"Sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope."


BIBLE READING: 1 Thessalonians 4

Nature will have her due.  Tears will fall, and hearts will seem near breaking.  Nowhere does God rebuke the tears of natural affection.  It is written in Scripture that "Jesus wept."  God sets Himself to extract their bitterness.  Sorrow you may, and must, but not without hope.
Those who die in Christ are with Him.  They are said to sleep, not because they are unconscious, but because their death was not filled with terror.  Believers have died once in Christ, and it was necessary to find a word that describes the moment of our leaving this world and our birth into the next.  The catacombs are covered with the brief significant sentence, "He slept in Christ."  Just as in sleep, the spirit is conscious, of which our dreams bear witness.  It is so in the last sleep.  Absent from the body, we shall be present with the Lord.
Those who die in Christ will come with Him.  They are now waiting for God to give the final order for the whole heavenly procession to move, which has been collecting for ages.  The holy angels will accompany. 
Those who die in Christ will be reunited with those who wait for Him and them. They will come with Him.  "God will bring them."  Those who are alive will be changed.  "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:17)


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