The Plane has Landed!

Check it out: http://www.alphausa.org/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=1000006384&file_id=

Thanks to everyone who reminded me that I am fast approaching half a century in age, having turned 49 on February 18th.  Interestingly enough, in Turkey the life of an individual is measured from conception, so that would actually place me closer to being 50 years old.  In any case, I prefer my second birthday over my first.  Second birthday?  Yes, you see, there is such a thing as a second birth.  My first birth, in 1960, is a countdown to death, with life an ever fleeing grace. My present breath is but a lifeless hyphen to be some day etched on a tombstone between two dates: date of birth and the date of death.  My second birthday, in 1978, not only makes me younger (31!), but is one date that will never be consigned to the confines of a marble stone.  Life, and life eternal, is the grace of the second birth through Jesus Christ.  While the first birth leads to death, death has lost it’s sting for those who have the second birth, and will escape the second death.  Ok, the second birth sounds strange enough, but now we have a thing called the ‘second death’. Read in Revelation 20:4-6, 11-16. http://a4.video2.blip.tv/0620000181411/Alphainternational-Alpha2007CinemaAd410x229153.mov (give it about 20 seconds to upload)

My first birthday stirs up thoughts of who I have known, where I have been, what I have done, when things happened, and how I have spend all those years.  My second birth brings into focus who I am and will become in Christ, where He will send me to, what He would have me to do, when His promises will be fulfilled and how I will live in such a way that will glorify Him.  While both are important in piloting a plane, it is still one thing to take off, and another thing to land that piece of flying metal safely.  When your life makes it’s final landing, hero pilot Capt. Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger and the crew of US Airways Flight 1549 will not be on hand to safely ditch you into the Hudson River to be rescued.  Only Jesus Christ can bring you to a secured landing.