Morning By Morning #111

…that by his death he might destroy
him who holds the power of death.

Hebrews 2:14

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Dear child of God, death has lost its sting because the Devil’s power over it has been destroyed. So stop your fear of dying. Ask God the Holy Spirit for the grace to be strengthened for that dreaded time through the intimate knowledge and firm belief of your Redeemer’s death. If you live your life close to the cross of Calvary, you will view death with pleasure and welcome it with great delight when it comes. It is a precious thing to die in the Lord—a covenant blessing to sleep in Jesus. Death is no longer banishment but is a return from exile for the believer. It is a home-going to the many mansions where our loved ones already dwell.

The distance between the glorified saints in heaven and the saints still serving here on earth seems great, but that is not true. We are not far from home, for in a mere moment we may be there. Our sails have already been raised to the wind and our souls have launched out upon the deep.

How long will our voyage be? How many wearying winds must beat upon our sails before we are safely moored in the port of peace? How long will our souls be tossed about by waves before we sail upon that sea that knows no storms?

Listen to the answer: “Away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8 ESV). A distant ship has just departed but has already reached its safe haven. It just now spread its sail and was there. Consider that ancient boat upon the Lake of Galilee. A storm tossed it to and fro, but Jesus said, “Peace! Be still!” (Mark 4:39 ESV), “and immediately the boat reached the shore” (John 6:21).

Never think a long period ensues between the moment of death and the eternity of glory. When our eyes close on earth, they open in heaven. The “chariot of fire and horses of fire” (2 Kings 2:11) are not even an instant on the road.

Thus, dear child of God, what is there for you to fear in death, knowing that through the death of your Lord its curse and sting are destroyed? Death is now nothing more than a Jacob’s ladder (see Gen. 28:12) whose feet are in a dark grave, but whose top reaches to glory everlasting.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 22:12 – 13).

Since “our citizenship is in heaven…and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20), and because “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6); this earthly realm is not my home. As Larry Norman once sang on his album “Only Visiting This Planet,” “I’m just passin’ through.”

Lord, may my grip on this world be loose and may I keep heaven in my eyes. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).