For
the Christian, death brings mixed feelings. In one
sense we look upward and rejoice in the new found happiness
and joy our loved one is experiencing in the hands of
the Lord and in the reunion of those who have gone on
before us. On the other hand we look downward and weep
just as Jesus did when his friend Lazarus died, because
there is a sense of loss and sad separation when a loved
one has departed from our lives of whom we shall miss
greatly.
Someone
once said, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die—I just don’t
want to be there when it happens.” This is probably
how many of us here today feel. But the fact remains;
death is as much a part of life as life itself. Every
family faces death at one time or another. Death reminds
us how tender and fragile life can be.
The
Book of Ecclesiastes says it well when it says, “To
everything there is a season, a time for every purpose
under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die.”
It also says in Chapter 7:1, “The day of death
is better than the day of birth.”
.Our
Eternal Home
Billy
Graham wrote in his book “Facing Death”, “Today we are
told how to look young, stay trim, keep healthy, have
a good image, think positively, make more money, and
have more friends. All these – indicate that we are
trying desperately to cling to this present world.
The truth is, life is transitory.
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for
a little while and then vanishes’ (James 4:14b) If we
want to make the most of life, we need to face the fact
that it is going to end.”
John
14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled;
you believe in God, believe also in Me. (2) “in My Father’s
house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3)
“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.”
This
is one of my favorite Scriptures, because it gives me
so much hope and excitement as I look towards eternity.
Just
think, the greatest carpenter
that ever existed on earth and in heaven is building
a dream home for you. Think about some of the most
beautiful homes you have ever seen and the talent that
went into designing and building one of those homes.
It is nothing in comparison to what Jesus is preparing
for you. All of the greatest talents that have ever
existed in designing and building homes came from Him.
Jesus
is the Door to this eternal home.
John
10:9“I am
the door, If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and
will go in and out and find pasture.
2
Corinthians 5:1-2, 8 For
we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed,
we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to
be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven.
(8) We are confident,
yes, well pleased to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord.
The
apostle Paul had such a glorious vision of eternity
and heaven that he was in great turmoil over a desire
to depart and be with Christ or to remain in the flesh.
He realized that there was nothing in this life that
offered any comparison to what eternity offered.
Philippians
1:23-24 For
I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is far better. (24)
Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful
for you.
This
is the reality that must take shape in our lives if
we are to be properly prepared to deal with, not only
Juanita’s death, but others as well. When this truth
becomes reality for us death loses its sting.
This
is why the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes wrote:
Ecclesiastes
7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of
death than the day of one’s birth.
Eternal and Heavenly Realities
1.
Heaven and Eternity are beyond
our Wildest Expectations.
2.
Our Place in Heaven is created
according to our own Desires.
3.
Heaven is a Place of No More Sorrow,
Pain and Crying.
4.
Heaven is a Place of Eternal Beauty.
Remember:
Jesus is the Door to this eternal home. There is no
other way.
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