O Happy Day©

August Blog 2021

O Happy Day©

A Limerick A Day to Keep You On Your Way© 

There once was a girl born on a Wednesday.

Her first breath strangled by a cord that day.

Oh, child.

God smiled.

My Breath breathed gives new life,  happy birthday.

August

Born to die.

Death doesn’t have a hold on you when are just beginning to explore the world.  But after living a while there is a certain death that brings life.  I was born on August 27, 1958, and called at 22 to die.  It is has been a daily process ever since.

Ponder this interesting fact. If you only had one grain of wheat to plant it would produce eight or more heads.  In those heads would be over  40 seeds.  You could then take each of those seeds, plant each one, and at 40 seeds per head, how many seeds now would you have?

WOW!! Do you see the amazing multiplication factor? Scripture says in John 2:24(KJV), “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

The seed when planted “dies” an interesting death. We also read in this scripture,  1 Corinthians 15:36 (NLT), “What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first.”  The seed sown, dies to the form it was in when planted.  The seed sheds its outer covering as water and soil begin to nourish it.  It knows exactly how to make sure the roots go deep in the ground and the tree or flower or whatever the seed may be surfaces for our eyes to behold as well as producing more seeds to continue its life-giving multiplication.  Say what you will but I believe this is truly a God miracle that man could never have made.  Man can keep reproducing the seed or cross-pollinate seeds but he can never create the original seed.

Adam was the original seed that God created from the ground. All of life is produced through him but God was the creator.  Every person is a seed. Every seed is one of a kind. Every seed produces fruit over its lifetime.  Good, bad, and often both.

I want to help you see yourself as a God-Seed. One of a kind. As we just learned one seed can produce many more seeds.  But every seed has to die to produce more.  So how did I die?

At 22 the Spirit of God called me to death.  Not the death of a coffin and funeral where people would be weeping.  Well, I hope they would have wept.  This death is the one that says I will no longer live my life for me but live it for Christ.  Now before you think it is a death sentence to living let me explain what it means to say okay Jesus “here I am I will live for you.”  The normal Christian life is a long process of continually dying to your own thinking and planning.  It starts with opening the door of your heart to let Jesus in. Maybe you already heard him knocking and have not answered.   You can also let Him back out too but I don’t advise that at all.

I have been dying for almost 41 years now.  Death has been joyous, painful, life-giving, stagnant, and productive but always living. It sounds paradoxical but God has a purpose for every seed. You and I are a seed.  We are purpose seeds. When the earthly time of my last breath comes and the seed I am is placed in the ground, you know what comes next? Life. Eternal life.  Me, this seed, dies again and is ushered into heaven with its new life and a new body.  Not a body with flesh that feels pain.  No.  A glorified body made in the image of God. That life is forever.

Dying to myself here on earth is nothing compared to the glorious life in heaven. 

If you want to die today to truly live,  pray this prayer.

Pray this prayer with me.

Lord Jesus, I commit my life to You and all Your ways.  I repent of every sin from my past and ask for new life.  Fill me with Your Holy Spirit to empower me to live a new life.  I trust You to cause the death that brings life.  In Jesus Name. Amen.

1Corinthians 15:42-44 (The Message Bible) This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!

Written by Paula Ann Kochanek

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