[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

You had to go it alone. You were like the first round of Jewish believers in the gospels who got put out of the synagogue for believing Jesus was the Messiah. Eventually you paved the way for many more to follow.

A lot of us were talking at work about the death of Robin Williams the comedian. People were saying, "brilliant", "gifted", and of course "funny." Some people mentioned his work with the USO, charity "Comic Relief" and so forth.

I just mentioned one verse to them. "I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." You can have everything, and do everything, but if you can't believe, you have nothing. The only thing in this whole world, worth having, is faith, and my faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is my confession, my hope, my journey, my truth, my aim. That is my life and my living, and hopefully it is my future.

If by declaring my belief, I can pave the way for many more to follow, I will be happy. In the meantime I'm willing to go it alone, as long as I can believe to see the goodness of the LORD, in the land of the living.

Everyone else, when they came to this dark planet, they "fainted"; they dissolved; they came to nothing. Everyone else failed, and that includes you & me & brothers wee & Witness Lee; all got subsumed by death and darkness, and got cut off from the land of the living. No hope, no way, no light in the darkness. There was no way back to the Father's house. You can win an Oscar, earn millions and make the multitude laugh, but if you can't believe, what do you have here? Nothing.

The psalmist's bold declaration presages Jesus Christ, who never fainted, never dissolved, never slipped, never crumbled, never failed. Jesus knew that he had come down from heaven (Jo 3:13). Jesus knew that he had come from God, and was returning to God. (Jo 13:3b). Jesus knew where he came from and where he was going (Jo 8:14). Jesus knew that he came here from God (Jo 8:42). And he told them, "Where I am going, you know the way" (Jo 14:4).

Like the writer of Hebrews, we look at scripture and "see Jesus" (2:9); now we have the way home. Everything else is just a distraction. All of Mr. Williams' movies, television shows, stand-up comedy routines, joke-cracking, were ultimately just traps and snares. But his loss, his "fainting", his dissolution, is not vain if it helps some people see the world for what it is, and the illusions that it spins, and that its end is just failure and emptiness. The alternative is to believe.