It is with deepest sorrow that I write that my sister has lost her battle with cancer. It's probably one of the hardest battles she ever faced and she gave her all trying!
Mindi was my first friend and my longest friend. It seemed that for most of my childhood we were known as "Penny and Mindi" or "Mindi and Penny". It was rare that people spoke about us as a singular person since we were almost always together. We even went through high school in the same grades, and graduated together!
Though it is difficult for me to comprehend just how much life will change without her, I take comfort in the Scriptures that promise it is just a short goodbye and not an eternal one.
For those of you who don't know, we are Bible believing Christians. Both Mindi and I have put our faith in what the Scriptures teach about salvation and the afterlife.
I Corinthians 15:1-4- Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Romans 10:9-10- That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Christ came to this earth and lived a perfect, sinless life. He sacrificed His life as a perfect High Priest on the cross for a perfect sacrifice to take away sin. He then took His blood (that is the required price for the salvation of a soul) and in God's required protocols (the official procedure that only He could have performed) offered it before God. The Bible says that if we accept His payment for our sin, then our accounts with God will be considered paid in full.
I am confident that Mindi had done this.
The Bible also says in II Corinthians 5:8- We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
This means that the second Mindi breathed out her last breath here on earth, that she inhaled her first breath in heaven. Her body may still be here waiting for the rapture, but her soul is with her Savior.
The Scriptures give many wonderful promises regarding this. Sometimes in the Bible it refers to a person as being dead, and other times it refers to them as being asleep. The difference is in the relationship of the soul to the body. If the soul will never again inhabit the body, the person is dead. However, if the body is temporarily vacant waiting for God to change it into a new body to be joined again with the soul for eternity, then it is considered asleep.
I Corinthians 15:51-55 - Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The promise is that God will change our earthly bodies into a new one that resembles Jesus' resurrected, glorified body.
I thessalonians 5:9-11- For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
It will be the beginning of what we call the rapture of the church. This is where every believer from the period of Acts through to the trumpet sounding will be called to heaven to live with God (whether asleep or alive). This will end the church period and begin the tribulation period. That's what is meant by we are not "appointed to wrath". When God pours out His vengeance on earth during the tribulation, Christians who have accepted God's payment for their sins will not be present.
Death is not the end for a christian, but a sort of graduation. Where the old test of mortal life ends and the new life begins.
I Thessalonians 4:13-18- But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
We are to comfort each other with the knowledge that we will be reunited. There will be no more sickness, no more death, and no more pain in our new bodies.
Revelation 22:1-6- And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
I am very thankful for these precious promises. And while we sorrow at losing a sister, mother, and friend, we are comforted in knowing that it is only for a moment. I thank God for the time He gave us with Mindi on this earth, and I praise Him for the promise of time and eternity with a healthy, vibrant Mindi!
