It may be because I keep facing the same event year that makes me ponder the afterlife. I have worked hard at remaining 29, but the anniversaries of that 29th birthday keep growing! I have often said that God loves me so much that He will not make me live here forever and then I think about our great citizen, Grace Stone (Susie Onishi’s mother), who celebrated her 108th yesterday. Do I believe when Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you…” He included me? Most certainly I believe as most believe that one day I will live in eternity with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! But, my question is am I living my best life. NOW? Is there life after birth for all of us or are there some among us who were born to struggle without hope?
Perhaps we need to underline that Jesus warned against undue speculation about the hereafter. In keeping with His teachings, as I understand them, my theology is simple: When I trust God for the here and now of this life, I can trust Him for what comes next! Remember Easter and His resurrection?
The hope of a personal resurrection is grounded in the fact that God can raise us to new life here and now. To experience the resurrection, to live resurrected lives, to be the community of the resurrected, we can sing the song of Fanny Crosby, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine…” I am firmly convinced that eternity begins in this life, or it never begins.
Jesus said to Martha before the resurrection of her brother Lazarus, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Those who believe in Me, though they are dead, yet shall they live. And those who live and believe in Me shall never die.” Do we believe? Like Martha, we need to affirm our faith in a living God, a God Who makes a difference in how we live this life, not just a life to come.
To “live in Jesus” is to get a hold on the purpose of our lives. Jesus was a man for others. He was in the people business, and we are called to be in the same business. With our involvement in institutions, agencies, communities, may we always remember that our lives only have meaning when we serve the best interests and deepest needs of people outside ourselves. God created people to be loved and things to be used, but we have it all backward; we love things and use people. The way we treat people is the very way we are treating God. Jesus taught that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our hearts, minds, and talents and that the second greatest commandment was to love our neighbors as ourselves.
To be numbered among the living, instead of those who are “the living dead”, we must learn to live to love – whatever the cost, whatever the risk. I read, “Those who are still afraid of men have no fear of God; those who have fear of God have ceased to be afraid of men.” When we have proper reverence and awe for God, we will be obeying Him – loving as He loves – therefore we will be able to handle all rejections by men, as Jesus did, when He prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” To follow Jesus, to discover the Father’s love in Christ, is to be raised to a new life, that even death can not vanquish. The Apostle Paul said it like this, “Like as Christ was raised up from the dead, we also should walk in newness of life.”
D.L. Moody told a story about two men who, under the influence of liquor, found their way to the dock where their boat was tied. The two men wanted to return home, so they got in the boat and began to row. Though they rowed hard all night, they did not reach the other side of the bay. When the dawn of the morning broke, they were in exactly the same spot from which they started. They had neglected to loosen the mooring line and raise the anchor!” I have found many people who are still striving to enter the kingdom of heaven. They can not believe they are tied to this world. “Cut the rope! Cut the rope!” Each of us have the ability to set ourselves free from the clogging weight of earthly things, That will ensure we have life after birth.
