“他已吞灭死亡直到永远。主耶和华必擦干各人脸上的眼泪……”
以赛亚书:25:8
圣经将基督徒的死亡,视为“息了劳苦。” 圣经说:“在主里死去的人有福了…… 是的,他们要从自己的劳苦中得安息(启示录:14:13)” 好像丰收的主人对疲惫的工人说:“你一直忠心做工, 来,到我的殿宇的廊下来坐坐,休息一下,与你的主一起快乐吧。”
一些神的忠仆,在几年内所完成事工比其他人一生所做的还要多。圣经说:“这样看来,必另有一安息日的安息为神的子民存留。”(希伯来书 4:9 )直等到死亡天使亲手领他们到荣耀的天国与主见面,这种安息才真正开始。
使徒保罗说:“我们坦然无惧,是更愿意离开身体与主同住。”(哥林多后书 5:8)
维克多雨果论到死亡时说:“当我走向坟墓的时候,我可以像其他人那样说,我已经完成了我的工作,但是不能说,我结束了生命。我一天的工作将从第二天清晨开始。我的坟墓不是死胡同,它是一条大道,于黄昏时关闭,于黎明时开放。”
我们确信,死亡不是结束而是开始。我们可以像保罗一样说,“死啊!你得胜的权势在哪里? 死啊!你的毒钩在哪里?”(哥林多前书 15:55)
今日祷告:
主啊,我的父神,祢在主耶稣基督里赐给了我们生命,永恒的生命。 我祈求祢能让全世界的人都知道这一点; 奉耶稣的名,阿门。
March 26
REST FROM LABOR
He swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. Isaiah 25:8 RSV
The Bible speaks of death, for a Christian, as a rest from labor. The Bible says, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord… that they may rest from their labors” (Revelation 14:13). It is as if the Lord of the harvest says to the weary laborer, “You have been faithful in your task, come and sit in the sheltered porch of my palace and rest from your labors-enter now into the joy of your Lord.”
Some of God’s saints accomplish more in a few years than others do in a lifetime. The Bible says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). That rest cannot begin until the angel of death takes them by the hand and leads them into the glorious presence of their Lord.
And Paul said, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Victor Hugo said of death: “When I go down to the grave I can say, like so many others: I have finished my work, but I cannot say I have finished my life. My day’s work will begin the next morning. My tomb is not a blind alley. It is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to be open in the dawn.”
Confident of the fact that death is not an end but a beginning, we can say with the apostle Paul, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).
Pray for the Day:
O Lord, Father, You have given us life, eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that You will make that known to many people all around the world; in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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