Death

     Death for the believer is to be present with the Lord. We know that Jesus is eternal life according to 1 John 5:20.
Christ controls death. In Revelation 1:18 (NLT) he says, "I am the living one who died. Look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.” As Ron Dunn has said, “The devil doesn't have the keys to his own house! The keys are a sym­bol of authority, of control, of possession and government. As terrible as it is, death is not allowed to run rampant without control. Nothing happens by chance. All history lies in the elective purpose of God. Even death is in the hands of God. It moves only at the permissive will of heaven.”
Christ holds the key to death, and no man enters it unless our Lord Jesus uses the key and opens it.
Death is not just good-by for Christians. It is also saying hello to the Lord Jesus and to our Christian friends and relatives who have died before us.
In The Applause of Heaven, Max Lucado ends his book with these words to all who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord: "Before you know it, your appointed arrival time will come; you'll descend the ramp and enter the City. You'll see faces that are waiting for you. You'll hear your name spoken by those who love you. And maybe, just maybe‑in the back, behind the crowds‑the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and... applaud."
We have been dying since the day we were born. The last thing death is for us is unnatural. It was said of the early followers of John Wesley, “they die well”. May that be said of us as well.
-Pastor Dino Griffin