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How to die! (Part 3)

Die looking forward to Heaven!

Die without fear of Eternity, as you know Jesus Christ is your Savior and is with you always!

Die at peace with God and with others!

Die having done your best through the power of the Holy Spirit do accomplish you purpose and mission on earth!

Die with dignity and honor before God and people.

Die trusting God to give you the grace and strength to pass into Glory and into His waiting Arms!

Die knowing your name is written in the Book of Life!

Die praying and whispering the Name that is above every Name’¦Jesus!

Die having lived a life that glorifies God and has served others and lifted up others!

Die full of Love!

Die in peace! Knowing that God will take care of you and take you to be with Him!

I want to add the following devotions by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. I could not say it as well as he. So please read the following.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England’s best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London’s famed New Park Street Church. The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000’”all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861 the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle also known as ‘Spurgeon’s Tabernacle.
Charles Spurgeon is my favorite historical preacher. I even had the honor and pleasure of preaching in that church and pulpit in 1972.
Spurgeon wrote what is now known as ‘Morning and Evening’ devotions. My wife Denise reads these every day.

The following will help you with instruction and inspiration and the Word of God to deal with death as well as to live life to the fullest.

THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH. JOHN 10:28

If you are depressed by present difficulties, if your outlook is exceedingly dark, take courage. Your Lord has done great things. His death and resurrection are prophetic of good things to come. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Luke 11:1). His will shall be done as surely as He came from heaven to earth and has returned from earth to heaven. His purpose will be carried out as surely as He died and lives again.

This is why the Lord appeared and said to His sorrowing servant John, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death’ (Rev. 1:18). The dying and living Shepherd is the safety and the glory of the flock.

Comfort one another with your Lord’s words, “I am the good shepherd: and I know My sheep and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep’ (John 10:14-15). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one’ (John 10:27-30).

JESUS WEPT. JOHN 11:35

Lazarus was dead, but Jesus was going to raise Him (John 11:11). Lazarus’ resurrection was at hand, yet Jesus wept (John 11:35). We are sometimes told that if we really believe our friends will rise again, and if we really believe they are safe and happy, then we should not weep. Why not? Jesus did. And there cannot be any error in following Jesus’ example. Jesus knew that Lazarus’ death was for God’s glory. He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son God may be glorified through it’ (John 11:4). Still He wept.

Have you ever thought it wicked weep at a loss that will glorify God? It is not wicked. If it were, Jesus would not have wept under similar circumstances. Tears, which might have been regarded as contraband, now have free admission into the realm of holiness because “Jesus wept.’

Dear friend, you may weep because “Jesus wept.’ He wept with the full knowledge of Lazarus’ happiness, with the full knowledge of his resurrection, with the firm assurance that God was glorified through this death. We may not condemn what Christ allows. If you can weep and thank God, if you can weep and know that you are in His presence, then your weeping is not sinful. Let your tears roll in floods. This is good instruction.

May the Holy Spirit teach us. May the Lord write it on every weeper’s heart. You may weep because “Jesus wept.’

THE LAST ENEMY. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:26

Those who have stood by a fresh grave and buried half their hearts in it can tell you what an enemy death is. Death takes the friend from our side, the child from our arms, the pillar of our homes, and the brightness of our hearth. Death has no pity for the young and no mercy for the old. Death has no regard for the good or the beautiful. The scythe of death cuts both sweet flowers and noxious weeds with equal readiness. Death comes into our garden, tramples our lilies, and scatters our roses. Death finds even the most modest flowers that are hiding under the leaves, and it withers them with its burning breath. Death is our enemy. “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death’ (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Why do saints die? Because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption’ (1 Corinthians 15:50). A divine change must take place in our bodies before we can enter heaven. Death and the grave are the refining pot, the furnace that makes the body ready for its future bliss. Death cuts the ropes, that the boat may freely sail to the fair haven. Death is the fiery chariot that ascends to God. Death is the gentle voice of our Great King.

We fly on eagles’ wings, far from this land of mist and cloud, into the eternal serenity and brilliance of God’s house above. It is not death to die.

I DIE DAILY. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:31

I thank God that I do not fear death. Over the years, I never rose from my bed and planned on living until night. Those who die daily will die easily. Those who make themselves familiar with the tomb will find it transformed into a bed. Those who rejoice in the covenant of grace are encouraged that even death is comprehended by the believer. Let us live as dying among a dying people, for then we will truly live.

It would be a sad sentence if we were forced to dwell in this poor world forever. But to grow ripe and to be carried home like corn shocks at harvest is proper and pleasing. To labor through a blessed day and go home at night to receive the wages of grace is not dark and dismal. If you are the Lord’s child, I invite you to look this home-going in the face and until you no longer see it as a grave of gloom and dread but as a heaven of hope and glory.

In the midst of malaria and plagues we are safe with God. “Because you made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling’ (Psalms 91:9). Under Jehovah’s wings you shall take refuge. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness (Psalms 91:4-6).

We are immortal until our work is done. Rest peacefully. All things are ordered by His wisdom, and “precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints’ (Psalms 116:15). No forces are outside of His control. God does not permit any foe to trespass on the domain of Providence. All things are ordained of God. Our deaths are under the special oversight of our exalted Lord and Savior. He Himself will guide us through the iron gate of death. Let us rejoice.
In life and in death we are in the Lord’s Hands.

WITH A SHOUT. 1 THESSALONIANS 4:16

The glorious doctrine of Jesus’ resurrection is intended to take away the sorrow of death. Faith being exercised upon immortality relieves us of all concern over the spirits of the saved. The destroyed boy will live again; it has not been annihilated. The frame that we lay in the dust will only sleep there until “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first’ (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Our bodies will be reunited with our spirits and clothed in superior beauty, clothed with attributes unknown here.

The Lord’s love to His people is not a love of disembodied spirits, but of men and women dressed in flesh and blood. The love of Jesus Christ toward His chosen is not an affection for just their souls. He keeps all our parts. He guards all our bones (Psalms 34:20). The very hairs of our head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30). He took into union with His Deity not only a human soul, but also a human body. Moreover, our Redeemer has perfectly ransomed both soul and body. It was not a partial redemption that our Kinsman effected for us. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!’ (Job 19:25-27).

I know that He has redeemed us, not only with respect to our spirit, but also with regard to our body. He has redeemed it from the power of death and ransomed it from the prison of the grave.

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,

Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1