I recently attended the funeral of an amazing person who had truly made a positive contribution to others throughout her life. This individual was a Christian who, in her latter life, suffered twenty eight years from five different cancers. She died in her early seventies. The tributes at the funeral were not only very beautiful and edifying, but all confirmed that she possessed a tremendous faith in God which despite her personal challenges never stopped her giving to others and being a joy to be around. As far as all were concerned who attended the funeral, she had eagerly passed through ‘a door’ into her ‘eternal rest’ with great joy.
I had the privilege of praying on a very regular basis with this person for her health issues and we always knew that God could heal her at any time. The mystery of the circumstances surrounding her life was the deeper work that was going on within. We used to joke that even if God physically healed her, she would still need to go through the ‘door of death’. Lazarus was raised from the dead, but still died. We discussed that the greatest miracle wasn’t physical healing, but the miracle of salvation which enabled you to pass through the door of death into heavenly peace and eternity with Him.
The Cross of Jesus Christ is the central element of the Christian faith. On the positive side of this historical event is the fulfilment of God coming to earth as a human being; demonstrating the unconditional love of God the Father and defeating the power of Satan within our lives as we depend on Jesus Christ and follow the plan He has for our lives. Jesus died on the cross, descended into hell and took back the keys of death and hell and rose again to sit in heavenly places with His Father.
However, whilst individuals who put their faith in Jesus Christ can appropriate this great security and freedom in God, there is still a suffering element of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Over 160,000 Christians suffer greatly across the globe because of their faith. These are people who will not bow the knee to the pressure of compromising the freedom of their ‘religious conscience’. Some end up in prison, are tortured and lose their earthly life for the better life to come. So while there is the spiritual reality that we will not die eternally as we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we will still taste what is called the first death.
The issue of freedom of religious conscience is what motivated the Pilgrim Fathers to leave these shores for the New World as it was called then.
Fifty or sixty years ago most people in our nation would have understood what I have written. Now, as we move away in our individual hearts from God, this knowledge and experience is being lost and we are becoming spiritually illiterate from a Christian perspective. This is why we work within the ministry of Cross Rhythms – to somehow bring this revelation to people, that they are so precious that God could do no more than give us free will to find true love and the power of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit to live a life of good news, even in the tough times.
This understanding motivated the civilising process that our liberal democracies in the West were built upon. Let’s not forget the lessons of history for our own sake.