Philippians 1:21

There are heartbreaks of joy in God’s plan for His children. We can no more imagine the good things He has waiting ahead for us, both in this life and in the life to come, than Jacob could have imagined his lost boy alive and ruling Egypt.

That is the sort of miracle-surprise awaiting me daily in the tingling, vibrant, throbbing life of Jesus Christ who is my life, when I let Him fulfill His will and lavish Himself and His gifts and surprises upon me; when I let Him become all that there is of me.

None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

Flowers! Easter lilies! Speak to me this morning the same sweet lesson of immortality you have been speaking to so many sorrowing souls for years.

Wise old Book! Let me read again in your pages the steady assurance that “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Poets! Recite for me your verses that resound the gospel of eternal life in every line. Singers! Break forth once more into hymns of joy—let me hear again my favorite resurrection songs.

The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Saviour making a propitiation for his guilt.

From the moment of the new and celestial birth the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have.

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.—The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.—As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Death is swallowed up in victory.—Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.—To live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Cast not away . . . your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.—The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.—The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

We have to get our eyes off others before we can have the full vision of Jesus. Moses and Elijah had to pass to make possible the vision of Jesus only.

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, I saw the Lord. His eyes and hopes had been upon the mighty and victorious earthly leader, and with his death all these hopes had sunk in despair. But the stars come out when the lights of earth fade. It was then Isaiah’s true vision and life began.