Lightness of being#43 Meeting our Maker (31 May 2014)
Dear....
Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Matthew 16:28
Death is the sting of sin. If we believe and follow Christ, should death no longer be a scourge upon us? Indeed the Bible says some will not see death until Christ returns. But till then, for most of us, our bodily shell will eventually crumble and our God given spirit brought home. Question is, to be with God or to be in eternal damnation?
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
Matthew 16:26-27
Through the brevity of life, all of us will experience the loss of people around us, some from a distance, a few a hair's breath away. And for some, a personal near snuffing out of the flickering wick of life.
Jesus wept.
John 11:35
It has been a decade since I was intimately involved with a fellow human being going through the throes of death. Tears, that wellspring of an expression of emotional grief has become a stranger in the past decade. Christ wept for the deceased Lazarus, but Christ brought him back to life after that.
What about the people we loved? They remained dead cold. Why does Christ not bring them back to life now? Christ will, when He returns, but not into a fallen world, but rather into a new world where God and Christ will dwell in our midst.
靠主恩典，安全不怕 ，更引道我回家
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
A wonderful truth. A hope that all who believe can cling to, much as pain and grief will permeate our very being in this moment of loss.
And God understands our limits. And much as He allows the spirit of our loved ones to depart from their bodily shell, and much as we who believe know that this separation is temporary, God knows we need His assurances.
A decade ago, when half a dozen of my colleagues left this present world, the untimely deaths from heart attacks or cancer over eighteen months was an emotional drain for those who remained. Yet the grace of God was never far from us who seek Him, and He truly walked with us, grieved with us, and yet He brought us forth, both the deceased and the living to His realm.
Memories do fade with time. Searing the experiences might have been, but like a scar peppered over many times by the distractions of the delusions of Satan's world, it is easy to misplace life's priorities.
Will you be ready when your next breath could be your last?
"Signs of death." I took a quick look on the internet to refresh my observations from a decade back.
The bodily system begins to shut down, but one's spirit is still very much alive, waiting to leave the crumbled physical shell.
But will you
- or rather your spirit be ready to let go? Is there a multitude of unresolved issues that needed to be resolved?
We are all imperfect, living in a fallen world.
Yet, if we truly seek to let God be Sovereign in our lives, experience tells us that one will have a much lighter burden restraining our ability or willingness to leave the present realm. For God is love, and if love had permeated our life and relationships with others, our countenance will be carefree.
- be looking forward to meeting the parties waiting to greet your liberated spirit.
Christ says He has prepared rooms in His Father's mansion, and while I have not had the privilege of verifying this truth as yet. But as shared previously from those who had gone down that road albeit for a brief interlude, Christ is there for you if you know Him. But if you don't, then the denizens of Hades will be your dreadful soul mates.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom:the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luke 16:22-23
God blesses
Eng Hieang
31 May 2014
An afterthought - Walking dead
Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks:for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Life for most of us is like one long wake. Buffeted by the constant storms of life, we often carry the countenance of the grieved. Perking up only on the temporary respites which we want to believe is utopia.
"Onward the victorious Christian," a clarion call of a promised life of victory fashioned from the risen Christ. Yet why does it seem to ring hollow for most of us?
So he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty.”
Zechariah 4:6
The power of God emanates most powerfully from a surrendered life. God dependence rather than self dependence. We will walk more purposefully the path that a God has already laid when we are willing to lean upon Him.
God is truly omnipresent and He knows our needs. Below are a couple of thoughts from (http://www.marketplaceleaders.org/tgif/) which He used to bless me with, even as He continues to renews my mind and transform my heart.
"Learning not to act until God shows you to act is a sign of maturity in God."
"What does God have to do in our lives to remove the controlling and manipulative nature that so often is part of a workplace believer’s life? Perhaps it will require a time of immobilizing, loss of a job, loss of income, loss of health, loss of a close relationship. These are His methods of preparation. Your new nature will not be complete until you’ve stopped striving with God through your own self-efforts. If God is taking you through this process, be encouraged; it is because of the inheritance He has prepared for you. However, the inheritance can only be received when God brings us to total dependence on Him."
"First, when God decides it is time to move you into a larger place of His calling, He has the ability to provide the resources you need to support the call. God gave Jacob a dream that resulted in a strategy never used before to build wealth. It was totally from God’s hand. It was creative and new. God called Jacob to move out after he had demonstrated his faithfulness in 20 years of serving Laban. He learned to live under authority and served Laban faithfully, even though he knew he was being taken advantage of."
Think about it. All of us struggle in varied degrees in our willingness to trust the "invisible" God. But when it is time for our spirit to leave our shell, is the choice to decide still yours? The deceased who preceded us will know, but will not be able to tell us.
And he said, Nay, father Abraham:but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Luke 16:30-31
No comments:
Post a Comment