The Death Of Jesus--Why Must It Be Public?

For your Maker is the 

Holy One of Israel;

He is called 

the God of the whole earth.

For the LORD has called you 

like a woman forsaken and

grieved in spirit, 

like a youthful wife when

your were refused, says your God.

For a moment I have 

forsaken you,

But with great mercies

I will gather you.

Isaiah 54:5-7

     This blog may be long but it is worth taking the time to read and think upon. The day of His resurrection, a day when Christians take time to spend time in reflection of that day when God came to earth and died for His people.

 Due to the blindness of men it was fit that the Savior would be recognized as God through the performance of acts in His human body. Such things as casting out demons, His authority of evil spirits, and their response to this would give no cause for doubt that indeed He was the Son, the wisdom and power of God. Even by means of His death on a cross whereby the earth shook by a quake, and the sky darkened, the veil of the temple was rent in two, His cry of victory, also shown by His suffering on the cross that He was not only man, but God and the Savior. Men were in awe of all the happenings at the crucifixion, that even the mundane things of this world were a slave to Him and bore witness to the fact that He was God as they bore witness to him as its Master. All these things revealed God the Word to men. This indeed is the very center of our faith and even by those speaking in accordance with all these acts and other acts performed by Jesus Christ while on earth, and the credence given to those events by men, all  reveals Him as God and as the Son of God.

The question is in regard to Jesus Christ having to become incarnate? Why was it that the incorruptible God had to become corrupted, the One who made all things out of nothing? How do we understand this great mystery? Jesus Christ who is the only true image of the Father, for He is the very essence of the Father, He is the Wisdom of the Father, and only He then could as creator of all things from nothing re–create the likeness of God, the image of God in men. Only Jesus Christ could give to mortal man immortality, and only the Word Who orders all things and who alone is the Father’s true and sole–begotten Son could teach men about Himself and could abolish the worship of idols. Besides all of that there is no other reason for any other debt that needed to be paid, all men are subject to death. Having proved who He is, God, the Son of God by all those things He accomplished and demonstrated while He was here on earth, therefore proving His Godhead by those works, He then dwelt among us so that He might offer the sacrifice of behalf of all by surrendering the temple of His body to die in the place of all; thereby settling the account with death and free man from the condemnation of the primal transgression. By this act on the cross, His crucifixion, He not only freed man from that primal transgression, by He showed Himself mightier than death and this He did by His resurrection from the grave as the first–fruit of the resurrection.

All this was accomplished by the good pleasure of God and of the things by which He in His loving wisdom thought fit to do. Jesus Christ having been born of the virgin Mary and taking on a real human body was itself mortal and liable to death. Yet, by means of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the very Word of God it was loosed from the natural liability so that corruption could not touch it. Two mysterious and marvelous things occurred at once for the death of all was consummated in the Lord’s body, yet because the Word was in the body, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished. Death had to be actual for man and that death was death for all men, therefore when Jesus Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice on the cross all sin, all death, the complete payment was made for that death, that primal transgression that has plagued mankind from the beginning of sin in the Garden of Eden by Adam and by Eve. The Word of God being incapable of death and by the Word assuming a mortal body was so that He might offer it as his own in place of all men, even to suffer for the sake of all men so that He might bring to nothing, that sin, Satan himself could not have the power of death over Him and now by His death He destroyed Satan who had the power of death: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). The Death of Jesus Christ was sufficient for all men but only applied to give life eternal with Him for those chosen by God before the foundation of the world: (Romans 8:28-29). Jesus’ death must be sufficient for all so that sin could be destroyed, for if He had not destroyed sin, sin that caused death to all men, then sin would still remain and His death would not have accomplished the will of God who purposed that all sin would be abolished. This abolishing of sin was accomplished on the cross and Satan was destroyed and until all those elected by God are brought into the household of the Father, and given to the Son, Satan is loose and death remains for man.

But have no fears, Jesus Christ our Savior has died on our behalf, for we believe in Him and no longer die, there is no longer any threat of the law. Condemnation has come to an end, and now by the grace of God given to those whom He gives it, and sealed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, corruption has been banished, done away, we are loosed from our mortal bodies, that is in God’s good time whereby we will obtain a better resurrection, we do not perish or be dissolved, but shall rise again, death having been abolished by our savior. Just as Paul the apostle wrote: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’ (Isaiah 25:8). ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ (Hosea 13:14); (1Corinthians 15:53-55).”

          If the essential thing was that Jesus Christ was to surrender His body to death for all man, why did He not do so as a Man Privately? Why was it necessary that He die publicly, to go to the length of a crucifixion? Could not this be accomplished in private and would it not be more suitable for Him to have His body die with honor rather to be disgraced upon a public crucifixion? Why did He have to endure such a shameful death? This argument is purely a human argument and does not align with the fact that Jesus Christ was Divine and was even in His human body worthy of His Godhead. Men die due to their natural weakness and under the results of that natural weakness; but Jesus Christ was not and is not weak, He is the Power of God, and the Word of God, and Very Life itself. Now, if He had died quietly it would have looked as if He did so in accordance with the nature of His human body, in a bed, so to speak as with many men. If this occurred then He would be not so different from ordinary man. Yet, due to Him being the Word of God, God Incarnate, the Very Life, how then could He fall sick, the One who healed others? How could that body weaken and fail by means have which others are made strong? You might add that was it not possible then for Himself to prevent His own death? To do so then would have been and impediment to His resurrection, that which was necessary so that death would be overcome and be abolished. You might cavil and object in this manner: “Did He not hunger?” Yes, He did hunger because of the nature of His body, the very property of a human body, it hungers, but He did not die of hunger, He was the Lord and it was His body that hungered and He could not die for He came with a purpose to take on a human body so that He could offered that body, the body of a man, a sinless man, to pay the debt required. While Jesus Christ died a ransom for all, he did not see corruption, His body rose from the grave in perfect soundness, for it was the body of none other than Life Himself.

            Could not Jesus Christ in the very least avoid the shame of the designs of the Jews who were against Him? Could He not have guarded His body from death altogether? How unfitting that would have been for him. If it was and was unfitting for Him to die by His own hand, being the Word of Life, so then it would not be consonant with Himself that He should avoid the humiliation, the suffering caused by others and the death that was caused by others. Jesus Christ pursued the purpose for which He came to be incarnate, that is by the very means of His nature, being God, the Son of God, the Wisdom of God, and the Very Life, He could not lay aside His body out of His own accord and escape the plotting of the Jews. Was this a sign of weakness on His part? No! For this action was not any limitation or weakness in the Word, for He both waited for death in order that death would be abolished, he came to make an end to that primal transgression that man inherits, sin which brings death. Jesus Christ accepted death by the hands of man, thereby completely destroying death by the means of His own body.

            Death of Jesus Christ was not the final end for His incarnation. The supreme object of His coming was the resurrection of the body. The resurrection of His body was the supreme victory over death and it is our assurance that He had Himself conquered death and that the promise to the children of God would also be accomplished; that is they too would be raised from the dead, death has no hold on the children of God. This pledge for the future was that by His resurrection and His body not seeing corruption, we have the assured token that our lives would not die eternally, but be raised to life, for He is Life. Now, if He had died due to sickness or by any other means than He Himself surrendering His body to die publicly, and that in His time was to die on a cross, He would have neglected the purpose of His coming and we could not put our faith in all the miracles that He did showing Himself to be God, God incarnate. People would have no injunction to laugh at Him for He would not have been able to stop any disease upon Himself nor anyone else for that matter. We could not have proper assurance that our lives would live again. But this He did not do!

            There are those that front a theory that all that occurred when Jesus died was that His body was concealed somewhere, not dead, possibly all He did was faint, or pretended to die, and then to suddenly appear and say that He rose from the dead. All this would have accomplished is to stoke the flame of stories, or fables, tales, because there would have been no witness to His death. How then could anyone believe His resurrection? Death had to precede resurrection, for without death there could not be resurrection. If all was done in secret with no eyewitness death without a resurrection, no proof could be forwarded as proof or evidence, there would be no support for the Doctrine we hold as the foundation for our faith. Therefore, His death demanded that it be public where eyewitness could be proof of His death and witness for His resurrection for He appeared to some 500 men and when the narrative was written some of those people would still be around, further, any vocal narratives attesting to His resurrection would have been scoffed at and proven not true. All was done publicly in order to convince men that He was the Word, the long awaited for Messiah, and to declare the immortality of His body, so that He might present Himself as Life, and for all to believe that He was life. How could His disciples have any boldness to preach and teach regarding His death, and resurrection, and to hold out to people that the promises of God was and will be fulfilled? People could believe for they were eyewitnesses to His death. But the Pharisees refused to believe and even in some cases caused others not to believe, yet there were many who believed, those given the grace of faith to believe and had the support for their faith by being witness to His death and to His resurrection. But this would not have occurred if His death and resurrection were done in secret. How could there be an end to death, payment for the justice of God, for the primal transgression? By His death and resurrection He proved the incorruptibility of His body and any argument against that fact is null and void.

            You may still object, cavil with possible objections as to whether or not Jesus Christ could not have provided for a more honorable death? Even if He did die and rose again, surely as God incarnate He could have provided for a different death and resurrection. He could have avoided the ignominy of the cross. If He had done so then He would have given ground for suspicion that His power over death was limited to the particular kind of death which He chose for Himself, and this would give reason for disbelief. Death came to His body, and not from Himself but from His enemies, and this in order that as Savior he might utterly destroy and abolish death by whatever means they offered Him. He was Life of all, our Lord and Savior, and did not arrange the manner of His own death, for if He had done so then it would seem that He was in some way afraid of death. No, He accepted death, even death on a cross, publicly displayed for all to see, and as terrible as this was He bore that affliction due to others and He faced this horrible death, in order to destroy death. There is a paradox associated with His death and resurrection: for the death that they thought to bring upon Him, to dishonor Him, to disgrace Him, has become the glorious monument to the defeat of death. By the death of One Man, death was defeated and abolished. Even in His death He preserved His body whole and undivided, sot that there should be no excuse thereafter for those who would divide the Church.

            If any honest seeking Christian wants to know why He suffered death on a cross, we offer no other explanation. The Lord Jesus Christ offered for our sakes the one death that was supremely good. He came to become the curse that had been laid upon man: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written (Deuteronomy 21:23)”Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). And by the manner of His death He draws “all” men to Himself: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). Some will use the term “all” to mean everyone, yet the Greek is clear that the meaning is that He would draw certain ones, and all that God had given to Him will be drawn and come to Him, and this was due to the payment made by Him to pay the debt for man, and this by His death on a cross and by His resurrection. Jesus Christ came and overthrew Satan, and through His death, publicly done, His resurrection experience by those who saw Him after His death, and now the gates of heaven are open to all those who were enabled and drawn to Him, no one opened those gates He did this all by Himself as Lord of all: “Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates” (Psalm 24:7-8)! It was we who needed His death, His resurrection, and it is we whom He Himself bore in His own body, that the body which he first offered to death on behalf of all, and then made it through it a path to heaven, a path for us.

     We prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior, pray, make intercession for all you know, meditate upon His word. Do not make this day a day just for fun, teach your children what it means, the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.

In righteousness you 

     shall be established; 

you shall be far from

     oppression, for you

shall not fear; and the

     terror, for it shall 

not come near you.

                    Isaiah 54:14

May God Bless You And Keep You

Richard L. Crumb

The Death Of Jesus Christ Is The Center Of Our Faith

Most assuredly, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls

into the ground and dies,

it remains alone;

but if it dies, it produces 

much grain. 

He who loves his life 

will lost it,

and he who hates his life

in this world will keep it

for eternal life.

If anyone serves Me,

let him follow Me;

and where I am, 

there My servant will 

be allow. If anyone 

serves Me, Him My Father

will honor.

John 12:24-26

     Jesus was speaking of His death, that by means of His death many would become saved, but so long as He was alive salvation was not possible. The very foundation of our faith is the death of Jesus Christ, and that His death was all that was needed to meet the justice of God. Do you believe that fact? Is it indeed a fact for you, inasmuch as the truth of His death has converted you from a life of sin into a life without sin, a life that while on this earth is being sanctified and is a witness to our Savior? God has never sought decisions for Him. Decisions are so unstable for if a decision is not grounded upon a belief that is true, such as that Jesus Christ came, lived, was innocent from all sin, and that He was God incarnate, and His innocent death, His purpose for coming to earth, for God to take on a human body, just to save all He elected to salvation, then your decision can be changed when another doctrine is found to be true. In fact, if you have not settled the question of pain and suffering with the goodness of God, then you have not converted, you are still undecided! If we believe that God should do it this way or that way, that if we were God then we would not allow for all this pain and suffering, we would do it differently. But this is not what God asks of us, we are not God, we are not omniscient, we are human and God is not. Either God is Good, not just an attribute, rather that God is Good, and that all He does is good, then we have not truly converted and decided to follow Him. But this is what He asks of us: "He who loves his life will lose it..." (John 12:25a). What does it mean to love this life? This is important as Jesus clearly points out that we must not hold so tightly to this life: eternity awaits for all of God's children, this life is temporal, and when we hold onto it as though this is all there is, then all we have done is not truly believe in God, that He is Good, and that His promise for an eternal life without sin, that it is not true: you have then lost your life. But, "and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 25:b). We may not understand all there is about this life, and how God operates, but we do know this that He is Good, all-knowing, and that all He does is for good, and He has promised by His Son's own words, that to hate this world is to be kept for eternal life. This being so, then the question for each of us is: why are we not living like it is true, why are we holding on to this world so tight, that we live as the secular world is teaching that a person is to live. They don't understand God either only they will not believe upon Him, and we say that we do, that we will follow Him anywhere. Will you? Will I? We say that we are serving God. Are you? or is it just that we serve and we feel so holy, so just, so Christian, but when the rubber meets the road, that is when your faith is put to the test will you actually follow Him? Jesus says: "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me:.... (John 12:26a). What does it mean to follow Jesus? Does it mean to go to Church? To serve as an elder? To serve as a deacon? To serve as a Sunday School teacher? Or is it more than all of that? If you follow Jesus, if you truly walk in His steps, then you must be willing to go all the way, and His way was to the cross. Jesus came to earth for one purpose; to do the will of His Father, and what was that will? For Him to die! He didn't come to just heal, to cast out demons, to confront the Pharisees and other priests in regards to their theology that was no longer that what was taught in former times: No! All of that was to admit that He was Divine, that He was the promised Messiah, and that by those acts of His He pointed to Himself as the One that is the Savior, and He came to pay the price of death, that which was lost in the Garden of Eden, life. Jesus came to to settle man's account with death and free him from the primal transgression. By His death upon the cross, He showed Himself mightier than death, displaying His won body incorruptible as the first-fruits of the resurrection. Our faith is in Him, not in our having total understanding in regards to this life, a life that is stained and corrupted by sin, a life that is far removed from all that God intended, but Who has not forgot His will that He made man and He has promised that He will give to man eternal life without the stain of sin. We look upon Him, we trust Him, and we try our very best to understand those things we don't, and with the help of the Holy Spirit we do come to understand, that we are new creatures, we are incorruptible when we die, for we go to live with God, with our Savior, so now in this life we live for Him, we make disciples as commanded and we do not regard this life as the only life we have, we have the honor that God gives to those who follow His Son: "and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26b).

     A question for all who say that they will follow Jesus: "Will you be able to take Jesus with you wherever go and whatever you do? Or is there things in your life that you would not take Jesus Christ so that He is with you at all times? Do you believe the words of Jesus when He says: "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:16). Jesus prayed for you, for all of those who would believe on Him, that God had sent Him. Do You? First allow me this caveat: The NIV and ESV, as well as others, who derive their translation from the critical text have it wrong, for they do no use the word "will" in association with believe. Upon examination I found only four citations where the word "will" or that the word for believe is not in the future tense. Why is this important? Because the world in the majority of texts, those thousands of texts you the word for believe in the future tense, and it is not that everyone who believes will be saved, that is that anyone will be saved, rather it is those who are believing, because the Greek word is a participle in the future tense, therefore it is to those will be believing who Jesus is praying for, and it is those who are believing that will be honored by God. Are you believing? Does your life demonstrated that fact? Live life, obey God! Yes, there is tribulation in this world, and we as children of God suffer just as those who are not children of God, but we have a sure hope, and we can live cheerfully under any persecution that comes, whatever form it has come into your life because Jesus Christ did not stay dead! He rose again, and as we approach that time of year where take time to celebrate His death, His resurrection, and His ascension into heaven, we rejoice because He has overcome the world: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). John in his little letter to the Church writes: "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is greater that he who is in the world" (1John 4:4). Finally, John writes this most important admonition: "We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1John 4:6).

     This is the week just prior to the crucifixion of our Savior Jesus Christ, this is the week that He had come to fulfill all the Law, and the purpose of God, for His mind, His feet, His determination, was to go to Jerusalem and there complete His task. This He did, and every time that you celebrate the Lord's supper, when you take a piece of that broken bread, we are reminded of His broken body, and when we drink of the cup, we are reminded of His blood poured, a blood that washes us whiter than snow. Do not  let the celebration of "Easter" overcome the importance of this time, Nissan 14 was the date of Jesus' death, and while we do not necessarily celebrate His death on that exact date, we do celebrate His death, resurrection, and ascension, that is what is most important, and it that which we teach our children, it is that which will remind us of who we are and whose we are. 

     Believe that first, then when I write on other subjects you will not just receive some information, rather you will sanctify yourself, and prepare yourself to fulfill your mission, and that mission is to live for Him, at all times, and in all places, there is where there is freedom, there is where joy resides. 

Lift up our heads,

     O you gates!

And be lifted up,

    you everlasting doors!

And the King of Glory 

    Shall come in.

                   Psalm 24:7

Praise God With Your Life

Richard L. Crumb

How Can Pain And Suffering Be Understood In Regards To God's Providence?

And God will

wipe away

every tear

from their eyes;

there shall be 

no more death,

nor sorrow, 

nor crying. 

There shall be 

no more pain,

for the former things

have passed away.

Revelation 21:4

     Do you believe that statement made by John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? Or, do you just hope that it will happen? If someone, a pastor, or evangelist, or anyone, has talked you into a decision for Jesus Christ, then it is possible that another person could change your decision. Jesus Christ does not ask for our decision. His desire is for conversion! Yes there is a decision in the process, but that decision is not due to someone talking you into a decision, rather that the Holy Spirit has drawn you and enabled you to decide to be converted: period! Many people make decisions for Jesus Christ but few are actually converted. What is conversion? An example, go to Europe with your hairdryer (that is if you can take it on a plane, Ha!), and if you do not have a converter your alternating current hairdryer will not work, you need to have conversion from alternating current to direct current, which is the current used in Europe. If you want to live for Christ and believe in His word, then you must be converted from one type of person to another. The converter is Jesus Christ, but unlike the illustration of the hairdryer which can return to alternating current when you unplug the converter, to be converted by the converter Jesus Christ is a permanent conversion, you are not simple converting temporarily, you are converted for eternity and you are now to operate within that conversion. If you have only made a decision then it is possible that you unplug yourself from the converter, Jesus Christ and live as you were before. Why make these comments? If you are not converted then no answer given will be accepted or lasting and this question as to pain and suffering in this world will not be understood or have an answer. Many often come to Jesus Christ because they desire to have what He gives, that is in this case, life without pain and suffering, but when the rubber meets the road, and pain and suffering come into their lives they return to doubt, and even depression, they forsake what they had decided before to be: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they  would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1John 2:19). There is an old saying: "You want your cake and eat it too"! This is so true of us, even after conversion, as we become sanctified by allowing the word of God to change us, and allow our conversion to change us into the image of Jesus Christ. Allow me to give an illustration from my new book which will be publish in the next couple of weeks, for in it I address this very question: Why does God allow pain and suffering, why does He not just protect His children from the various afflictions that come upon man? 

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?

Romans 11:33-34 

     Before I begin, this must be understood: God is not the same as we are for He is a completely different sort of Being. We so often want to morph God into a being as we are, this was what the Gnostics did with the Demiurge, but this Platonic teaching will not give us the answer we seek. 
     Can good come from bad? You may quickly say, yes! How do you know, what is your argument in favor of that proposal, that good can come from bad? Take for instance, a man who does not go to Church is playing golf on Sunday morning with his friend while his wife and two little girls are on their way to Church only to be killed by a drunk driver. Why did God allow this to happen? Was she not a Christian, was she not on her way to Church to worship God and fellowship with other believers? What did those two little girls do to have this happen to them? Where was God? At this point of affliction we want God to control everything; we want Him to change things so that we would not have to suffer: but God does not! Who made the man become drunk on a Sunday morning? God, Satan, or himself? Who put the bottle to his mouth and made him drink? Are we not the cause of our actions? Yes! Therefore God did not cause him to drink, and we cannot always say that "Satan made me do it." Yes, there is sin in man, and man who will not choose to follow God's command not to get drunk, it is not God's fault, nor is it Satan's fault, that is, directly from Satan. This man choose to become drunk and drive himself. Luke records an event where eighteen men were standing under a tower in Siloam and were killed, so they perished due to the falling of the tower not because they had sinned and caused the tower to fall: (Luke 13:4). There is a law of second causes, and God will not take away our choices or our decisions, but will in all cases through our circumstances turn the bad into good: "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3). Man can choose everything in this life, the only thing he cannot choose is salvation, for it is a choice that is outside of man, for it is a choice to choose God, whom he does not know, nor can know unless God chooses Him and give to him the free gift of grace. So, man makes a choice and we wonder how can God be so cruel as to allow this accident and killing the mother and two daughters? We find it hard to accept and to understand. Here is a story that may help:
A bear is caught in a trap, and when the man approaches the bear is fearful and puts up a fight, He does not know that the man is coming to free him and when the man has to apply some pain by injecting the bear with an anesthesia drug he is more frightened but due to the drug he falls against the cage door and the man has to tug and pull to remove him for blocking the door, the bear who is drowsy is made to become more afraid, and fights the man, all the while the bear does not understand that the man has come to free him from the bad thing that has trapped him. How can the bear understand? He can't! He is a bear and the man is a man and the two are far apart. This is us and God. Maybe you have done just that, allowed a child to prick their finger while attempting to learn how to sew, and you saw that this was possible for the child did not put on a thimble, but you allowed it just the same knowing that from the experience of pain she would learn not to do that again. You could have stopped it but you didn't, for you wanted her to learn this hard lesson, you loved her and while she may not understand why you did not help in her time of need, she will come to understand with maturity that at times there is a need for pain. Some don't learn even when they are confronted with pain and suffering: "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit" (Proverbs 14:8). Wisdom comes with maturity and with experience and the more we experience the love of God the more we are willing to allow Him to be God. We say we trust Him, then do so! Remember that God will not take away our humanity for He is loving and kind and will not usurp our poor decisions, but will when we repent take the bad thing and turn it into good, even if that good will have to wait until we are in heaven with Him. You see, have you removed the blinders of doubt, God's children has not been left without hope, for God Who has given to His children life eternal, it is a complete conversion of life, we are new creatures and we are to live as God purposed, a life where there is no pain or suffering and until He returns for His children we trust, and we allow God to be God. Yes, we will have pain, we will suffer, we will cry, we will be sad, we will be human in every sense, but we are not just human we are converted humans, and we know that there is an end to suffering and pain, and that there is joy, unspeakable joy: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:2-3). Peter writes: "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy" (1Peter 4: 12-13). 
     It is when we are truly converted to Jesus Christ that we can, even when we do not fully understand, stand up under any affliction knowing that this life will end, it is not a matter of whether it will or not, it is a matter of how and when, but we know that to die is to gain, just as Paul wrote: "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Live life, obey God, this is contentment, not the contentment that the world seeks, not the discontentment that destroys your faith, rather a contentment due to our faith, a sure hope, that to live for God while aid us while we are in the life, a life of pain and suffering: God is with us: "Now godliness with  contentment is great gain. for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content" (1Timothy 6:6-8). What freedom we have, we have our God, our eternal life and nothing can take us out of the hand of God, nothing can remove us from eternity with Him. Enjoy this life, cry when sad, then move forward in great contentment and joy.

Remove falsehood and lies
     far from me;
give me neither poverty
     nor riches--
feed me with the food 
    allotted to me;
lest I be full land deny You, 
    and say, "Who is the LORD?"
or lest I be  poor and steal, 
    and profane the name 
of my God.
                       Proverbs 30: 8-9


Worship God in Truth


Richard L. Crumb