SELF: Burying The Old Nature!

"Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry."

Colossians 3:5

I love to scour old cemeteries; the history and the intrigue manifested in grave markers is fascinating. While in Boston about 17 years ago I made it a point to visit the old cemetery above the harbor near North Church. What a treat.

D. Gene Strother tells of a visit to Evergreen Cemetery in Paris, Texas. He describes all the monuments that fascinated him … the shrines, the crypts, the old-west styles … one had a statue of Jesus in a pair of cowboy boots.

A common sight was the family plot, where there is a central monument, with the family name on all four sides, and family members spread out from the center.

On one drive through Evergreen, Strother said he noticed one tombstone of particular note … not for its beauty but rather for its simplicity … the occupant was identified simply as SELF. Every family, every home in the world, needs a family plot with a grave marker like this … a place to put SELF.

God knows unbelievers won’t do it on their own; He expects, however, the believer to do so. Every believer, every soul, that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ should have a place for self in his or her home!

[Adapted from a message by D. Gene Strother, Pulpit Helps, September 1995, p.1]

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion, Self