I do not want you to mistakenly worry about your fellow believers who have died. Your sorrow is inconsistent with the hope you have as believers, whose faith in Jesus, the Son of God, has resulted in our heavenly Father giving you eternal life! Our faith in the Gospel, the good news that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, has resulted in the Holy Spirit sealing us as God's adopted children!
Jesus promised that, although He would be gone for a long time, He would be preparing a place for us in heaven. Once He has finished, and the Father determines the time has come for Him to return to gather God's children, He will raise those who in life, trusted in Him, and then He will catch us all up together to meet Him in the clouds, and from that time on, we will always be where He is!
Yes, Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and He will raise all the dead who put their trust in Him while they were still alive! Then, believers who have not experienced death, will be instantly changed; instead of having bodies that are flesh and blood, bodies that are mortal, bodies that are corruptible, we will be given bodies that are immortal, that are incorruptible, bodies like our resurrected Lord!
Don't you long for that day when we will see Jesus face-to-face? Don't you long to be like Him; being sinless, being pure, being holy as He is holy? Don't you long for the trials and tribulations to be over, to be where there are no more tears, to be where there is no more guilt, temptations, hatred, racism, or pain? Don't you long to see your believing family and friends again? I don't know this for sure, but I suspect there will be many in heaven who we thought would not be there. And sadly, I am afraid that many of those we were sure we would meet again, will be absent because they were religious, but they failed to accept God's free gift of salvation.
But for now, we must wait for Jesus, our blessed hope. We must fight temptation, and seek the Lord's forgiveness when we sin. We must pray for the lost, for the sick, for poor, for the prisoner, and even for our enemies! We must share our faith in Jesus with all who will listen! We must be willing to be rejected, to be attacked, to even die for Christ; God forbid that it will happen, but for many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, they are paying the ultimate price for bravely proclaiming that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior!
I purposely did not provide Bible references for this post, but I would challenge you who read this, to read God's Word, and I guarantee you will recognize what I have said is according to God's Word! But don't take my word for it; see for yourself! And if I am wrong about any thing written here, please, I beg you, tell me so that I can learn from you. God bless you in Jesus' precious name!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment