Article: Glorifying God in Life and Death! | Sheeba Robinson

John 21: 19 says, “Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.”

When I was actually doing my translation work, I came across this scripture, I was little surprised to know this. Then I read it again and again, and was trying to understand this, that IT IS VERY IMPORTANT for us to live life in the full Obedience to Christ and Fear of the Lord to glorify God while we are alive, but also after fulfilling God’s purposes in our lives, we need to glorify God through our death as well.

How’s that possible? This is a very crucial question, let’s try to find out.

The moment, when a person gets saved through Lord Jesus Christ, and when he takes baptism in the water; that will be the first instance in which he will be dying in Christ for the world, as he gets out of the water, he will be a New Creation. This physical death to sin of this person brings GLORY TO GOD. Now, this person would be no longer a physical man but becomes a spiritual person. That’s the very moment when the whole Heaven rejoices and sing praises to the Holy God. Now he’s a Born-again person.

But then, the life which a Born-again person is living on this earth is a great journey to live to glorify the Lord and fulfill God’s perfect will in his life;
1 Peter 1:14-16,
“As obedient children, do not conformto the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is Holy, so be Holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be Holy, because I am Holy.”” and when this righteous person dies, that death also will bring glory to the Lord.

As we read in Psalms 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His faithful servants.”

When we see the life of Jesus, He lived so beautifully enduring all kinds of hardships, insults, persecutions; since His childhood till the time of His death. When we read in the book of Isaiah, we find that Jesus’ life prior to His ministry was not an easy one. But still He suffered everything silently. We read about Him that He was sinless, there was no sin found in Him, till His death. That means, He lived His life in complete obedience to His Heavenly Father and glorified God through His life. And even Jesus’ death also glorified His Father.
In 1 Peter 2:22, it says, “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.”

Let’s talk about Peter’s life, now..
After Jesus’ ascension into heaven, Peter faithfully completed his mission which Jesus had entrusted upon him. And at the end even through his death on the cross hanging upside down (history) he glorified God.

I’ve heard some people say that, we have some objectives to fulfill in this limited time left on this earth, and then we’ll be free to die any time. But I think that these would never be the words of God’s people.

Once I was listening to a preacher, He shared a testimony about a Man of God on his deathbed. His son was sitting just beside his father. This Man of God said, “Son, I’m in heaven, I can see some Saints are crying in front of a Great Throne.” Then the son asked his father, “Father, why are they crying? Ask anyone there.” Then someone told his father, and he said, “Son, while they were on the earth, these people failed to fulfill and achieve God’s purposes for their lives. They are realising their mistakes and nothing can be done now.” As soon as the father passed the message, he breathed his last.

Some people think that somehow reaching heaven after death is enough.., but without fulfilling God’s purposes in each person’s life, no one can glorify God.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Let me consider of sharing one more incident with you. One day in a Church, during the testimony time, a young woman of 25 just came up and greeted the Church, in the next second she burst into tears, she cried a lot. She was finding it so difficult to utter a word. Then after a while, she said, last week while returning home after her work, she stopped in a shop to buy a sandwich for herself. She parked her car and came out. As soon as she came out she saw a big speeding vehicle rushing towards her car, it came directly and smashed her car. She was dumbstruck for sometimes and started recollecting what had happened actually. Her car was totally smashed in the accident. If she would have been there inside the car, no doubt she would have died on the spot itself. She couldn’t stop her cry, “Lord! I was not ready to die then. If I had died on that day, I would have ended up in hell and lost my eternity.” She confessed, “I was not seriously walking with Christ on a daily basis in life.” Then she realized her mistake and decided to live her life only for God’s glory, Who saved her soul from the eternal fire in hell.

We don’t have to go through a big tragedy and to face death to understand that how much it’s important for God’s chosen people to live a life which is pleasing to God.

1 Thessalonians 5:23b says, “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It’s not enough doing a big ministry for the Lord and reaching the unreached, winning souls and neglecting your family.
When we see in a family, do the husband and wife respect each other?
Do the children respect their parents?
Are they obedient at home?
Do you respect your neighbors, even if they are unbelievers?
We should examine ourselves daily, that how’s our behavior with others, even if they know God or don’t. It is written in Matthew, “Do not judge others.” Are you able to forgive others and love them? It is also written in Mark 8:36, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” We have to be very careful about our behavior, our words, our thoughts, and our actions. We read in Psalm 19:14, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord.” Why David, the Psalmist says this? Because it is very very important to live a pure and holy life before God. Otherwise nothing which we do, even prayers or good works, will reach before God.
Philippians 2:14, 15 say, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure…”

If you do not give importance to follow these little yet very important things in your daily life, then you may even miss heaven. Scripture says, God hates double-minded people. Those who know what God has commanded His people to follow, but still not following. Instead they are very busy doing God’s ministry, neglecting their own family.

“God’s ministry first starts at home, in a family, to love and respect your old parents and siblings, forgive, forget, reconcile with them and love them, love your spouse and children, trust them, teach your family about God’s love, the Fear and the Obedience of the Lord, pray together, eat together, speak openly with them on every issue, spend quality time with them.” When you will be old, they (your family) will be with you, you will never be alone or stranded.

In this way, you will learn on a daily basis to live a holy and blameless life to glorify God’s Mighty Name. And also try to understand His Call on your life, so that you can diligently fulfill His great plans and purposes through your life.

One more thing you must be careful for, you must not occupy yourself into something, which you are not called for. Only walk according to His Call, in His Obedience and in the Fear of the Lord. Going to the Church regularly or singing many songs won’t qualify anyone to enter into heaven.
As it’s in Proverbs 8:13a, “To fear the Lord is to hate evil…”

Dear ones, our heavenly Father wants each one of us to take this gift of our beautiful and blessed lives as an amazing privilege to show Him that how deeply we love Him and we value His great love that He sacrificed His only Son for us, by living our lives fulfilling His Perfect Will for us.
God bless you all!

Sheeba Robinson

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