Marty Griffith

 

John 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say,

“I guess God thought He needed her more than I do”.

This is usually said by someone who is still trying to come to peace with God over the loss of a loved one.  Even at funerals preachers will say that God needed the person who had passed away for His choir in heaven.

This is wrong thinking and this thinking often causes people to harden their hearts toward a loving Heavenly Father who wants the best for His children.  I can only imagine how I would have thought of God after my wife and I lost our first baby at 18 weeks of pregnancy if I thought that God had taken our baby away from us for His personal gain.  My father had made sure that this way of thinking didn’t infiltrate my thought pattern.  He knew from being a pastor how this insidious lie of the Devil can harden a heart that was once soft and open toward God.

This is not being said to make you full of guilt dear reader.  This little article is being written to relieve your mind with the knowledge that God didn’t take your loved one.  So far I have offered only personal experience, which is not good enough.  So what does God Himself say concerning this matter?

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

In this scripture we find in the words of our Lord Himself that the thief comes to steal, kill, and to destroy.  Death began when sin entered into the earth through the beguiling serpent, the Devil.  From the very beginning the Devil sought to destroy the center piece of God’s creation, mankind.

Why do good people die?  The Devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy.  Why do the innocent die, (Meaning those below the age of accountability)?  The Devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy.  Why did your loved one and why did my loved one die?  The Devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

There is a huge up side to this though because Jesus didn’t stop with the Devil coming to steal, kill, and destroy.  Jesus continued and said,

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Life is in the Son.  Life is in Jesus Himself.  Those who die having their faith in Him and in His finished work on the cross have life after this life.  Hell is described as eternal death, dying for all eternity.  Heaven however is LIFE!!!  God didn’t take your loved one, but if your loved one belonged to Christ, your loved one lives on in Heaven.  God didn’t take your loved one, but He will welcome the one that dies in Christ.

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Have life more abundantly?  More life and abundance of life?  How does life everlasting sound?  That is a lot of life!  If you are saved by His blood and His grace, you possess this everlasting life right now.  It is life more abundant also because it a celebratory life, a life that does not fear death because there is only a shadow of death for the believer.  We will live on as Paul said,

“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

When we leave these earthly coils behind we are present with the Lord.

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”