Linda Oelofse.
2 Timothy 4:7.
I have fought the
good fight, I have
finished the race,
I have kept the faith.
Restore by Bob Benson.
When life caves in, you do not need reasons, you need comfort. You do not need some answers; you need someone. And Jesus does not come to us with an explanation; he comes to us with his presence. We are seeking the reason. We want to know why. Like Job, we finally want God to tell us just what is going on…
But God does not reveal his plan, he reveals himself. He comes as warmth when we are cold, fellowship when we are alone, strength when we are weak, peace when we are troubled, courage when we are afraid, songs when we are sad, and bread when we are hungry.
He is with us on our journeys. He is there when we are at home. He sits with us at our table. He knows about funerals and weddings and commencements and hospitals and jails and unemployment and labour and laughter and rest and tears. He knows because he is with us. He comes to us again and again.
Isaiah 57:1-2.
The righteous perish,
and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.
We are all faced with death.
None of us can say that we will be alive tomorrow.
James 4:13-16.
Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
Hebrews 9:27.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
The Lord knows us intimately.
David was known by God in his mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13-18.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I’ve lived a good life”? Luke 18:9-14.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: God, I thank you that I am not like other people robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I never knew”?
Romans 1:18-20.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I have my own religion”?
Galatians 2:21.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
If we could be righteous through any other religion, Jesus died for nothing.
We do not reach Christ through righteousness, we reach righteousness through Christ!
John 14:6.
Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I believed in God”?
James 2:18-20.
But someone will say, You have faith;
I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
You believe that there is one God.
Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless
Aren’t we all “Children of God?
We are not automatically children of God, we have to be Born into God’s family.
John 8:44.
Jesus said of the Pharisees… “You are of your Father the Devil”
2 Corinthians 6:17,18.
Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you and I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty.
Aren’t we all “Children of God?
We are not automatically children of God, it is up to us to make the decision and to turn from our sin to God.
John 3:1-5.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do except God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him,
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Born of water.
Contrary to what some teach, born of water is not a reference to “Water Baptism,” Jesus in this context was answering Nicodemus regarding natural birth from a mother’s womb, where the unborn child is surrounded by water, and when the water breaks the chid is born.
1 Peter 1:23.
Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.
Why do we have to be Born Again?
When mankind disobeyed God in the garden of Eden he died Spiritually and in fact God warned Adam that this would happen.
Genesis 2:17.
But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.
Adam did not die physically until he was 930 years old and had sons and daughters with Eve.
God in fact expelled man from the Garden of Eden so that he would not be able to eat from the Tree of Life and live for ever. So God is responsible for man’s physical death.
Genesis 3:22-24.
And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Why do we have to be “Born Again.
Man’s spiritual death.
Ephesians 2:1-5.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world…..God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
Colossians 2:13.
When you were dead in your sins and uncircumcision of you flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins……
Man is Tri-partite.
The Body: Makes us conscious of the world through our 5 senses.
The soul: Makes us conscious of ourselves and it too consists of 3 parts, our mind, will and emotions
The spirit: Makes us conscious of God and at the time we are Born Again it is quickened by the Spirit of God.
Genesis 2:7.
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
John 20: 19-22.
On the evening of the first day of the week… Jesus came and stood among them…and with that He breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
Christians should not be afraid of death.
Christians should not be afraid of death.
Hebrews 4:14-15.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death that is, the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
In fact the Christian walk starts with a burial.
Colossians 2:12.
Having been buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul did not fear death.
Paul did not fear death.
Philippians 1:20-26.
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me.
Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
2 Corinthians 5:1-9.
2 Corinthians 5:1-9.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Linda Oelofse.
Psalm 116:15.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
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