Who We Are

Tuesday, October 30, 2019

1st John 3:2: Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

The day after tomorrow is called, "All Saints Day." It is the day on which the Church celebrates the lives that have transferred from the Church Militant (Church on Earth) to the Church Triumphant (Church in Heaven). Those who have gone to heaven before us are seeing Jesus just as He is. And that is the reason why we celebrate. 

The Culmination:
Heaven is the culmination of our faith and our lives with God. It is the final "Tada!" for all Christians. It is the beginning of our forever lives. So when a believer passes, we celebrate that life that was and the life that is. That is why I call "Funerals" "Celebrations of Life." We are celebrating that the believer is in the presence of his Lord and Savior forever. 

In the Mean Time:
What about the lives of believers who are still on this earth? On what should they focus their reality? Let us focus on the, "Heaven Bound Reality of Who We are." 

We are who we are because of Jesus and His forgiveness. We are in a forgiven state. We too are raised to a new life, just as Christ was raised to a new life.

And here is a caveat. We aren't perfect. As long as the sinful human flesh still lives, we will not be perfect. As long as the sinful world still exists, we aren't perfect. 

But...
We are perfected. Through faith in God by Jesus and His life, death, resurrection, we know and have the perfect life of grace and mercy, forgiveness and love. When we die, we will be with Him and like Him. We will be cleansed and perfect in every way.

So...
We Live. We work. We serve. We dedicate our lives to Jesus and what He wants. And He wants to us to serve Him with everything that we are and with everything that we have. He wants us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your self and your will. AND He wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

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