How to Be Prepared for the Crossover into the Other Side of Death
December 23, 2024
To All of My Neighbors:
How to Be Prepared for the Crossover
Into the Other Side of Death
by Dennis Christian
Why I wrote this
Many of us are in the latter or last years of our lives. As we approach the end of our lives some questions that confront us all are, “What happens on the other side? Assuming God exists, what is my hope I will end up in heaven rather than hell? What can I do to prepare for eternity?”
As a Christian[1], I have known the answers to these questions for my entire adult life. I am an ambassador for God and Jesus Christ, and, for years, I have been sharing the answers to these questions one on one with my family, friends, and neighbors. I do this because I care about my fellow man and try to follow God’s commandments to love my neighbor as myself and to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. I love myself enough to want to be prepared for eternity, therefore, I am concerned about my neighbors’ spiritual wellbeing also. I want you to be prepared for eternity– that is, to find peace with God and have a hope, an assurance that when you die, you will be welcomed into heaven to join loved ones who have gone on before.
God
God has revealed Himself to mankind through His magnificent creation, through the Bible scriptures written by men inspired by His Spirit, but mostly through Jesus Christ, who was God Himself come to earth. Jesus said, “I and My Father are one.” “He who hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Jesus performed many miracles to prove He was of God. These were witnessed by principled men who gave their lives that others may know of Him and believe in Him. One of the many miracles that showed God exists and that Jesus was of God was when Jesus and some of His disciples, were caught out in a storm in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. The ship was about to go down and Jesus was asleep. So, the disciples woke Him up and Jesus commanded, “Peace, be still.” The storm stopped immediately. That the storm obeyed His command demonstrated there is something beyond nature, superior to it – God. That it obeyed Jesus showed that He was of God.
So, how do we get right with God? How can we have peace with Him and assurance of heaven?
I’ll start with the most famous quote from the Bible – John 3:16, “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Before explaining, I’ll mention another Bible verse quoting Paul the Apostle AKA Saint Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.” What can we glean from these scriptures?
– Man has a problem, or rather God has a problem with man, that needs to be resolved
In John 3:16 it mentions man perishing and in Paul’s quote it mentions salvation, i.e. the need for man to be saved or rescued. I don’t think you would be surprised to know that the problem is sin. Sin explained: We sense that we are accountable to God for what we do with our lives. We realize that He has given us freedom of choice, but He also gave us a conscience to tell us what is right and wrong. We (all of us) know that we have not always chosen right over wrong. In fact, we often have done what we knew or believed was wrong. Sensing that He sees all we do, we also sense our guilt before Him, and we want to know how we can be forgiven – not just for what we’ve already done but also for failures that may occur in the future. Without forgiveness we know that eventually we will face God’s judgment for our sin – all the wrong we did and the good we should have done but failed to do.
– But God loves everyone and doesn’t want any of us to perish
There are many Bible verses that talk about God’s love for us. We are like His children, with love for us like good earthly parents have for their children. It is a self-sacrificing love. From the very beginning God knew, even though He gave us a conscience to tell us what to do and not to do, that we would all end up sinners. But God also had a rescue plan from the beginning: He would show His great love for us by taking on our punishment Himself. That’s why He came as Jesus – the sinless one who would suffer and perish in our place. Seven hundred years before Jesus came God told His prophets, “Everyone like sheep has gone astray, each one to his own way; but the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” This was confirmed in John 3:16 when Christ, God Himself in human form, was sacrificed for our sake on a Roman cross. Why? So, that we have a way to be forgiven and made right with God. The punishment for our sin has been paid for by God Himself: it is a gift from God to each one of us. But we have to do something to receive the gift. Picture God holding out the gift toward you. It is free, you can’t earn it, you didn’t earn it, but you do have to reach out and receive it, and God has told us how.
– How to receive forgiveness, eternal life, heaven, peace with God
The answer is found in the Bible: “Repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21. Repentance is an attitude change. It is admitting to God you have a sin problem and you want to stop sinning and start living the way God wants you to live. Faith means, in an attitude of repentance, believing in, trusting in, relying on what Jesus did for all of us, including you, on the cross. The moment you believe you receive the gift – forgiveness, eternal life, heaven, peace with God. To believers the Bible says it was by God’s grace you have been saved through faith, not as a result of your good deeds or good works (from Ephesians 2:8-9).
What else do we need to know?
– The rest of the gospel (good news) story
As Jesus had promised His disciples, He rose from the grave after three days. He met with the disciples the next 40 days and commissioned them to tell the world what God had done for mankind. Then, as they looked on, Jesus ascended into heaven. Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension is history witnessed by Jesus’ disciples and many others who lived in the regions where Jesus lived and taught. At or near the end of time according to the Bible Jesus will return and the dead in Christ will be resurrected and those who believe and are alive will be changed instantly to join them to be with our Lord forever in heaven. After the end, those who didn’t repent and make peace with God will suffer God’s judgement – torment in hell[2]– affirmed by Jesus Himself in His story about the beggar Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:20-31).
– Living out the rest of our lives on earth as a believer
It is gratitude toward God and Christ that motivates the rest of our lives – gratitude for what Christ did for us that we may be forgiven and have peace with Him. We not only speak our thanks to God as we pray, but we want to show it by living the way He wants us to live. You may have heard that Jesus said, “You must be born again.” That happened the moment we believed. At that moment God’s Spirit comes to live within us enabling us to discern spiritual truths and helping us live by God’s standards. What are they? Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, loving your neighbor as yourself and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Does that mean we’ll never sin again? No. We live in bodies of flesh and blood. The flesh is amoral – it just wants to satisfy itself. Often that will be contrary to God’s standards. Though we want to do right, try as we might we will sometimes fail. It will be an ongoing battle for believers until they die. But God knows this and has given us this wonderful promise, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Our desire is to maintain the peace and fellowship with God we received the moment we believed. Sin breaks that fellowship, so the moment we are aware we have sinned, confess it to God claiming this wonderful promise from 1 John, and your peace with God will be restored.
In addition to the general principles for living mentioned above, are there some obvious specifics He wants us to do? Yes, and the Bible tells us these specifics, which show us how to apply the general principles in various situations. Needless to say, as believers we need to learn what is in the Bible so it can guide us. I do want to mention three specifics that are very important: (1) Have a quiet time with God often – every day is what many do. In that time read and meditate on God’s word and pray, (2) Meet with other believers in worship – to thank and praise God and to encourage one another, and (3) Tell others the good news – about the gift of forgiveness and peace with God through faith in what Christ did for us all.
I hope this has been helpful to you.
Sincerely,
Dennis Christian
Cedar Creek Lake
End notes:
[1] My firm belief is that the Christian view of the history between God and man is the true one. Why? Because as you get more and more familiar with the account of Jesus’ life as told in the Bible, you realize that this gospel story holds together, and its truthfulness becomes evident. The eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ life were given to us by principled men. Jesus’ whole life was about love and truth, and the disciples who recorded His life did so in a mind-set committed to the truth. They show us a God that has all the characteristics we would expect of a righteous God – in addition to His powers over nature, they show us His goodness, love, justice, mercy, forgiveness, patience, grace, compassion and more. That something enormously profound happened when Jesus came is clear, for the world started counting years in a new way – from the time of Jesus’ coming. Indeed, for Jesus to have done all the things attributed to Him – especially superseding the powers of nature, there must be God and Jesus must have been of God. Another proof is how lives are changed – from sin, evil and despair to love, care for others and hope – for those who repent and believe.
[2] Hell is so bad the Bible compares it to a lake of fire. God is telling all of us “You don’t want to go there!!!” The torment and suffering will be unbearable. That’s why God Himself in Jesus took on our punishment – suffering hell for each one of us, so we don’t have to.
