I attended my first cousin’s funeral yesterday. I thought about her looking down from heaven and wondering what all of the fuss was about with all of those people crying as they stared at her coffin.
Hmmm…She wasn’t in that coffin; she was in a place where there are no tears, sadness, or sorrow. In fact she is beholding the incredible glory of God and is in His very presence basking in His unimaginable beauty. Her moment is so wonderful that the Bible tells us that we cannot even comprehend it.
So what’s up with the gut wrenching grief?
Currently I’m writing a novel about someone whose wife and daughter who were Christians are brutally raped and murdered. The father/husband, (an atheist), misses them terribly and ultimately finds an angelic pathway to visit them in person. Once he does, he is at peace and knows joy as he’s never known it.
He’s so happy in fact that now he wants to share his discovery with the entire world, but satan does not want that to happen and does everything he can to prevent it.
Although my book is a novel and is fictional, it does illustrate a valid concept. Satan doesn’t want us to have God’s glory. He wants us to fear death. He doesn’t want us to know that God loves us as much as He does, and has prepared a place for us to live with Him forever in perfect peace and joy.
True followers of Christ know about how glorious heaven is and what awaits them after they die, and they know that they are engaged in spiritual warfare. They also want to share that zeal and love for Christ and heaven’s rewards with others.
It is mainly those whose faith is shallow or non-existent that fear death and the next life and feel no burden to lead others to Christ. The Bible is clear that we should not fear death and that yea though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we are to fear no evil because our Shepherd Jesus will guide us through it.
Don’t know about you, but I don’t fear shadows and I don’t fear death…I don’t want to go today because I want to accomplish God’s plan for creating me in the first place.
Don’t fall for satan’s “Rube Goldberg”. Christ defeated death on the cross. He does not want us to live forever on earth because He wants to spend time with us too. I can only imagine what my cousin is doing there at this very moment, but I can guarantee you that she is not weeping or sad.
John 14:1
“Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, {there} you may be also. “And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me”