Therefore comfort one another with these words

I heard today that the father of someone I know passed away. This is not a “friend” of mine by any means and I have never met his father so it is not like I was overly upset by the news.

But it got me to thinking.

If someone dies and they were “in Christ” then really we should be celebrating.

We may be sad that we will miss them our remaining days here on earth but we really should be celebrating for them if they really knew Jesus, abided and Him and produced fruit in their lives to leave us no doubt they are now with the Lord.

“So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8)

We know one thing for certain. A Christian can be in only one of two places. Either absent from the Lord in our earthly tents or in the presence of the Lord. And to be in the presence of the Lord is our hope and what we press on towards all our days of this life.

“And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” (Psalm 39:7)

There is little detail given about Heaven in the Bible really. We get some glimpses when John is taken up to Heaven in the book of Revelation. Paul was stoned to death one time, went to Heaven and then returned to his body. He stated that the things he saw and heard we so fantastic that they could not be properly conveyed with the words of man in such a way that a mortal man would even begin to comprehend.

Honestly, some days I think that those brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone home before us are in reality the lucky ones. They are not stuck here on this sin infested rock we call earth. They are in a place so fantastic that we cannot even begin to comprehend it this side of eternity.

But if that were not enough, it gets better. Our loved ones that died in Christ that we miss will not always be “gone.” One day we will see them again. As quickly as prophecy is coming to pass these days we might even indeed see them again very soon.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

When a love one dies, it is understandable that we would be sad because we are going to miss their company. But for them, we should rejoice and take comfort in the fact that we will see them again at some point in the future.

One of my grandfathers passed away in 1984. In this life, my grandfather was a simple man who lived a humble life and enjoyed picking his guitar and singing at church more than anything else.

I still miss him but I take comfort in two things. The first being that he is up in Heaven before the throne singing praises to Jesus with guitar in had as we speak. The second thing is the knowledge that one day I will be standing beside him to join him in signing praise.

“Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18)

No man can serve two masters!

Someone was once quoted as saying, "Many words can be uttered; however a person's actions demonstrate sincere intention."

Isn’t it true?

I continue to be confused today why some just don’t “get it” in the church. What am I talking about exactly here, the topic of idolatry.

I don’t understand why people don’t see that you cannot pay lip service to God and call yourself a Christian. Sorry but the message of the Jesus, the Apostles and the early church was not, “pay lip service on Sunday when it fits into your schedule and live your life like hell on earth chasing after the things of this world with the rest of your time.”

Sorry but if you search you will not find a so called “sinner’s prayer” anywhere in the Scripture. We are told clearly that we are saved by Grace and only Grace but that does not mean we can expect to see Heaven when we die if we spend 45 seconds praying some canned prayer then go about same as always afterwards. Jesus is not some magical genie that we can “rub His bottle” by saying some prayer one time and expect to see Heaven when we die.

True salvation is about truly surrendering our life to Jesus and abiding in Him daily.

The message of the early church, Jesus, etc was believe and repent. If there is zero or even little change in a person’s life I sincerely believe they had better check in with Jesus to see why that is the case.

I fear personally they may know “about Jesus” and have “church membership” but they don’t really “know Jesus”. Jesus said a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears the bad.

So many today are chasing after so many things. Some even make an idol out of that glowing box in their living room called a T.V.

One of the most common things that trip people up here in America that I see all the time is greed. The attitude is “praise God, but now I have to get back to keeping up with the Jones”

Jesus encountered the “rich young ruler” who had kept the law from his youth. But Jesus told the young man he still lacked one thing. Jesus told him to sell all he had and seek after the Lord. Does this mean having money is bad should the Lord decide to bless you?

No, not at all. But Jesus wants to be first in our lives and to have our hearts 100% committed to Him. If chasing after mammon and other things of the world is your prime focus in life…well personally I have just enough fear of the Lord that it would seriously concern me to be honest. Going through legalistic “religious rituals” such as keeping the law (or church attendance) just won’t cut it if your heart is wrong.

Jesus saw that with the rich young ruler it was a case where money was the young man’s “god” and there was no place in his heart to sincerely seek after Jesus when money was in reality the young man’s ruler.

Jesus was trying to tell the rich young ruler exactly what He had shared when telling the disciples the parable of the Sower:

“Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22)

The Bible has a lot to say about money and I have found that most of what the Bible has to say about money is not of a positive nature.

I found several verses on the topic of money with about five minutes of searching the on-line Bible:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

“…He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:24-25)

“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:9-10)

“So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; It takes away the life of its owners.” (Proverbs 1:19)

“He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live.” (Proverbs 15:27)

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)

If one has any fear of the Lord in them whatsoever, I believe the verses above might really challenge them to check in with Jesus regarding their priorities and ask themselves a question.

Are you serving Jesus or have you kicked Him out of your life to serve your “stuff?”

The particular verses above are about money and material things but really I think they can apply to any idol we would seek to put in a place before Jesus in our lives.

The real bottom line is this:

“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:21)