Home > Work > The Vanishing Power of Death: Conquering Your Greatest Fear
1 " What this stranger—Jesus—did for them, He will do for us. He takes no dreams from us He does not return; He raises no hopes He does not fulfill; He gives us no longings that shall not be satisfied. The answer He gave these discouraged disciples becomes our answer too. "
― Erwin W. Lutzer , The Vanishing Power of Death: Conquering Your Greatest Fear
2 " First, there is no place that we must go that He has not been; He has gone before us, in death and resurrection. He does not expect us to enter a dark room that He Himself has not first entered. Our Lord goes ahead of us and promises us that we shall “see him as he is. "
3 " He is as much with us as He was with Mary. We, like her, have to understand that Christ’s presence is not dependent on the location of His physical body. She had to be weaned from the notion that physical contact superseded the spiritual connection. "
4 " He is among us even when we cannot see Him and when our grief distorts reality. There are many tears in our hearts that never reach our eyes. There are times of darkness and betrayal that make us wonder how we can live another day. As for God, He seems far away, uninterested, and absent. "
5 " Suffering does not reflect unfavorably on the promises of Scripture. We take heart that there is another world coming, in which all of the promised blessings will be realized. Just as God does not create a single fish without creating water in which it can swim, so God does not create longings for eternity without creating an eternity in which those longings will be fulfilled. "
6 " Every shattered dream we give to Jesus is integrated into a higher and even more blessed purpose. In short, if we have faith to believe it, there are no wasted sorrows, no wasted aspirations or dreams. Even in this life, we see that God is continually reshaping whatever we give Him. Indeed, the Christian life is a series of new beginnings. God Himself rushes in to fill the vacuum left in the wake of our own disappointments. Dreams left unfulfilled in this life will most assuredly be fulfilled in the life to come. Jesus brought our dream of healthy bodies back with Him when He was raised from the dead. Take a long look at the person sitting next to you in church. Someday he or she will be like Jesus! “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). To those who are brokenhearted, Jesus assures us that fulfilling family relationships will be ours. "