DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?
Your life here is temporary, but what you do echoes in eternity. The life you live and the faith you live it with will determine your future when you pass from this life into the eternal one.
Today, as one of my aunts’ body is being laid in a mausoleum in NC, while another young man’s body here in Isabela, PR is being buried, I’m again reminded of how precious our life is, and why we need to live on purpose.
Your time here on earth is limited, even if you live to see 100+ years like my Grandma in NC. It is limited in that you can only do so much. And for that you must live with a mindset to pass on godly principles and lifestyle to your posterity, whether your children or others God has called you to raise. You must live with the next generation in mind.
I must answer the call
Having a wife and two babies in Heaven, I long to see them again one day. However, I must answer the call of God on my life while here, and raise the 3 that are still here. You too must do the same in answering the call of God upon your life. And once we know the truth, we are responsible to live it, and to demonstrate it.
I know we’re not perfect, but we serve a perfect God, who sent His Son to demonstrate how to live with the guidance of His Spirit in us. His Holy Spirit has been available to everyone of us here on earth for the last 2000 years.
Some ask me where does my peace come from? My peace comes from knowing God, and knowing that His ways are higher than mine and His word will stand forever. What He says is true and I study it to know it so I don’t keep focusing on the circumstances alone as they are temporary.
If you’ve ever lost a family member and you’re certain they went to Heaven (because that’s not the only place people end up going to when they die), then you too can and should have that perfect peace. You have that joy knowing you will see them again when you transition from this life into eternity. There’s only a small requirement: That you believe and call on the Lord Jesus, that He has come in the flesh and has died and resurrected and is now living at the right hand of the Father.
This Jesus…
This Jesus you see is a Jewish man who came and showed the way to His Jewish nation, whom God used as an example throughout many millennia to reveal His love for every man and every nation on earth. But it’s going to be up to you to receive this Jesus. No one can force you to receive Him, nor deny Him. But there will be eternal consequences for choosing either, receiving or denying Him.
You see, He holds the words of life. He’s the only one in documented history that’s no longer in a tomb after He died! He’s the only One who predicted His death and the fact that He’d resurrect by the power of the Holy Spirit 3 days later. He’s the only One who actually cares about your circumstances in life and is calling you to Himself. He invites you to put down your burdens and take up His yoke (a true connection with Him).
This Jesus is true and living today. Many have seen Him not only in their dreams but in reality, and He’s undeniably the Son of the living God, who gave Himself for all of us on that cross. And He promised that though we pass through death, if we believe in Him we shall live forever with Him.
You have a choice
So, today I live with the faith that I’ll not only see my wife and babies who went before me again, but I look forward to seeing many who are passing from this life into eternity, including you reading this right now.
I invite you today to renew your faith in this Jesus, and to know that everything you see will pass away and give way to this invisible supernatural world around you that you don’t quite see. It is true, you are a spirit and this world is spiritual. When you leave your body, you will realize that the spiritual world around you is way more real than what your eyes and brain have been telling you!
Though we die, yet we shall live with Him, if we’ll simply accept His word and follow Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life!
So, just to remind you, death has nothing on you. It’s a transition from one life to the ultimate true life, if you’ll simply choose this man Jesus and what He calls you to. As the Apostle Paul would ask “Death, where is your sting?”
And the Apostle John would share the following with us from Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
In closing I want to remind you to seize the day and follow your life’s purpose, and if you don’t know what it is or aren’t clear about it, just seek the One who gave you this life for He surely put a calling on you to have impact and significance in this life for His glory!
Pierre