All have a meeting with death.

What Happens When You Die?" This is an important question because death is something you will eventually face. And death is no respecter of persons. It strikes the old and the young, the sick and the healthy, the poor and the rich, the good and the bad.

When your time is up, it’s up. Death can be postponed, but never eliminated. The fact of the matter is, someday you will die, and those you love will die, and nothing can change this solemn fact.  All have a meeting with death. So what happens when you die?

*Here is what WILL NOT happen when you die.

-Death is NOT the end of existence. The Bible says . . . (Gen. 25:8). This implies an existence after death. So death is NOT the end of existence.

-You will NOT be "reincarnated" into something or someone else. In fact, reincarnation is nothing more than a fairy tale. The Bible says . . . (Heb. 9:27). You get just one run in life and that’s it.

-You will NOT have a "second chance" after death. If you say "No" to Jesus in this life, then you’ll NEVER be given another chance in the life to come. The Bible says . . . (Heb. 9:27). In other words, you get one run at life and then you face judgment from God after you die. The only opportunity you will ever have to get right with God is the opportunity God gives you in this life. There is NO second chance after death.

*What WILL happen when you die?

When you die your body and soul will separate. Your body will remain here on earth where you family and friends will bury it and "lay it to rest." But your soul begins The Next Existence and begins its Eternal Continuation depending on whether you are saved or lost.

If  saved, or you’ve accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord and have a personal relationship with God, then your soul will go straight to Heaven to be with Jesus (Luke 23:43, 2 Cor. 5:8).

But that’s not the whole story. The souls of departed believers will wait in Heaven with Jesus until the Second Coming. They will return with Jesus and be reunited with their resurrected bodies (1 Thess. 4:14, 16). I Cor. 15:51-55 adds that your resurrected body will be "imperishable." That is, your new body will be perfect in every way. Your resurrected body will never wear out, never suffer injury, never get sick, never grow old, and never die. It will be imperishable.

But what about the unbeliever? What about those who haven’t experienced the love and forgiveness which God makes available through the cross?

If a person is lost, that is, He (or she) hasn’t accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord, and doesn’t have a personal relationship with God, then their soul will go straight to Hell where they will be separated from Jesus and those that will be in everlasting paradise.

"Hell" translated in the Bible.

1. Tartarus - which is where the most vile and wicked demons are imprisoned (2 Peter 2:4).

2. Hades- which is where a lost person’s soul is sent when they pass from this life (Luke 16:22-24) (note that the Rich Man was alert, in agony, and all alone). Hades is like a temporary holding cell in which criminals are held until they are sentenced. The Bible tells you that Hades will be emptied out just before the Great White Throne Judgement (Rev. 20:13). The lost of the earth will be judged and sentenced to . . .

3. Gehenna - this is the final place of punishment for those who never experienced the love and forgiveness of God made available through the cross. It is a terrible, terrible, fate for sinners.

You will meet death, face to face, some day and you need to be ready. Don’t take one single day for granted.

James 4:14 reminds you . . . . Life is a precious, precious gift. So don’t waste one single day. If you’re holding any grudges, let them go. If you’re living in sin, stop doing what’s wrong and start doing what’s right. If you’re not as close to Jesus as you ought to be, then get as close to Him as you possibly can. Life is too short to waste. Don’t waste it on foolishness, selfishness, or sinful living. Get as close as you can to Jesus and you will enjoy life and fulfill your purpose for being here.

Do these things and you will be ready when you meet death, face to face.

You become what you think

The Law of Concentration states that whatever you dwell upon grows in your life experience. Whatever you think about on a continual basis becomes a part of you.
You become what you think, and the more you dwell on something, the more you have of it in your life.

The Law of Substitution states that your conscience mind can only hold one thought at a time. It makes no difference to your mind whether the thought is "negative" or "positive," it can only hold one at a time. However, you can choose to substitute "negative" thoughts with "positive" thoughts, thus changing your mental state of being.

The Lord understood these principles when He inserted a couple of scriptures into the Bible: Proverbs 23:7a, "For as you think in your heart, so you are."

Isaiah 26:3, "Thou wilt keep them in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because they trust in thee."

You are what you are because of what you have allowed yourself to concentrate on!
If you find yourself crabby, miserable, negative person that nobody likes to be around . . . guess what?  You’re that way because you have allowed yourself to feast on a steady diet of crabby, miserable, negative thoughts.

If you bake a cake and it doesn’t turn out like you want, you can blame the oven all day long . . . but that won’t change the outcome of your next cake. If you want to change the outcome of the next cake . . . change the recipe!

If you find that you’re not the person you want to be, you can blame your circumstances all day long, but that will never change anything. If you want to change . . . change the recipe of your life!

Try substituting negative thoughts with positive ones. And do you know what? . . .
If you’ll concentrate on what’s right in your life instead of what is wrong . . . what’s good instead of what’s bad . . . what’s sweet instead of what’s bitter . . . you’ll find that you’re a totally different person . . . and the only thing that changed . . . was you!

Happiness comes when you stop wailing about the troubles you have, and offer thanks for all the troubles you don’t have.

It’s exciting to realize that you can hold the thoughts and feelings and purposes of God’s very own heart in your heart? It’s thrilling to know the Creator of heaven and earth wants to be one spirit with you and transmit His thoughts to your mind?

First Corinthians 6:17 says that when you were joined to the Lord you became one spirit with Him. He came into union with you so that He can talk to you heart to heart. God wants you in this harmony with Him so that His thoughts can become your actions.

He wants you to walk so closely with Him that you never lack power to overcome the evil of this world. He wants you to be so in tune with His Spirit that you are able to feel His heart of compassion toward those around you who are hurting or bowed down with sickness and pain.

He wants you to consent to become one with Him, just as He has committed to be one with you, so He can reach out through your hands and fulfill His purposes in the earth.

Make a fresh commitment today to walk in union with your God. Give your attention to His Spirit in your inner person. Determine to yield to His voice and not to the voices of the world or the flesh! Determine to yield to His fresh leadership of your life, and not to the traditions of people.

Ask yourself: What voice am I listening to in times of crisis or decision making?
Allow the mind of Christ to flow through you!

By faith you can have your mind renewed if you will begin to read the Word of God daily and to the best of your understand and ability, begin to apply that part of it that applies to you, in your daily responses to life.

Romans 12:1-4
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is a written directive of God’s will.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Now then, since you know what God wants and how he wants you to begin.

It is your decision. Will you continue to use the same old recipes which have not worked? Try God’s new recipes- they have worked in countless millions of lives who became serious about their situation, and decided to let God help.

Focus your efforts on rejoicing.

Use examples of nature to cause you to consider the genius of God’s role throughout creation. You are supposed to love and fear God “actually living it out is challenging. It’s tough, and you’ve often take what God has given you for granted and “forget that you already have everything you need in Him and Instead of seeing your purpose as to serve God, you “live instead as though God is created for you, to do your bidding, to bless you, and to take care of your loved ones.”

Focus on how you can be serving God. Your life really is a vapor, a short span of time that you should be using to serve God and yet you still view life’s daily worries as important. Although being born in this world it’s human and normal to do so, worry is not really something supported in scripture; rejoicing is what you should be desiring to do. In Phil 4:4 it says “rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” it doesn’t end with “unless you’re doing something really important.” When you replace God with worrying you “convey the belief that you think the circumstances are more important than God’s command to always rejoice. In other words, that you have a “right” to disobey God because of the magnitude of your responsibilities.” It seems like a Good point to focus in on all your responsibilities; it’s an easy sin to fall in to. But Focus your efforts on rejoicing, when you do your worries become smaller in your mind you’ll learn more and more that essentially God is in control anyways.

 “The Son of God was born among the people whom God still somehow loves. While in this world, the Son taught His followers what true love looks like. Then the Son of God died and was resurrected and went back to be with God.”

The emphasis in your life is to be “obsessive” living for Jesus. This is offensive to many people in the world as it’s much easier to not be obsessed with Jesus. Don’t forget that, your “part is to bring God glory” and the point of your life “for others to look at you and your life points to Jesus.” Period. You can do this in a number of ways. If you are person that happens to be blessed with a lot of material possessions, “God has given you this good stuff so that you can show the world a person who enjoys blessings, but who is still totally obsessed with God.” Having stuff is not a sin, but refusing to share what you have (selfishly hoarding it) IS.

Living obsessively for God involves taking risks that many are afraid to take. Don’t stop taking risks and be ruled by your fears of what could happen?” Some of the fear of sharing your possessions comes out of a fear of what might happen. “Sadly, many people die while living selfishly.”

Shine your light. LET THE WHOLE WORLD SEE. LIVE IT for the Glory of the Risen KING.

Whatever has control of your mind has control of your soul

Do you know that you are a part of Christ and you have been called out of the darkness and have been commissioned to open the eyes of those that the god of this world has blinded, your commissioned to be an unstoppable force that changes those around you, to preach the gospel that is dedicated to leading souls to glory. Therefore as a part of Christ you must possess a certain character in order to effectively carry out what God had in mind for you. You are a part of “The Church in the World”. The first thing you must understand is it’s the church “IN” the world and not “OF” look at what this actually means.

EXAMPLE: In your home you have electricity. The electricity is in your house, but it is not of the house. It is a different entity from the house and the source of its power is from outside of the house, but because of its character it effects what is done in the house. That is how you are in the world that is how it is to be and is what God had in mind for you. You are in the world, but not of the world, you’re a different entity from the world, but because of (The Holy Spirit Living in You) the spirit of God affects the world and what is done in it.

WATCH THIS: The world spoken of here is not what you think of as the earth. It is not just the dirt which consists of many elements and minerals. The world is the influential principalities and powers which govern the mental capacity of mankind.

Understand whoever or whatever has control of your mind has control of your soul. That is why the Bible says in Eph 6:12 “For you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]”. These principalities, power, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness are the influential worldly characteristics that try to control your mind and are capable of controlling your soul.

The Holy Spirit is in you and you are in the world, your apart of the influential Power that is to be EFFECTIVE in the world. It is the power to bring about a Christ like result. The way you are effective in the world is by your character. Remember character is that distinguishing trait that separates you from everyone else. You “IN” the world must possess certain Christ like character traits in order to be effective. You must be a light in the world. The purpose of light is to illuminate Jesus. The Bible says in Phil 2:15 “That you are to be blameless and harmless, a child of Gods, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse world, among whom you shine as a light in the world”. Therefore, you in the world must be a light. So it doesn’t matter how spectacular you are building yourself up, if the people around you are not being lights shining in this dark world then you are not being effective and therefore you are not operating in what God had in mind for you.

You must stand in the world against what the devil is trying to do. Understand that the devil wants control of your mind. You must possess the Christ like character to stand against the things he is doing to try to get control of your mind.

God allows you to go through periods of spiritual drought

Everything in your life can be going great and then all of a sudden something happens, and it’s as if someone pulled the rug out from underneath you.

Maybe you have a wreck on the way to work one day and the guy who hit you doesn’t have insurance and you end up having to pay most of the repair bill out of your own pocket.  Maybe one of your kids gets hurt playing soccer and you have some unexpected doctor’s bills to pay. Or maybe you go to the doctor for a routine checkup and when the doctor calls you back with the results of your tests he informs you that you have cancer.

When something like that happens it usually catches you off guard and often knocks the breath out of you. But how you respond in that situation is very important. You can either respond by blaming God, which is what the prophet Jonah did when the worm ate the vine that was providing him shade. Or you can respond in faith, like Elijah did and do whatever the Lord tells you to do next.

Sometimes God allows things to happen in your life to test your faith, which is exactly what He did when He allowed the brook to dry up. Suddenly, Elijah had a decision to make.

He could either complain about it like the Israelites had done when they were wandering around in the wilderness. Or He could be patient, and put His faith and trust in God, and see what God had in store for him next. Fortunately, Elijah put his faith in God. Here is what happened next. Look at Kings 16:-17:

Then the word of the Lord came to him: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."

God had another plan, another test and another mission for Elijah. He told him to go to Zarephath of Sidon, which was coastal town located between Tyre and Sidon. To make the decision even more difficult to make it was about a 100-mile walk from the wilderness to the town of Zarephath. To make matters worse it wasn’t in Israel and was ruled by none other than King Ahab’s father-in-law. To top it all off God told Elijah to put his life in the hands of a poor widow woman.

Elijah again responded in faith, trusting that God would do what He said He would do, even though it didn’t really make sense. Especially after he met the woman and discovered that she had more than her share of problems.

Yet because He obeyed, despite not fully understanding, God not only provided for His needs but also for the Widow and her son.

(1) the lessons you can learn from Elijah is to always put your faith and trust in the Lord and do what He tells you to do.
(2) A second lesson you can learn is that God will sometimes allow you to go through periods of spiritual drought to test you and help you to mature. He may also use spiritual droughts to prepare you for the next assignment that He has for you.

Elijah is best known for defeating the 450 Prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah on Mt. Carmel. But He would never have been spiritually mature enough for that assignment had he not lived through a few spiritual droughts. So if you find yourself in a spiritual drought this today don’t give up. Don’t throw in the towel. Remain faithful and wait on God to show you what to do next. Make sure you understand that Spiritual droughts are temporary, they do not last forever.

(1) Continue to read and hold onto the Promises of God found in the Bible.
Read it, study it, and allow God to minister to you through His Word.
Memorize certain Scripture verses and Meditate on them. Allow the Word of God to feed you and be your source of strength even in the midst of the spiritual drought that you are facing.

(2) Next, don’t forget to pray, and when you have prayed, go back and pray some more.
Don’t be afraid to be honest with God about how you feel. He’s a big God, he can handle it, if you’re angry at him let him know it. If you’re disappointed, tell Him. If you can’t express yourself verbally write it down.

(3) Finally, when you find yourself in a spiritual drought or facing a problem that you can’t seem to find the solution to, don’t try to get through it on your own. Instead turn to your brothers and sisters in Christ, and let them help you through it, after all that is one of the reasons that you as a brother or sister in Christ are here.

If you have never sinned, go ahead and throw the first stone!

"Never judge a man unless you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. How many times have you judged others based on rumors and lies? How about you how many times have you been judged because of your past? Or have been criticized for doing something different or even being different? Or maybe you have felt the sting of being unfairly judged by another person when they did not even know you?

Every one has a story...and part of your story includes being judged or condemned unfairly by others...something you really have very little control over.

The challenge with being on the receiving end of judgment or condemnation is to not to let others unfair judgments shut you down. The pathway to this is forgiveness or to forgive those who make such condemnations...because that is the only way to be free of the anger and negative self-image that such condemnation can create.

Matthew 7:1-7:5  Jesus doesn’t really address this part of the equation. He’s interested in you and he wants you to realize how unhealthy it is to live a critical lifestyle, how God distains such an attitude to life. He talks in some very strong terms about judging or condemning others. But He doesn’t leave you there alone. He gives the way out of having a critical, judgmental heart.

First of all, Jesus clearly commands you not to judge.  When you see someone making a practice of self-destructive behavior and you gently bring that to their attention that is not what Jesus is talking about here.

So if you really want to apply this passage accurately in your life, you don’t stop making intelligent choices using a reasonable amount of discernment. You simply examine yourself to see if in your attitude you are condemning others.

Jesus commands you not to condemn others. In John chapter 8, Scripture gives you amazing insight into the character of God, a bunch of men are swarming
around a young woman caught in adultery. They bring her to Jesus to get him to pass judgment on her... they’re testing him. Jesus, while not disputing the law itself directly, redirects the question with his words. “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!"

Don’t make judgments as though you had the right to make judgments when you’re not, truly, equipped to make judgments. And that’s the problem.  Each of the men in John 8 had sin in their lives that they were not dealing with while at the same time wanting desperately to deal most severely with the sin of another person.

When you judge another to the point of condemnation, you, expose yourself to falling. That’s why in Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted”.

There’s another real downside to condemning others. "Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, and criticize their faults--unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.”

God will use the act or process of making things equal when you stand before Him face to face on the judgment day. Part of this equal process, will be your own standards of judging others. If you’re quick to condemn others or if you do so without mercy...then you should not expect much different from God.  If you prejudge others as matter of practice, you should not expect something different from God. Likewise if you do not condemn others, if you apply mercy and grace and give others the benefit of the doubt, you can rest a bit easier as you stand before God, for soon, one day, you will give an account of your life and your faith in Jesus Christ.

If you search your own heart and come clean with God about all the flaws you have, you can get on with the business of loving each other, which, by the way, is what Jesus recommends above everything for you.

You will have more Strength if you work together as a group.

Thank God for those times when He has either calmed your spirit or sent someone into your life to remind you that you should remain calm and not get carried away with what you wanted - even if you are so sure that it is exactly what God wants. Let that angry spirit within you calm down before you say or do things which will not only hurt yourself but also hurt those around you.

God does not always provide the details of how He is going to use you in what He is doing. Perhaps that would lead you to worry about some of the details - details which are God’s concern, not yours... Instead you had to follow God’s instructions and then trust God that he would use your actions to accomplish His purpose.

This element of trust emphasizes that God is in control. He uses you to accomplish His work but if no trust is required, the burden of the task and the need to control things becomes yours.

So often you want to know every detail of God’s plan for you, the danger for you is also that it becomes your plan, not God’s.

God will also tell you that you’re not alone and you do not have the burden of the task placed on your shoulders alone. Many times God will tell you that He will work through others - they will be His instruments also. Repeatedly God had others to help those he had given plans so they did not have to work alone. God sometimes does great things through individuals but He often deals with many people as a group - as His people - and He accomplishes His purposes through His people. Leaders cannot do the work unless those who follow also feel called to that work.

When you serve God, that service is very personal. God wants you to give all of yourself to Him. However, because it is personal, it can become quite easy to think that you alone are sincere in your service and to forget that there are others around you who are also eager to serve.

You may feel called by God to serve Him in some way but you have to work with those Christians which God has placed alongside you in your life. When each person serves God on their own without working together, they will not have the strength which they would have had if they’d of worked together as a group.

Enthusiastic and-eager people can provide the spark you need to work effectively for God. But that enthusiasm must not make you forget that God not the individual is in control. He will use you - in His way and in His time. You may not understand how but you need to be available for His use and not to set your own agenda. If your enthusiasm only lasts while you do your own thing, then you need to question that enthusiasm and the motives behind it.

You are to follow God’s word and listen to Him to try and determine what He wants you to do. Sometimes He will speak to you through mighty acts but other times through the quiet moments you spend with him or the calming advice of other believers. This means not just listening to what you want to hear but to be open to all of God’s word, To discuss with others what you feel that God is telling you and to work together with them.

Mostly, you are to trust Him. He is in control and His will shall be done despite you or through you. You can pray to God, asking Him to answer your petitions and trusting that He will do so, but you make your prayers subject to His will - thereby acknowledging that His ways are greater than your ways.