Celebrating The Promotion

 

Scripture

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.

~Psalm 116:15, NKJV

Quote

To live is Christ, to die is a promotion.

~Ya’akov

I grew up on the King James and most of the verses I memorized are in the King James version so naturally, I reverted by to the AV for this verse. The Hebrew word translated saints in the KJV is châçîyd [khaw-seed’]. It means kind, pious, godly, good, holy one, merciful, and  saintly. The NIV translates it ‘faithful servants’, the NASB ‘godly ones’ and the NET reads ‘faithful followers.’ So, we are definitely talking about believers, faithful servants and followers of Christ.

The physical death of God’s servants are precious to Him because their life and their blood are precious to Him. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, John mentions the great prostitute who was drunk from the blood of the martyrs. She suffered the wrath of God for shedding the blood of God’s servants. God will avenge every death of every martyr. Although Jesus was not a martyr, His death will also be avenged. If you are intelligent, you do not mess with God’s servants. The Muslims are celebrating the murder of Christians all over the world and especially in Africa. June and I heard a disturbing report on the Rick and Bubba show yesterday about the murders in Nigeria. I spent a week there a little over 30 years ago.  The Muslims there hunt Christians down like they were animals, murder them and then celebrate. These fools do not realize that God {the true God] is watching. They will pay dearly for shedding the blood of God’s servants.

Secondly, the death of the saints is precious in the sight of God because of His unique perspective. God’s view of physical death is radically different from ours. Death is hard for us to deal with: its presence creates anguish, distress and grief. Jesus dreaded the cross but He had no fear of death: why should He? He was the resurrection and the life. You and I approach death by faith: Jesus had knowledge. We’ve never seen beyond the grave but Jesus could see both worlds at the same time.

The death of a saint is precious to God because it is a coronation, graduation or as I prefer to call it, a promotion. We can all celebrate the death of a saint because it means they have been completely delivered from the world of sin. Evil cannot touch them. The saints death puts him or her totally out of Satan’s reach. These departed saints are not just free of temptation, they are free of the very presence of evil. Shohn and I were watching Clara’s game the other night and some of the people have handicaps that are more than physical. They have innocent minds. I noticed one girl in particular, I think she has Downs Syndrome, when she hit the ball, she did not run straight to first, she ran to the nearest person and hugged them. It didn’t matter who it was, if you were in her path, you were getting hugged. I told Shohn, “This is as close to heaven as we can get in this world. These people do not know how to hate or even carry a grudge.” The bad thing is: we refer to them as being retarded but as Coach Stallings once said, “We are the ones who are retarded.” I hear people say, “I am alive and well and that beats the alternative.” Are you kidding me! If you think like that, you must have a low view of heaven.

One other thing: have you ever watch one of your children suffer–it will rip your heart out. Our heavenly Father does not enjoy watching us suffer either and once we draw that last breath, our suffering is over. I have lost a lot of good friends but the one consoling factor for me was that I knew their suffering was over. I’m not that good with suffering; it is emotionally draining. It takes something out of me when I see folks suffering. When a servant of Jesus dies, we get to celebrate their freedom from pain and suffering.

  • By the way, Coach Stallings has been very sick: I think he is some better. Larry got to come home and he is a happy camper.
  • Out of the mouth of Babes: I had to pick Chloe up from pre-school on Monday. She said, “I want to go back to my old school.” {where she got to do as she pleased} I said, “It is a part of growing up Chloe, we move on to bigger and better things and sometimes its unpleasant. You don’t know anything yet, one day your going to have a spoiled kid like yourself and you are going to have to work like a dog just like your mama.” Without a  moments hesitation she said, “I’m not having a spoiled kid, I gonna have triplets.” June bought a giant jar of cheese puffs yesterday. Lexi asked for one, Chloe said no. Holly heard and got on to her. “Chole! What do you think Jesus would say about you not sharing.” Again, no hesitation, Chloe says, “I don’t hear Him saying anything so I am not sharing.”
  • My hopes are up: They are giving rain for Sunday.
  • GOLDEN GIRLS Saturday at Cracker Barrel at 9:00 am.
  • I don’t know the Sunday schedule yet and I waited too late to ask Joe David. I do know he will be preaching in the am service and I will be preaching in the pm service. LORD willing, I will have the biscuits and donuts there also.
  • Guatemala Team leaves Monday.
  • The Yankee’s scare me. They have a good starting line up and a great bullpen. The only way to beat them is to shut them out or at least get an early lead. I don’t think we can shut them out two games in a row. I think they will get at least two runs this evening. If we can get 3 or more we have a chance.

 

 

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