When he was in his later years, Dr. D. James Kennedy, wrote the following:

Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the end of this life…. I don’t want them to cry. I want them to begin the [memorial] service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore….[1]

I like that! Life on earth is often referred to as being in the “land of the living,” but, as Dr. Kennedy says, it’s really the “land of the dying.”  But if you are God’s child, one day you will be in heaven, the true “land of the living.” It was Jesus Himself who, after He was resurrected, said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).

Are you certain someday you’re going to be in heaven? You can be.  Romans, chapter 10, tell us “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (verse 9).

When you take those two steps–confess and believe, the Spirit of God comes to live within you. Then you know where you’ll spend eternity, for scripture says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).

Some day we’ll say goodbye to the “land of the dying” and start Life with a capital “L” in the “land of the living.” Meet me there.

[1] http://65.240.226.104:8080/