The Fear of Crossing Over
If you cannot view this video, please click here.
If you cannot see this video, please click here.
There’s something much larger than us. As I said in my previous post, it’s too much of a mystery for us to figure it out, but what if people like Ben Breedlove who has cheated death three times and then tells us that there is something out there? Ben’s fourth time resulted in death on Christmas night due to a heart condition. Will the atheists start believing? Will all spiritual and religious people stop fearing death? It’s life’s biggest kept secret - biggest mystery - biggest fear. It’ll never downgrade or be seen as something we never think about on a daily basis. I wonder how his mother feels - does she believe he’s okay? Does it make her own questioning about the mystery of death any lesser? Or, does she believe that what Ben was seeing was purely out of visions manifesting from his brain? No one is ever convinced, even when this happens to a loved one. At the end of this video, it appeared to me that Ben was hoping it would happen again, as he stated that he never wanted to leave that place he was at while he died for three minutes. There is a scripture from the Bible that I do believe which gives me comfort. If you’re not a Christian, you can apply it accordingly.
What Will Happen to Us When We Die?
“We know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down--when we die and leave these bodies---we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make is groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always home with the Lord. That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are at home with the Lord. So our aim is to please him always, whether we are here in this body or away from this body. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged, We will each receive whatever we deserve for the god or evil we have done in our bodies.” --2 Corinthians 5:1-10
“That is why we live by believing and not by seeing.” -- That can be a hard pill to swallow for someone who has many doubts about the afterlife. It also states this in John 20:29. How can we as “ordinary people” believe something without proof? And even though I, personally, have had many spiritual experiences that led me to believe that there is a God, my mind (or the devil) asks, “Will you even get into heaven though?” --So many Christians or “religious” people fear the worst: hell. Okay - so there’s is an afterlife, but where will we go? What irritates me about organized religion, churches, etc., is that many of the people of the cloth will scare you into believing that if you are not perfect, that you will perish in hell. They instill this guilt inside your heart, so that your natural instincts as a human being should be altered. There are rules and regulations. There are “conditions”. Isn’t God unconditional love? What does unconditional love mean? I feel bad for “religious” people who constantly walk around with this aching guilt that never seems to subside. They’ve been brainwashed by----people, not God. They’ve been taught since birth that “this is right” and “this is wrong”. Christians who have been taught that the sins of yesterday (Old Testament) still applies today. Then why did Jesus die? “But what if we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then find out that we are still sinners? Has Christ led us into sin? Of course not! Rather, I make myself guilty if I rebuild the old system I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God’s approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not one for those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. **For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.”**
If you cannot see this video, please click here.
There’s something much larger than us. As I said in my previous post, it’s too much of a mystery for us to figure it out, but what if people like Ben Breedlove who has cheated death three times and then tells us that there is something out there? Ben’s fourth time resulted in death on Christmas night due to a heart condition. Will the atheists start believing? Will all spiritual and religious people stop fearing death? It’s life’s biggest kept secret - biggest mystery - biggest fear. It’ll never downgrade or be seen as something we never think about on a daily basis. I wonder how his mother feels - does she believe he’s okay? Does it make her own questioning about the mystery of death any lesser? Or, does she believe that what Ben was seeing was purely out of visions manifesting from his brain? No one is ever convinced, even when this happens to a loved one. At the end of this video, it appeared to me that Ben was hoping it would happen again, as he stated that he never wanted to leave that place he was at while he died for three minutes. There is a scripture from the Bible that I do believe which gives me comfort. If you’re not a Christian, you can apply it accordingly.
What Will Happen to Us When We Die?
“We know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down--when we die and leave these bodies---we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make is groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always home with the Lord. That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are at home with the Lord. So our aim is to please him always, whether we are here in this body or away from this body. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged, We will each receive whatever we deserve for the god or evil we have done in our bodies.” --2 Corinthians 5:1-10
“That is why we live by believing and not by seeing.” -- That can be a hard pill to swallow for someone who has many doubts about the afterlife. It also states this in John 20:29. How can we as “ordinary people” believe something without proof? And even though I, personally, have had many spiritual experiences that led me to believe that there is a God, my mind (or the devil) asks, “Will you even get into heaven though?” --So many Christians or “religious” people fear the worst: hell. Okay - so there’s is an afterlife, but where will we go? What irritates me about organized religion, churches, etc., is that many of the people of the cloth will scare you into believing that if you are not perfect, that you will perish in hell. They instill this guilt inside your heart, so that your natural instincts as a human being should be altered. There are rules and regulations. There are “conditions”. Isn’t God unconditional love? What does unconditional love mean? I feel bad for “religious” people who constantly walk around with this aching guilt that never seems to subside. They’ve been brainwashed by----people, not God. They’ve been taught since birth that “this is right” and “this is wrong”. Christians who have been taught that the sins of yesterday (Old Testament) still applies today. Then why did Jesus die? “But what if we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then find out that we are still sinners? Has Christ led us into sin? Of course not! Rather, I make myself guilty if I rebuild the old system I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God’s approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not one for those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. **For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.”**
That one sentence says it all: {“For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.”} Then you have this passage:
“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. And yet we Jewish Christians know that we become right with God, not by doing what the law commands, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be accepted by God because of our faith in Christ-and not because we have obeyed the law. ***For no one will ever be saved by obeying the law.***” ~Galatians 2:15-16
So in my own opinion, if you don’t believe that your sins are washed away completely, then you’re basically not believing that Jesus’ death actually did take away your sins - that His death was meaningless. But that’s “my” belief, as well as it is written in the Bible. I have had other Christians debate me on this topic because they still believe the old law applies to Christians. Basic rules, like love God and love your neighbor - the things that make someone a decent human being - but not things like eating crustaceans of the sea, or being gay or lesbian, as Leviticus states.
My point of this post is to ask the question: are we still scared? We avoid certain things so we can cheat death ourselves. We try to “be safe” and not live on the edge. Through my own spiritual experiences which are in my book, I know for a fact that our bodies are labored here on earth - our breathing is “work” - our limbs weight a TON, and the emotional pain (even if we’re somewhat happy) is excruciating. We feel too much. We think too much. We fear too much. We self-medicate so we can feel...numb. “Numb” - is how we feel on the other side, or what mimics it. Why do you think so many people are on painkillers without the pain, or the abuse of alcohol or drugs? It aids in the human condition which is pain. We are all in pain and if someone says they aren’t - they aren’t looking at it in a physical/emotional all-being aspect because they don’t know what the other option feels like. We’ve become so immune to this “pain” (that seems painless), that we tend to think this’ll how we’ll feel when we’re on the other side.
Jesus said this before He left us:
"Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father's home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there." --John 14:1-4
“I am leaving you with a gift---peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” --John 14:27
“I am leaving you with a gift---peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” --John 14:27
What do you believe happens to you when we cross over? Or do you even believe that we cross over at all?
For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com
For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com