AMAZING HOPE!!

Amazing hope!

Verse for Today: Saturday, November 05, 2011

Acts 7:56 – “Look,” he (Stephen) said, “I see Heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

It is an undeniable fact that a warm and glorious welcome awaits God’s children when they arrive at their eternal home. The story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16) tells us in the words of the Lord Jesus that when God’s children go to their eternal resting place, they are carried into their home by the angels. When we say that someone we love is gone, they are not gone away, but gone to a place of eternal bliss and glittering glory and are ushered in by angels who carry them in their hands. Stephen was received by the Lord Jesus standing up, even though He is seated at the right hand of the Father. The honor and dignity that awaits us when we reach our eternal home is unparallel to any thing that human mind has envisaged. When we loose one of our dear ones, we feel the sense of loss, but Heaven rejoices as they arrive. It is precious in the sight of God when one of His precious children comes home to be there with the Father and the Son forever, along with all the angels and the saints who have gone before them. When we lament that our dear one is gone, heaven declares with rejoicing that God’s precious child has arrived. We send our dear ones to their eternal home with profound grief and sense of loss, but heaven receives them with joy and fulfillment. When our ministries here on earth are completed, we all have to go home as Prophet Zechariah did when his service here was completed. Our Lord knows when we complete our course and then it would be time to go home, rest and wait to receive the crowns which are set apart for us. So when our dear ones are gone, we are enabled by the Lord to send them off with the great confidence that we would go back to complete our mission in this world for our beloved Lord and then go home to meet our Lord whom our souls long to see face to face, along with our dear ones who are gone before us.

Dear friend, are you feeling a great sense of loss at the sudden departure of your loved one? Perhaps you have no idea why it happened at this time when there are so many more things to be accomplished for others and for God. But our God knows better when we complete our race and ministries which are entrusted with us. So our primary focus on earth has to be to complete the missions that the Lord has given us. At the same time, when we say goodbye to a beloved one, we should not have a sense of eternal loss, because the temporary loss we encounter is only a short term separation. One of these days we will all go home to be with our beloved Lord and all the saints who have gone before us. But it is likely that before that ever happens, the Lord might appear in the clouds to receive us from here and take us home to be with Him forever. We will all be there with the angels and all the saints about whom we have read in the Bible and in the history of the Church. In a sense, they are all waiting for us to be also there for that great permanent camp meeting. Our Lord wants us there physically and He will give us glorified bodies to be there. Our glorified bodies will not decay or corrupt. We will be always praising God in our eternal home and see the face of Jesus. Dear reader, if you are going through a painful bereavement, it is time you take courage in the Lord who is now having a face to face encounter with your departed beloved one. May the Lord guard your heart so that you would not loose this glorious hope! May your painful heart find peace and rest in the Lord and the awaiting glory which we will all share soon!

Luke 1:23 – And it came to pass that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, (Zechariah) departed to his own house.
Thought for Today
His children are so precious to the Father who gives them the warmest welcome when they reach their eternal home.

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