Understanding death.
I can remember as a young boy my mom was driving me thru a neighboring town and I saw a cemetery for the first time. I asked my mom what that was. She told me that's where people went when they died. Not that I was in a position to fully understand, but there was no further explanation given. I can remember thinking about that experience many times as I was growing up.
Around the 6th or 7th grade my classmates and I found out that a boy in the grade below ours had committed suicide. A very difficult situation with no memorable explanation from the sisters and priests who were my teachers during elementary school.
When I was getting ready for my senior year of High School my next door neighbor died of leukemia. She was a year younger than me. I remember that it came out of nowhere. Looking back at this I found it strange that I did not go to her funeral. I'm not sure why this was the case. Perhaps my parents thought they were protecting me.
Upon graduating from college I moved out of the area. One day I got a newspaper clipping in the mail from my parents that one of my best friends had died of a brain tumor. We were inseparable growing up, along with 2 other very close friends at the time. It's crazy how we lost touch after graduating from High School. I wish I did a better job of staying closer to all 3 of them. To this day I pray for these men and/or their families.
As God would have it, I have been involved a ministry for a number of years that helps prepare men who are going into a faith based rehab. My goal is to help them face a world that looks totally different to them when they come out of rehab. Unfortunately, there have been a number of men who have since passed on due to various reasons. By the way, it's not the rehab facility that changes these men, it's Jesus who changes the hearts of the men who choose to make a commitment and endure thru the valleys of life.
Where do we go when we die?
Most of us have experienced the death of someone close to us. However, how many of us have been truly changed by these events? In other words, how many of us have sought greater meaning and understanding regarding this inevitable event we all face?
I recently passed by a the local donut shop and they had the following message above the door: "Time is the only currency we will spend and not know what our balance is".
We are all one heartbeat from eternity. It was probably Solomon who said that God has put eternity in our hearts. That being the case, I think it's wise to seek more truth about this prophecy. The verse that hits home for me is 2 Timothy 2:11 This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. 12 If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.
For me, there are 2 very key words in this passage: endure and reign. It's interesting that in Chapter 5 of The Book of Daniel that Belshazzar was the co-regent in Babylon with his father Nabonidus, who was absent in Arabia. Is it possible we could hold positions of authority and responsibility as co-regent with Jesus Himself? If so, where we specifically will we be reigning with Christ?
As for the word "endure", I have previously discussed that one of the interpretations of the word "abide" in John 15:5 is to endure. This word endure stirs up the idea that traveling thru the valleys of life is not easy, especially if we try to do it on our own. This is why End Times prophecy is so important to me. I need to know more about these prophecies and how they apply to my future.
