From Death to Life

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” - John 5:24 (NIV)

 I was reminded this week that death is a gift to the believer. Scripture tells us that we pass FROM death TO life! It's been a difficult month for those of us who remain. But for our precious sisters and brothers in Christ, life has only just begun!

I had the privilege a few months ago to sit under the teaching of Carol Pappas in the Ladies’ Sunday School class. We studied the illustrations Paul used in 2 Corinthians. One of the first we studied, was the tent.

2 Corinthians 5 (HCSB)
Our Future after Death [I love how the HCSB titles this section of Scripture!]

¹ For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
² And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven,
³ since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
⁴ Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
⁵ And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.
⁶ Therefore, though we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—
⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight —
⁸ yet we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord.
⁹ Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him.
¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.

Many of us have read over the last weeks and months of the groaning (vs.  2)  of Carol’s body due to the cancer.  On August 20, Carol wrote in her update...

"Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the One I praise."  Jeremiah 17:14.  Another reminder to me that He is the One who does it all -- and does it so completely.  He will give me grace to praise Him.

Praise the Lord, that Carol is now “satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord (vs. 8)”. Carol is home, her tent left behind. She is healed completely. Can you imagine what her first Sunday in Heaven must have been like? I picture her praising her Father, radiant smile beaming on her face, hands lifted high! Carol has passed from death to life everlasting!

May we be challenged and encouraged to live a life pleasing to the Lord as so boldly demonstrated by our dearly loved Carol Pappas.

~Rebecca Phillips