John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’
I have stood before congregations of family and friends to officiate at the funeral services of first, our daughter…then years later, my mother . . . and several more years later, my brother. If there was no certainty of a heaven with the Lord, I would have not been able to accomplish those duties.
What is it about the Christian life that gives us the hope of life beyond the grave? The answer is the life that Jesus lived, the sacrificial death He endured on the cross, and His victorious resurrection from the grave! Now that, my dear friend, is worth getting excited about!
I recently read a book by Stuart Briscoe. He quoted a conversation between a Christian and an avowed atheist where the believer suggested that the two of them had widely differing views of the hereafter. If the atheist was right and there was nothing after this life, he would lose nothing. If the Christian was correct in trusting in the Lord, then the atheist would lose everything and spend eternity in hell paying for his error.
We are surrounded by people who either are professing atheists or are simply failing to respond to the message of salvation. It is time for us to be used of God to share the life-giving message of eternal salvation before it is too late. Either way, we will never die!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
—Pastor Cecil