Being Happy in an Unhappy Worldනියැදිය

Six decades after hearing Jesus preach the Sermon on the Mount, the apostle John stood as an elderly exile on the Isle of Patmos — having endured persecution for the cause of his Lord — and received the Heavenly vision that would become the final book of your Bible.

John writes that he heard a voice from Heaven (Revelation 14:13). It was a voice he knew well. It was the voice of the Healer, the Miracle Worker, the Teacher from Nazareth with whom he had lived night and day for more than three years.

The voice of Jesus said, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on” (Revelation 14:13, NIV). Happy, Jesus said, is the man who dies in Him. That man is to be envied, the Savior contends. Can we really find happiness in death? The answer is an unshakable yes!

Death is the common denominator of mankind. In spite of all of mankind’s medical and scientific advancements, the death rate for humans remains 100%. Presidents and paupers, the rich and the ragged, the powerful and the pitiful — all die. The Bible says, “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27, KJV).

In one of God’s poetic ironies, dying is how we are born into eternity. Death is the gateway to the life to come. Life on earth is far from an ideal environment. But it’s all we know, and we cling to it tenaciously.

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, our physical bodies have been destined to die and return to the earth from which they were formed. In God’s time, we will each be forced to pass from this dimension of life into the next.

Jesus died and rose from death. He returned from eternity to tell us, exactly and without doubt, what eternal life is like. John wrote, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades’” (Revelation 1:17–18, NASB).

Look to Jesus, the Perfector of your faith and Author of your life. Look to Him for all things. In His eyes find love, find provision, find in Him your all.