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Online Bibles: |
1. God’s plan is for the believer to advance to spiritual maturity, become an invisible hero, be filled with the fullness of God, and then it can be said that he/she is really living. As a mature believer, if you have enjoyed living, you will really love dying! 2. God has the most fantastic eight-course spiritual dinner reserved for you. The dessert of dying will be so fantastic! In fact, it will be a surprise dessert since it is manufactured by the sovereignty of God, totally apart from our own volition. 3. We make decisions each and every day related to the Christian way of life. Some are good, and some are bad. But if our number one priority is God’s thinking, it is inevitable that we will come to realize that God saves the best things until last. 4. The Christian way of life can be classified in two ways:1) Spiritual growth – salvation to spiritual maturity, and 2) Christian experience – spiritual maturity to death or the Rapture. 5. Living, as the first part of God’s plan, begins the moment we believe in Jesus Christ and continues to the point of dying. 6. In the living phase of our Christian lives, we can use full volition to exercise options. If we opt for perception, we will become spiritual winners. If we opt for non-perception, we become carnal losers. 7. In the dying phase, the believer’s volition is no longer the issue. It is then totally a matter of the sovereignty of God. Dying is a part of the Christian experience, which does not depend on the volition of the believer, but the sovereignty and wisdom of God. 8. While we are alive, we have some control over life for success or failure. We can choose God’s plan and the Mind of Christ, or Satan’s plan and thinking. Phil. 1:21 “For me, living Christ and dying profit.” 9. While we are dying, on the other hand, we have no control, for the sovereignty of God makes decisions with regard to the time, place, and manner of dying. Our volition is no longer the issue because death is God’s victory, not the believer’s. Any time we become critical or upset, blaming God for the departure of a loved one, we are in a state of blasphemy. It isn’t a matter of when we think the death should be; it is a matter of when God has decided. God cannot be unfair. 10. 10.Some die healthy; some die ill. If God decides to take you out by some terrible disease, all the health food and vitamins in the world won’t help you; you will die of the disease. The point is that nothing will prolong your life or mine beyond God’s time for us to die. This does not imply that long life necessarily means that the believer is advanced spiritually. He may keep someone alive beyond what would have been his appointed time for purposes of discipline (the sin unto death). It simply means that God, in His own Righteousness, eternal Wisdom, and gracious Love, has made the perfect decision regarding the death of each one of us. God is eternal, immutable, and perfect. Once we have settled in our minds the principle that God decides perfectly the time and manner of death, then we no longer have a problem with death. |
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Grace Bible Church |
