1 Thessalonians 4:18 (NIV)
I find this passage very encouraging whenever I am thinking about death of a Christian friend. Death is a drag. It is a terrible thing. It is a rip off really; people live their whole lives – they work and struggle, and scrape and strive. They love and they laugh, they influence and they accomplish. They build - homes, businesses, families – but most of all they build a life. Death ends it all. Sure their influence stays for as long as family and friends are alive, and their home and business will last longer than them, but they are gone.
This text tells us that a Christian, someone who is in Christ, though gone from this earth, is really only asleep in their Savior. I can’t think of anything more encouraging then to picture a loved one asleep, resting contently, full of the peace that passes understanding. Many times I have walked into the rooms of my children when they were young, and just stood and gazed at their faces as they sleep. All the troubles of the day are gone. No matter what happened during the day, they look like little angels sleeping peacefully.
Our heavenly Father longs to give us rest; He calls us to His side and we find our rest. He has prepared a place for us. There is no rest for the wicked, but there is a place of rest for His children. And alongside this encouraging truth, is the truth that one Day we all hear a heavenly trumpet and their bodies will rise out of the earth and we will rise to meet our Lord and to meet them. What a blessed Day that will be! What a blessed hope we have in Christ Jesus! I am looking forward to that Day. I am looking forward to hearing the trumpet call of God, of rising through the air to meet my Lord. O may He find me ready. May I be doing the Lord’s will when the trumpet sounds! May all of us be doing the Lord’s will when the trumpet sounds! Come Lord Jesus Come!
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