Even after birth, death is inevitable. It is scary for most everyone. Before I had a real close relationship with God, I too, was afraid to die. I honestly believe it is because I was afraid of the unknown. What is beyond this life? I can't even begin to imagine. The things we don’t see as human beings tend to scare us to the point that we would do everything in our power to push that thought out of our minds. Understandably so. But death is inevitable. Every year our bodies, whether we take pristine care of it or not, are slowly dying, but I’m sure that goes without saying.
When Paul the apostle, a tentmaker by trade, wrote to the church of Corinth. In 2 Corinthians Chapter 4:16 through Chapter 5, Paul emphasized on the subject of death. Suffice to say, our time on earth is very short. We are given a very small window to prepare our lives of eternity here on earth.
Jesus started His mission from the age 30 till He died an earthly death three years later. So to put it in perspective, in our day that was from 2011 to the present. For three years, Jesus was out there healing the sick, raising the dead, performing miracles, and teaching about the ways of God. If I was alive then, that would have been enough time to convince me that such a person is who He says He is. The stories written in the Bible I am sure, pales in comparison to three years worth of all the other stories and revelations that happened. Those stories endorsed by God to their authors convinced them to write with God’s Word in Jesus’ glory days. I am further certain they predicted generations would doubt the credibility of the stories written in it, an unfortunate reality these days. More often than not, doubters arrogantly justify it in their own thinking that it is a book written by regular people with wild imaginations. But for what purpose though, I ask? To deliberately mislead us? What benefit would that be for us? The contents of the Bible could not be made up. You have to be a veritable genius to be able to make that stuff up. So what is is really? As far as I know, the authors of the Bible were hand-picked by God, normal, regular people!
As a thinking person, there is no justification for doubters of the authenticity of the stories in the Bible. Even in those days in Paul’s letter to the 2 Corinthians Chapter 5:1-4 NLT he said, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.”
So think about the time of your life when you looked your best. That image doesn’t even match up to how you will look in heaven. God already has that body prepared for those who believe that like Jesus, who was raised from the dead, and who glowed the whole time he was on earth after He died and came back to life to visit the disciples. Do you get that God promised us to do the same for us! How wonderful is that?
Paul said that while our bodies our dying, let us not squander that time doing and learning worldly things, but instead grow in our spirit and prepare ourselves for the beautiful and perfect body prepared for us in heaven by God, for ALL ETERNITY!! You can find that verse in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 where he says, “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying our spirits are being renewed every day. For present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs the and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
You see, our small minds cannot even as much as imagine what it will be like in heaven. John gives us a little glimpse of it in the book of Revelation as God gave him a sneak peek. As I read that book, my mind could not even begin to imagine the beauty that is waiting at God’s door!
In conclusion, although it is scary for some people, death could be accepted instead as a rebirth to a better life. Riches are worth more in a life of eternity rather than a life that is short-lived, here on earth. As long as you believe, there will be hope. I can’t even imagine going through life not being able to have anything to look forward to after death. That said, as I sit here writing to you, I can affirmatively say, I no longer fear an earthly death. I actually look forward to it.
Until my next rant… LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
1 comment:
Thanks for another great post. God Bless
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