A Matter of Life and Death
Sunday, February 24, 2013
 1 of 1
Who Said It … Ben Patterson
Ben Patterson is the campus pastor at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is a contributing editor for Christianity Today magazine and Leadership Journal. Ben is also the author of several books including God's Prayer Book: The Power and Pleasure of Praying the Psalms, Deepening Your Conversations with God, and Muscular Faith. Ben and his wife, Lauretta, have four adult children and one grandson.
What he Said … Life and Death in Focus
It's hard to follow Jesus, but it's a good hard. To follow Jesus is to choose life over death, heaven over hell forever. The road to life is a good hard. The road to hell is easy, but it ends in a very, very bad hard. [See Mark 8:35-37 and Matt. 7:13-14.]
Fyodor Dostoyevsky understood this. On December 22, 1849, he stood shivering before a firing squad, tied to a post and robed in a white burial shroud. He and a few others had been convicted of treason by Tsar Nicholas I, who wanted to impress upon other intellectuals the gravity of promoting radical political views. But at the last minute, as rifles were cocked and raised, and the order, "Ready, aim!" was shouted, a horseman galloped dramatically into the scene with a note from the tsar in hand. Nicholas would commute their sentences to four years of hard labor.
[Someone once said that] the prospect of standing before a firing squad marvelously focuses one's mind. The experience certainly focused Dostoyevsky's mind and marked him for the rest of his life. [continued 2/25]
Key Study Passage: Mark 8:34-38
Adapted from Muscular Faith (Tyndale, 2011) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.
Copyright © 2013 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Dear heavenly Father, help me to keep focused on what really matters—on what will last long after my life on earth is finished.
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