If we are not ready to
face our Maker, it means we have to start realigning our life goals.
A pre-believer once told me, “You Christians rave so much about heaven but how
many of you really want to get there early?” That statement shook me. It forced me to rethink
about my values and goals in life.
“Even people who want
to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.” – Steve Jobs.
How can we have a positive view about living and dying? We can certainly
learn a lot from the apostle Paul. Though he longed for heaven so he can cease
struggling in life, he welcomed life as an opportunity to serve others.
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will
in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always
Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by
life or by death. For to me,
to live is Christ and to die
is gain. If I am to go on
living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor
for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the
two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by
far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:20-24).
In
fact, believers whose hearts are truly alive towards God consider themselves dead
to their own agenda, just like how Paul described his life:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Sometimes
God welcomes his servants when death is imminent. Such was the case of the
martyr Stephen who died of stoning:
“But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the
glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.“Look,” he said, “I
see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of
God” (Acts 7:55-56).
Homecoming
isn’t so bad after all when you have a grand reception waiting to welcome you. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his
saints” (Psalm 116:15).
Try
out this test: “Are we ready to face our Maker?”
If we are not ready, it means
we have to start realigning our life goals and
objectives to that of the Master Potter.
Are
there still many earthly cords (or cables) which
continue to tie us down to earth – like those
which held Gulliver down?
Only when we have ‘set our
house in order’ – ready to leave this
earth if He should call us home – will we
be able to shout like Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55: “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is
thy sting?”
To arrive
at that point when we’re able to shout like Paul, we have to mean serious
business with God.
Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize winner in
Literature, held a highly positive view of death. He wrote: “Death is not
extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has
come.”
Believers who have been walking closely with
God will have the peace and assurance that better times await them in the hereafter.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there
is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to
all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
And that glorious hope is one that transcends positive thinking.
RELATED POSTS:
MAN PROPOSES, GOD
DISPOSES.
We often take for granted we’ll be greeted every morning by
birds and light streaming into our room. But how sure are we that we’ll wake up
tomorrow?
SETTING OUR HOUSE IN
ORDER
How many of us prepare ourselves to meet our Maker, even
when death isn’t looming on the horizon?
http://limpohann.blogspot.com/2012/10/setting-our-house-in-order.html
LONGEVITY: REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS?
http://limpohann.blogspot.in/2012/07/longevity-reward-for-faithfulness.html
