All Saints Day

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" (Revelation 7:9-10 ESV) That, my friends, is All Saints Day. We look not to ourselves and what we feel. We don't try to figure things out and wonder how does all this work. We look to the throne of God and the Lamb, the One who saves, and we rejoice!

Sing praise! Christ Jesus saves! Sing praise! The grave is not victorious! Sing praise! Satan scowls fierce as he will, he can harm us none, he's judged, the deed is done; on little word can fell him! That word! Christ! CHRIST! Satan trembles with fear at that word. The grave gives up its dead at that word! Salvation comes in that word! Jesus Christ is the Lord of all, the Messiah, the Promised One, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Great I AM!

And all those who believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior in this life, all who died believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, are in that great, countless (for us but not for God) throng who stand before the throne and sing those wondrous praises! There is your loved one, your father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, cousin, friend, neighbor, classmate - all who believed in Jesus and have passed from life to death to life, those are the ones from every language, peoples, tribes and nations.

With great rejoicing we sing praise today! Life is given through faith in Jesus Christ! Believe in His name, believe in Him as your Lord and Savior, hold fast to that faith through the power of the Spirit resting upon you, and this wondrous gift of eternal life is yours!

Why celebrate All Saints Day? 3 reasons: 1) It gives all glory to God for salvation given through Christ Jesus; 2) It gives comfort to the heart that is touched with grief over the loss of a loved one (who is a believer in Christ); and 3) It gives courage to those of us who are still alive, so that we will face the struggles of these days with assurance that this sinful, painful world that is wracked with death and destruction, is not all there is but there is more, much more found in Jesus Christ.

"For all the saints, who from their labors rest, who Thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name O Jesus, be forever blest! Alleluia! Alleluia!" Sing praise! Jesus is the Savior and He gives life to all who believe in Him. All Saints Day is a grand and glorious celebration - taking place feebly here on earth but roaring with life in heaven!