How do you feel when you reach the end of it and its all over? I just got done with a TV series on dvd, and the last 2 hour episode left me feeling sad, and tearful (Yeah, I'm a sentimental ol' mush).
I can remember as a child, my Dad would scold me because it was getting on into the night, and I kept feeding pieces of wood to the fire in the fireplace. Seeing the flames diminish, and the light from the fire getting dim, I felt sad - like the fire was dying, and I couldn't bear to see it go. So I kept feeding it; and when the flames sprang up with new life, I felt elated.
But my Dad got his way eventually and I stopped. I remember going to bed before the fire died, just so I wouldn't see it happen.
I never had a lot of friends growing up; the few I did have, when it came time for them to move to a different part of town or even a different part of the country, on the day they were to finally leave, I'd make myself scarce.
I absolutely hated good byes. I still do. Good byes are a kind of 'death in miniature' and they are painful and leave an emptiness inside the heart. Death itself is like this.
There is something deep within our hearts that revolts against this thing that we call death. It's objectionable. Unfair. It robs us of those we love, and we resent the fact that they are taken from us.
ROMANS 6:23a
For the wages of sin is death;
SIN is the great robber of life . . . the life that is granted to us by the one that created both it, and ourselves. It is sin that separates us from a Holy God (ISAIAH 59:2) Who cannot touch sin, Who can have nothing to do with those who are tainted with sin. Separation from the only source of LIFE by definition is death.
It happened the moment that the woman's hand reached out and plucked off that fruit, from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and ate of that which God forbade (GEN 3:6-10), and in so doing, failed the test that God established for her and her husband (JOHN 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.).
That is what commenced the awful regress of God's beautiful creation going awry and falling into ruin. This is the state of reality in the world in which we live. It's astounding to think about really: the fact that we have no idea what living in a world without sin is like. Such a thing is totally foreign to us; we've been born into a sinful world, grown up in it - we've known nothing else but this condition of corruption. We have never breathed the atmosphere of undiluted and Divine Holiness.
And this will continue unabated for as long as Satan remains in charge as "the god of this world" (1 COR 4:4).
From the moment baby Cain drew in his first breath, until the last human being (whoever that may be) gasps their last with their tired, old lungs and everything in between - there have been beginnings and endings.
Such sorrow and heart ache and sufferings in injustice and oppression that have laid souls down in despondency and hopelessness - and the joys of new beginnings - a marriage, a birth, a new home, a relationship restored anew: all of these will know its beginning and its ending.
ROMANS 8:18-23
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
I find myself groaning a lot more these days, not because I'm in a 51 year old body, but because I'm in a 51 year old body that is cursed with sin, in a world sold under sin, but the situation is not hopeless - there is every cause to rejoice!
ROMANS 6:23 has a second half to that verse!
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This life eternal is like nothing we have ever experienced before in all of our natural lives! Once we entered into the Kingdom of God (JOHN 3:3-5; 1 PET 1:23; 2 COR 5:17) via Jesus Christ our LORD, the course of our life was drastically, dramatically, demonstrably altered by Deity!
We were delivered from the curse of sin; 'reconnected' as it were to the source of Life by its Author (HEB12:2; JOHN 14:6) and now our course is heading deeper and deeper into the Kingdom of God, which we know the taste of even now, by the Spirit that dwells in our hearts (ROM 8:9-11).
While it is true that the darkest, most heinous hour that mankind has ever known or ever will know on this planet is yet ahead of us, we as saints of God have that eternal vision that sees past all of that, and with the eyes of faith behold that kingdom which God has prepared for those that love Him (1 COR 2:9-10)!
And at the time appointed by the Almighty, He will take hold of this old universe by the corners, and fold it up and cast it away forever! All of the stories, all of the history, all of the art and literature and music, as well as every act perpetrated by fallen man, whether for noble purpose or ill - shall be washed away in a fire storm of universal proportions...
2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
We shall witness God with the power of His spoken Word create the new heavens and the new earth (2 PET 3:13)! With glorified eyes that shall see far, far more than these natural eyes of ours and we shall perceive the wondrous, miraculous acts of God's creative artistry!
On that day, every sorrow shall be forgotten, every pain dismissed, all of our burdens laid down and we will taste the fullness of eternal life, coursing through our glorified bodies with the power of God (1 COR 15:42-44)!
GETTING REAL ABOUT THE RESURRECTION
We shall be reunited with family and friends that have received eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD, those who have long ago passed, as well as some recent ones only just departed. There will be NO MORE GOODBYES! No more tearful, hurtful endings that leave us empty and despondent! This woeful life won't even be so much as a half-remembered bad dream!
REVELATION 21:3-5
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
There will only be our ABBA Father, and the LORD JESUS CHRIST, as well as our Paraclete - the Holy Spirit - and all the hosts of angelic beings - and all the saints from the very beginning to the very ending.
And forever and ever, without END!!! . . . we shall worship the LORD as the living music of heaven resounds through our very beings and perpetually exalts the Name of our God, for His Glory and Grace!
REVELATION 7:10-12
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
We shall explore the new world (new as in, not like the old one but new; but rather new and different than the old!) that God has prepared for us; and even more glorious, we shall explore the eternal and never ending and exceeding riches of God's grace towards us (EPH 2:7)!
So let us have hope: and keep it deep within our hearts by faith! The end of fallen history, chained to the bondages of sin and death is coming to a BLESSED END!
And ETERNAL LIFE that we experience in our hearts already will be a readily realized reality when once we see our LORD face to Face!
See also: BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW
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