Death is not the End

J. Vernon McGee writes, "The glory of the Christian faith is that it never views life as ending with death. This life is not all there is."

This week celebrated both the death of Jesus Christ on Friday and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The power of His resurrection dwells in me as a follower of Jesus Christ now inhabited by the Spirit of God. It is that power that will one day finally and ultimately bring me to my own moment of resurrection that is directly tied to and fully dependent upon the resurrection of Jesus years ago.

Death is not the end. Death was not the end of Jesus. It was merely the end of His suffering for sin. Death is a doorway into eternity that awaits us and everyone has an eternity awaiting them.

The Scriptures tell of only two eternities. The one more popular eternity stands at the end of a wide road on which many individuals are traveling. That road feeds into an eternity void of God and full of suffering the penalty for choosing everything else over God.

The other less popular eternity has a narrow road leading into it and few pilgrims who are making the trek. Yet the road, narrow and sometimes winding, leads into an incredible city and all the way to the throne of the King who will reign forever.

Death is not the end of any of us who walk in this world. By faith, however, Jesus Christ has placed us upon the path that leads to our home with Him. Death is but the finish line that once we have crossed it brings us to the author and finisher of our faith.

Where is you focus today? Where is your eternity? Are your eyes on the author and finisher of the faith that leads His followers to His eternal home?

Always Be Ready

I learn so many valuable lessons from our kids. Sometimes it isn't so much a learning of something new as a reminder of something old.

As you may already be aware, our son Micah has been listed on the national transplant list for a liver transplant. This will be his second transplant.

The transplant could come at any time. Even in the last two weeks, there was a liver he would have received but the size was not a right match. Every day we live with the reality that the call could come for us to make the journey to Duke Hospital for Micah to receive his new liver.

This morning Micah took a suitcase and began packing his things so he would be ready. Every time the phone rings, he is adamant that we answer it because, as he says, "It could be Duke!" There seems to be no day that passes now that the anticipation of this doesn't come up in conversation in our home, outside our home, and even with complete strangers.

It has been a deep and powerful reminder of how we can begin to live without urgency and expectation. Jesus made a promise and He always keeps His promises. He promised He would return for His children to take them home to be with Him forever, receiving the reward of their labor. In Matthew 24, He emphatically tells us to always be ready because "in such an hour that you think not, the Son of Man will return."

Am I living with the same expectation that any day and every day could be the last day?

Do I anticipate Jesus returning, as He promised, as though it could come today?

Are there things I've left undone? Words I've left unsaid? Acts I've yet to fulfill? Love I've failed to communicate and show? Gospel conversations I've avoided?

The truth is that the call could come today. Jesus could call all of His children to come home never to return here or leave His presence again. We must always be ready. We must live intentionally, passionately, and urgently. Are we really ready?