He has made everything beautiful in His time: also He has set the world (or eternity) in their hearts, so that no one can find out the work that God makes from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
There is something that we all have to face and that is DEATH. Well, my question to you is: How do you perceive life and death? Are you fearful? Do you believe in a heaven or a hell?
I know many people have pets and I have even been told that these pets "know things", but do they really have knowledge? A bee can build a six-sided cell in the honeycomb. Beavers can build dams. Spiders can build webs. But the spider cannot build a six-sided cell, and the bee cannot build a beaver’s dam. They have instincts; they don’t have knowledge. They don’t have logic.
A man may not have instincts like this, but he knows that he is here for more. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "God has set eternity in the hearts of humans." We are not mere animals. We don’t believe in immortality because we prove it; we prove it because we believe in it. Immortality is instinctive in us. Death is the result of sin. That is what happened in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve listened to satan and ate what they were not supposed to eat. Romans 6:23a tells us “For the wages of sin is death,”. The whole world is subject to death, because all have sinned. “By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
In Genesis 2:17, the Lord warned Adam that the penalty for disobedience would be death—“you will surely die.” When Adam disobeyed, he experienced immediate spiritual death, which caused him to hide “from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
Later, Adam experienced physical death (Genesis 5:5). On the cross, Jesus also experienced physical death (Matthew 27:50). The difference is that Adam died because he was a sinner, but Jesus, who had never sinned, chose to die as a substitute for sinners (Hebrews 2:9).
Jesus was our sacrifice. Jesus then showed His power over death and sin by rising from the dead on the third day(Matthew 28; Revelation 1:18). Because of Christ, death is a defeated foe. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55; Hosea 13:14).
What does Jesus say about death? John 11:25-26." Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Now, for the unsaved, the one who choses not to accept Christ as His Savior; the one who could not humble himself and worship God; death brings to an end the chance to accept God’s gracious offer of salvation. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
You see, there are only two choices we can make, we are either unsaved or saved. For the saved, death ushers us into the presence of Christ: “To be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23). So real is the promise of the believer’s resurrection that the physical death of a Christian is called “sleep” (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 5:10). We look forward to that time when “there shall be no more death” (Revelation 21:4).
In Philippians 3:17-4:1 Paul reminds us that as Christians, “our citizenship is in heaven.” That we are just visitors to this earth. We are just visiting or as the old gospel hymn says: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.”
However, if you have no spiritual belief system and think that this world is all there is; then, your philosophy of life is: “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” So people who have no spiritual belief system believe that death is the end. That they will just disappear into oblivion. If that is your belief system you trivialize life and your own enjoyment and pleasure becomes your sole aim and purpose of life.
In Philippians, Paul reminds us that we are not just here on a holiday but that our life here must be seen as a time of preparation for the life that is to come-when we will return home. Paul also brings to our attention and warns us that while we are just visiting and living in a foreign land, we must not be influenced by the standards, values, trends and attitudes of those who are the enemies of the cross on which Jesus Christ died for ALL OUR SIN and FOREVERYONE WHO ACCEPTS CHRIST AS THEIR SAVIOR. It is simply humbling our selves to HIS WILL and HIS PLAN for each of us.
The length of our lives is in God’s hands. “If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to God” (Romans 1:8).
In a book written by Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Where Do We Go From Here? He tells the story of a young African martyr who wrote these words in his prison cell before he died:
“I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed, the die has been cast, I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made…..I am a disciple of Jesus Christ….I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure…I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up for the cause of Jesus Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach, till everyone knows, work till He stops me and when He comes for His own. He will have no trouble recognizing me because my banner will have been clear.”
If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, death is a transition into a wonderful life, not a fearful end. You will enjoy eternity in a wonderful new body (that is what the Bible tells us) no more pains or sadness. You will be reunited with Christian loved ones. Sin, sorrow, sickness, and pain will be no more. Best of all, you will enjoy face-to-face fellowship with God. G.K. Chesterton describes how the early Christian martyrs went to death and how they saw death. He said: “They went forward toward death as if they smelled a field of flowers afar off.” Is that how you see death or do you see death as Dylan Thomas said: “cursing the darkness"?
For those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ and what He did on that Cross for each of us… we know better! We may not want to leave our loved ones behind, but when the time comes we are not afraid because we know that we are going to something better, to a life of beauty and glory and riches of which this world can only dream. Be sure your eternal destination is secure today!
There is something that we all have to face and that is DEATH. Well, my question to you is: How do you perceive life and death? Are you fearful? Do you believe in a heaven or a hell?
I know many people have pets and I have even been told that these pets "know things", but do they really have knowledge? A bee can build a six-sided cell in the honeycomb. Beavers can build dams. Spiders can build webs. But the spider cannot build a six-sided cell, and the bee cannot build a beaver’s dam. They have instincts; they don’t have knowledge. They don’t have logic.
A man may not have instincts like this, but he knows that he is here for more. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "God has set eternity in the hearts of humans." We are not mere animals. We don’t believe in immortality because we prove it; we prove it because we believe in it. Immortality is instinctive in us. Death is the result of sin. That is what happened in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve listened to satan and ate what they were not supposed to eat. Romans 6:23a tells us “For the wages of sin is death,”. The whole world is subject to death, because all have sinned. “By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
In Genesis 2:17, the Lord warned Adam that the penalty for disobedience would be death—“you will surely die.” When Adam disobeyed, he experienced immediate spiritual death, which caused him to hide “from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
Later, Adam experienced physical death (Genesis 5:5). On the cross, Jesus also experienced physical death (Matthew 27:50). The difference is that Adam died because he was a sinner, but Jesus, who had never sinned, chose to die as a substitute for sinners (Hebrews 2:9).
Jesus was our sacrifice. Jesus then showed His power over death and sin by rising from the dead on the third day(Matthew 28; Revelation 1:18). Because of Christ, death is a defeated foe. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55; Hosea 13:14).
What does Jesus say about death? John 11:25-26." Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Now, for the unsaved, the one who choses not to accept Christ as His Savior; the one who could not humble himself and worship God; death brings to an end the chance to accept God’s gracious offer of salvation. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
You see, there are only two choices we can make, we are either unsaved or saved. For the saved, death ushers us into the presence of Christ: “To be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23). So real is the promise of the believer’s resurrection that the physical death of a Christian is called “sleep” (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 5:10). We look forward to that time when “there shall be no more death” (Revelation 21:4).
In Philippians 3:17-4:1 Paul reminds us that as Christians, “our citizenship is in heaven.” That we are just visitors to this earth. We are just visiting or as the old gospel hymn says: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.”
However, if you have no spiritual belief system and think that this world is all there is; then, your philosophy of life is: “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” So people who have no spiritual belief system believe that death is the end. That they will just disappear into oblivion. If that is your belief system you trivialize life and your own enjoyment and pleasure becomes your sole aim and purpose of life.
In Philippians, Paul reminds us that we are not just here on a holiday but that our life here must be seen as a time of preparation for the life that is to come-when we will return home. Paul also brings to our attention and warns us that while we are just visiting and living in a foreign land, we must not be influenced by the standards, values, trends and attitudes of those who are the enemies of the cross on which Jesus Christ died for ALL OUR SIN and FOREVERYONE WHO ACCEPTS CHRIST AS THEIR SAVIOR. It is simply humbling our selves to HIS WILL and HIS PLAN for each of us.
The length of our lives is in God’s hands. “If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to God” (Romans 1:8).
In a book written by Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Where Do We Go From Here? He tells the story of a young African martyr who wrote these words in his prison cell before he died:
“I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed, the die has been cast, I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made…..I am a disciple of Jesus Christ….I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure…I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up for the cause of Jesus Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach, till everyone knows, work till He stops me and when He comes for His own. He will have no trouble recognizing me because my banner will have been clear.”
If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, death is a transition into a wonderful life, not a fearful end. You will enjoy eternity in a wonderful new body (that is what the Bible tells us) no more pains or sadness. You will be reunited with Christian loved ones. Sin, sorrow, sickness, and pain will be no more. Best of all, you will enjoy face-to-face fellowship with God. G.K. Chesterton describes how the early Christian martyrs went to death and how they saw death. He said: “They went forward toward death as if they smelled a field of flowers afar off.” Is that how you see death or do you see death as Dylan Thomas said: “cursing the darkness"?
For those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ and what He did on that Cross for each of us… we know better! We may not want to leave our loved ones behind, but when the time comes we are not afraid because we know that we are going to something better, to a life of beauty and glory and riches of which this world can only dream. Be sure your eternal destination is secure today!
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