the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
Philippians 1:21
‘To die is gain’
Read Psalms 23:1 to Psalms 24:10
Children of God, don’t be afraid of death and don’t weep for those who have died in the Lord. For us, ‘to die is gain’.
Death will bring us into the presence of many friends. Death takes the wife from the husband, the child from its mother, the father from his family, but we cheer ourselves with the prospect of glorious reunion (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). It is true, above all else, we shall see Christ and be with him, but it is also promised that we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yes, we shall know one another in heaven.
Death will bring an answer to our prayers. How often have you prayed that you might be delivered from your trials, temptations and troubles? We shall be delivered from them then. ‘God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.’ How often have you prayed that you might be freed from sin? When this body is in the grave, ‘There shall be no more sin. ‘Many, many times you have prayed that you might be more like Christ, in love, in purity, in conduct. When we have laid aside this robe of flesh, we shall awake in his likeness. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
But most of all, ‘To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.’ This is our chief concern. This is our noblest ambition. This is the happiness and glory of heaven. This is heaven! We shall be with Christ, for ever with the Lord! ‘There cannot be heaven without Christ. He is the sum total of bliss; the fountain from which heaven flows, the element of which heaven is composed. Christ is heaven and heaven is Christ...Just to be with Christ is all the heaven a believer wants. The angels may be there or not, as they will, and the golden crowns and harps present or absent, as may be, but if I am to be where Jesus is, I will find angels in his eyes, and crowns in every lock of his hair; to me the golden streets shall be my fellowship with him, and the harpings of the harpers shall be the sound of his voice. Only to be near him, to be with him - this is all I want’ (C.H. Spurgeon). This is heaven: ‘To die is gain!’
