The last man standing is the last one left believing...

I had a dream a couple years ago... in the dream there was a huge book of martrys that had died during the last days on earth. Me and some others were excitedly reading all the stories of how people had not loved their lives even unto death. Then we came to a story about a teacher. Everyone who was reading became really sad because this was the story of a teacher in the end times that though he had ploclaimed correct theology (that the end was coming, we would be here, and that some would give their lives) he denied Christ to save his life.

The story told about how he had trumpted the end-time message in theory but did not daily die to his flesh and so he could not ultimately give his body over to death. When asked if he wanted to live and deny Christ, he nodded yes. He walked away with a deep frown...knowing what he had done. In the dream, the tragedy of what he had done in light of the joy over the martyrs stood in such weighty contraast and we mourned over this story.

Last week a strange phrase kept resounding in my heart "The last man standing is the last one left believing..."
I thought "ummm... wierd phrase..." As I began to ponder it I felt the urging of the Holy Spirit saying if you want to be able to stand at the end of the age you have to be believing in the invisible. I began to pray to believe... to have the eyes of my heart enlighted to see what is real, what is invisible. I don't want to be weighed down by the cares of this world...

This week, I am facing the hard thing. The idea gets intensely practical and everything I do shows what I really believe to be true...