Good Friday

         Good Friday is a good day to think about death–your death and how Jesus conquered death when He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday.
         Listen to Charles Spurgeon commenting on Jesus’ prayer to the Father the day before He died: "That they may behold My glory"
        "We love God’s people. They are exceedingly precious. Far too often we look on their deaths as a grievous loss. If we could confer immortality, we would never let them die. But it would be cruel to deprive them of a speedy entrance into their inheritance. We want to hold them here a little longer. We find it hard to relinquish our grasp, because the saint’s departure causes us much pain. We are poorer because of the eternal enriching of the beloved, who have gone over to the majority and entered their rest."
    
       "Yet know this, while we are sorrowing, Christ is rejoicing. His prayer is, ‘Father, I desire that they also, whom You gave Me, may be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory which You have given Me’ John 17:24. In the advent of every one of His own to the skies, Jesus sees an answer to that prayer. We are grieving, but He is rejoicing. Their deaths are painful in our sight, but ‘precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ Psalm 116:15
     
       "Tears are permitted, but they must glisten in the light of faith and hope. ‘Jesus wept’ John 11:35, but He never complained. We may weep, but not ‘as those who have no hope’ 1 Th. 4:13. There is great cause for joy in the departure of our loved ones."

       "Death itself is not precious; it is terrible. It cannot be precious to God to see the highest works of His hand torn in pieces, to see His skillful embroidery in the human body broken, defiled, and given to decay. Yet to the believer, it is not death to die. It is a departure out of this world to the Father, an entrance into the kingdom."                                                            –Charles Spurgeon, 1834-1892
                                       Beside Still Waters: Words of Comfort for the Soul, p. 235
         I’ve read those beautiful comforting words many times in the past few months thinking always of my dear sweet Minnie and thankful that the Lord gave her to me for 54 years on this earth–and even more thankful that we will be together again before long. For all of you who have been separated by death from someone you love very deeply, try substituting that person’s name for some of the personal pronouns in that passage of scripture and in that devotional. Like this:
         "I love Minnie. She is exceedingly precious. Her death leaves a gaping hole in my life. I am VERY thankful for the 54 years the Lord gave us together but it seems so short to me now that it is past. But I rejoice greatly that she is with the Lord and has entered her eternal inheritance, which I will share with her ‘ere long. I find it hard to relinquish her and let her go because her departure causes me so much pain. I am so much poorer without her, but she is so enriched to be with the Lord and in glory."

            John 17:24 applies to Minnie. She is included in Jesus’ prayer and can be singled out this way: ‘Father, I desire that Minnie also, whom You gave Me, may be with Me where I am; that she may behold My glory. . . ." Minnie’s death is painful in our sight, but "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Psalm 116:15

            For Minnie it was not death to die. She is still alive. "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. It was a departure out of this world to the Father, an entrance into His kingdom. "To depart and be with Christ is far better" and so we rejoice for her, if not for ourselves. Jesus promised, "He that believes in Me shall never die." And she didn’t. She merely passed from life through death into eternal life. It was the gate by which she entered heaven itself.

          Put your own name in all these marvelous promises that you read in scripture and realize that they are for you and not just for "other people."

          And ponder anew how Jesus conquered death by His own agonizing death on the cross on Good Friday so many years ago and His triumphant resurrection on the following Sunday. "Today thou shalt be with Me in paradise," He told the thief on the cross. And we have the same promise to look forward to. Today–this day–Minnie is actually with Jesus in paradise. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
                                                                         –Pastor Burnside