When death comes to good people

The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.  Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. Isaiah 57:1-2 NIV

I had never seen God's words above from Isaiah.  So meaningful to me.  So powerful to me.  Intuitively I think we all know that when a good person dies, it must be for a good reason. And God just gave us the good reason. The real reason.

The reason an innocent baby dies, the reason an innocent baby is allowed to die, or is taken away from this world, is to spare this innocent baby from evil.  Evidently, evil awaited this innocent child, and God spared him or her, taking him or her straight to heaven.  Imagine.  To wake up in heaven, and for that to be the only thing you've ever known, or ever will know.  So many babies have died, and are dying as I type.  God is sparing them from evil.

This doesn't mean that killing them isn't evil. It still is.  But if God allows it, He is sparing them from even more evil, from even worse evil.  God is good.  Glory to God.

And when a righteous man dies, in his righteousness, because of his righteousness, God is sparing this righteous man from evil.

When a righteous woman is taken away, when she has to leave a job, or a neighborhood, God is good.  God is sparing this righteous woman from evil.

When you have been righteous, and you've lost your job, or home, or relationship, when God took you away from those people or those situations, God was sparing you from evil, if you were righteous in that situation.

Now if you were unrighteous, that's another story. Another blog post.

But if you were righteous, and you were removed from a person, place, or situation, God loves you.  God spared you.

Praise God.

How God Took Away My Worst Fears (Part 1)

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—  and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."  Hebrews 2:14-15


I never really feared death.  Especially after believing in Jesus.  I thought about all of the gruesome and painful ways I could die for my faith in him, and asked Jesus to help me not be like Peter.  I didn't want to think I was ready to die for Him when I really wasn't. So the best I could do was to assume I wasn't ready, and ask Jesus to make me ready to die for Him in whatever way would bring Him glory.  So I felt peace about my own death.  But something happened.


I got married and had 7 children.


When I thought of my precious wife dying, or any of my dearest children leaving this world, I would feel so much anxiety and dread that I thought I couldn't bear it, even the thought of it. 

My worst fears were of the death of my wife and children. 

The Word of God took away my worst fears.

The first death recorded in the word of God is of Abel, killed in cold blood by his evil brother Cain.  All of my fears about losing my wife and children had to be found here, in the first death in scripture.  My fears of losing them suddenly, randomly, meaninglessly.  My fear of not being able to say good bye, or simply of losing them before their time.  The fear of them suffering in pain.  The fear of not knowing they were going to die.  The fear of not wanting them to die before me.  Everything that made the thought of their deaths unbearably painful to me had to "explained" in the first death in scripture.  This is how God did it for me.

First, Abel's death was neither random nor purposeless.  Even from Cain's perspective, it was "premeditated." But Cain's perspective is not the issue.  It's God's perspective, because He is the one that took away my worst fears.  God was actively watching the lives of Cain and Abel.  He was very pleased with Abel, and displeased with Cain.  God honored Abel's sacrifice, his life's work, his purpose and calling on earth.  But Cain didn't please God with what God gave him. So Cain was mad at God and took out his anger towards God in his jealously of Abel. You know what happens next.  But focus on the word of God.  Focus on what God says about Abel:

• The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.  Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  Genesis 4:10-11
• By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.  Hebrews 11:4
• Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all. Luke 11:50-51
• You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  Hebrews 12:23-24
• Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 1 John 3:12

In God's eyes, Abel's death was far from random and meaningless.  Abel was the very first martyr, the first to die for being righteous in God's eyes.  The first to be persecuted and hated for doing God's will.  How did this take away my worst fears, the deaths of my wife and children?
(click HERE to find out.)