Death Of A Believer

Thoughts from the book HEAVEN, by Randy Alcorn ~



"Every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above. There is the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end."


"There we shall have companionship with the patriarchs and Fathers and saints of the Old and New Testaments, and those of whom the world was not worthy....And there, above all, we shall enjoy and dwell with God the Father, whom we have loved with all our hearts on earth; and with Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, who has always been to us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and with the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier, and Guide, and Comforter; and shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead forever!"


" Life is closing in on us, but we are headed in the right direction. It is a paradox, but true. The further we drop from our earthly peak, the closer we get to heaven."



An admonition from Charles Spurgeon ~ " Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help you press on, and to forget the toil of the way. This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country: this world of woe is but the stepping-stone to a world of bliss. And, after death, what comes? What wonderful world will open upon our astonished sight? "


A reflection on the death of a Believer ~

"I'm standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come down to mingle with each other. And then I hear someone at my side saying, "There, she's gone."


" Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side. And just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her."


" And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There, she is gone," there are other eyes watching her coming, and there are other voices ready to take up the glad shout, " Here she comes!"
 


" That is dying"!