That though thou seest it no great matter to be separated from Christ now, yet when the heavens shall be in a flaming fire, and the earth shall give up the dead that be in it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
At the day of judgment we shall all meet again.
If the Lord comes and burns - as you say he will - I am not going away; I am going to stay here and stand the fire, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! And Jesus will walk with me through the fire and keep me from harm.
Christianity teaches that this life is not the only life, and there is a final judgment in which all earthly accounts are settled.
When love becomes what Christianity is all about, we can make no sense of Jesus's death and resurrection.
If heaven is understood more as God's space on earth than as an ethereal region apart from the essential reality we know, then what happens on earth matters even more than we think, for the Christian life becomes a continuation of the unfolding work of Jesus, who will one day return to set the world to rights.
Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell.
The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.
Death is not more certainly a separation of our souls from our bodies than the Christian life is a separation of our souls from worldly tempers, vain indulgences, and unnecessary cares.
Thou art my single day, God lends to leaven What were all earth else, with a feel of heaven.
And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.