Death is ugly. If you’ve ever gazed upon a dead person, you can’t help but feel a deep sense of dark finality. While death comes to each of us, it is not the end of the story. God made people to be immortal, meaning that they will live on after their bodies die and decompose. The Scriptures tell us that all humans will be raised from the dead with a new body to face the judgment throne of God. Those who know, love and follow Jesus Christ will enter heaven to enjoy God and his kingdom forever. Those who reject Jesus will be banished from God. How unspeakable it will be to finally stand before the splendor and beauty of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—one God in three persons. Everyone will be awestruck, and shout in total unison that Jesus Christ is Lord. But how tragic it will be for unbelievers to finally taste the wonder and beauty of his glory, only to be cast from paradise forever! Yet, the true believer will worship God for his infinite grace, mercy and love. Death is coming. So is our resurrection. By trusting Christ, you can worship him now in Spirit and in truth, and one day in person forever and ever. We are one day closer to that great day. So get ready, and start practicing your worship right now.

“You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”  — C. S. LEWIS

GOD’S WORD

1 THESSALONIANS 4:13–17 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-52 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed –in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

PHILIPPIANS 3:20–21 (NLT) But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He “will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.

REVELATION 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”