From Charles Hicks, a member of the churches of Christ in TN: on Monday, May 1, 2014: Bible Thought for the Week Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” We are not going to stay on this earth forever. In fact, we are only here for a short period of time (Heb. 9:27, James 4:13-14). When I was18 years of age, I thought someone who was 50 years old was really an old person. Then, one day I turned 50 and 70 became the old age. Before I knew it, I had hit 70 and now as I rapidly approach 80, it seems old age must set in at about 90. Really, the truth is that regardless of our age, our life span is short indeed. When I was 18 years old, this passage from Revelation 14 didn’t really mean a lot to me but now I find great comfort in turning to it and letting its thoughts fill my heart. There is a lot of sadness connected with death because it is a separation from those things and those people that we love. Again, I love the words of Paul found in 1 Cor. 15:51-57. Paul tells us that one day we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, this corruptible will put on incorruption. He then asks, “O death, where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory?” The sting of death is removed when we realize that death is the doorway that allows those who “die in the Lord” to enter a world of happiness and joy that is removed from sin, temptations, sorrow and weariness (Rev. 21:1-7). Sin is a great separator. It separates a man from God in this life as well as in eternity. It then stands to reason that in order to “die in the Lord”, we must be purged from sin. To be purged of sin is to have our soul cleansed by the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19, 22) wherein we have redemption, even the forgiveness of our sins (Col..1:12-14). Being purged from our sins does not happen by accident. It only happens when we follow God’s directions for doing so and those directions are: Hear (Rom. 10:17, Rev. 3:20), Believe (Rom. 10:17, John 20:30-31), Repent (Luke 13:3, Acts 17:30), Confess (Rom. 10:9-10, Acts 8:37), Be Baptized for the remission of sins (Acts. 2:38, Gal. 3:27, Rom. 6:1-6). I wonder, have you been purged from sin by following God’s prescription? Once you have been baptized into Christ does not automatically assure that you will “die in Christ”. You must be faithful until death (Rev. 2:10, 1 John 1:6-10). Being faithful involves becoming partakers of the divine nature by adding virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity to our faith (2 Pet. 1:2-11). It becomes a matter of laying aside everything would hinder us from being faithful and just hold fast to our faith in God (Heb. 12:1-2, Heb. 4:14-16, 10:23, Isa. 12:2-3). If we follow God’s directions, we will “die in the Lord” and death will be a blessed event and its sting will be removed (1 Cor. 15:55-57). Charles Hicks [email protected]
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 02:52:35 +0000
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