we live to die, but die to live forever

Last weekend, my grandfather past away. Whenever someone in your family passes away, there is always a degree of sadness acompanied along with it. I guess the thing that really got to me was the pride he had in me. A family member from the other side of my family came up to me to tell me this. "One of the last times I saw your grandfather, he had just gotten a picture of you from when you first started college. He was so proud of you." It's a sad thing to lose a grandparent, but death reminds us of one thing. From all earthly life comes death, but from earthly death comes eternal life. Where we spend that eternity is the kicker.

A friend sent me a small note in the mail. On the note, she left me three bible verses to remember.

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job 19:25-27

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

John 11:25-26

For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

Romans 14:7-9

forgive me

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. "

1 John 2:15-17

It is so hard to live this part of the Bible. It's impossible without Christ. There are so many things on this earth that I long and seek after. I really shouldn't. God's my supply... my breath of life... and there is no way I can even grasp a glimpse of his beauty. Yet I let my yearning for God be taken over by earthly things. I am a wretched man... unable to comprehend the vastness of God's love, but willing to let His love be substituted by the things of this world. Without Christ this battle would be in vain. Because of His gift, even I, the worst of all men, can be called a child of God.


Lord Christ, forgive me for my wrongs.