May 18: Jesus' voice will raise the dead

Don't be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God's Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.  (John 5:28,29 — New Living Translation)

Here the Lord Jesus speaks about the authority that the Father has given Him, of the time to come when His voice will cause all the dead to be raised, and they will be judged by Him; by Jesus who came into the world as a man. He was tempted and tested; He experienced all that life on earth is — so He can be a judge who knows what people face here on earth. He also knows the secrets of men's hearts; nothing is hidden from Him; no situation or detail escapes His notice. So Jesus’ judgment will be just, fair, and in line with all the truth. About the judgment Jesus says simply, “Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.”

There is no reason for anyone to experience judgment. God wants all men to be saved and to know the truth. He sent Jesus into the world to die in our place — to die for every single man and woman. Through Him the gates of God's Kingdom are thrown open for all. He even sent His people — His church — into the world to teach others about the salvation they can have in Him. Once a person has heard about Jesus, he chooses his own destiny — eternal life or eternal death. So choose life! Choose to live as a son or daughter of the living God.

There will be hardships and troubles to face, but Jesus will see you through. He promises that you will never face temptations beyond your strength. He will faithfully watch over you and give you power to overcome or a way to escape. He will help you grow strong as a Christian, and will transform you into the kind of person you always wanted to be. But remember, the hardships you face will be much less than the oppression and torture that Satan inflicts on those in his realm.

So many people give more thought to their present lives than they do to where they will spend eternity. They wrongly assume that everyone is going to heaven, or that they will have time to deal with the salvation question later on in life, or that a loving God would never send good people like them to hell. — Whenever I hear about a famous actor, or public figure dying, I wonder what they must be thinking at that very moment. Many times they’ve been celebrated and well-paid by the world, but never gave God a second thought. Reality must fall on them like a ton of bricks; the realization that what they thought was priceless is actually trash, and what they thought was trash is actually a priceless treasure. Like the verse above says: Don’t be surprised!