THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT - Our dead savior abides with us still (a blogpost for a sermon to be preached on 11/2/2014)

"Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."  (Deut. 31:6)  "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  (Heb. 13:5)

These promises of God have always given me great comfort.  Knowing that God is always with me has given me great strength.  I will never be left, forgotten, forsaken, cast aside, discarded, thrown away, etc.  God will always be with me.

Another promise of God was given by Jesus just before He left this earth.  He said, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Mt. 28:20)  This promise sounds very much like the other two, but I want to promote a little different twist on this verse.

Jesus was certainly reiterating the promise of God to his apostles.  He was assuring them that He would be with them forever.  Where God had not left Israel in Deuteronomy; Jesus had left the Twelve for 3 days.  He was separated from them by His death.  Jesus' words serve as a reminder that since He has conquered death, nothing will ever separate them again.

The words of Paul in Romans 8:31b-39:

 31b If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I hold to that promise as well.  Nothing shall separate us.  Nothing.  My dead savior abides with me still.  Praise God for the resurrection of the Lamb!