Jesus made this promise to his followers, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going” (Jn. 14:1-4; RSV). Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, was inspired to recall these words, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Cor. 2:9; RSV).

Adam and Eve settled in a Garden called Eden as stewards. The Lord God commanded them, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:15-117). The couple ate and they died; but God loved man and promised, “I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will free them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol is your destruction” (Hos. 13:14)? In this study, I am looking at death as a blessing and not as a curse.

Paul the Apostle credited the Lord with having said, “It is more blessed (makarion) to give than to receive” (Ac. 20:35). Our world could not exist without givers. The Church could not function without the generosity of people n fact, life, itself, is sustained by giving. God gave his only Son. Jesus gave His life. And every human being has something to give that others desperately need. The point is that if all of us stop giving then there would be nothing to receive. And when we give, it must not be that which we can spare, even though it too can be profitable, it must be what is dear to us; if, indeed, it is to count.

That summer, conscience went on a rampage. An older gentleman, who felt compelled to tell a friend and me, how he had found peace with God. It was not by confessing a bunch of wrong doings, but by asking for forgiveness and making recompense for past mistakes wherever possible. There was an evangelistic meeting going on. I went to seek help. I got none, not even from the evangelist. All I heard was that I should “repent, trust Jesus, and He will save you.” But from what was I to repent? How could Jesus take care of the things I had not done? I had never committed any of the sins the evangelist was seeking to free people from. The last advice the evangelist gave me was "pray, pray, and keep on praying." It was helpful but that was the wrong advice. The evangelist should have recommended what the old gentleman did. It was then, and only then, that my conscience came to rest. I had to be forgiven by my father, write letters asking for forgiveness from people in Europe and in North America. While a refugee, I had taken some wood to cook a meal. I sent the mayor of that town some money with an apology. There were some other cases I could not deal with. However, where possible, I asked for forgiveness and I made restitution. The result was that I felt jubilant and at peace; and that in spite of my burned face and hands. Ever since that encounter, I found conscience to be an extraordinary guide.

The finger of conscience points only in one direction and that is inward. Conscience is the ultimate judge of what a person accepts, believes or Conscience serves as a screening device, which sorts out as to what is acceptable and to what is His or her entire well-being depends on how well his or her conscience functions. The Talmud says, “The best preacher is the heart (conscience); the best teacher is time; the best book is the world; the best friend is God” (Do. 110). Benjamin Franklin said, “A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder, but rest and guilt live far asunder” (Do. 68).

There are greater gifts than money. There are times when a glass of water is more precious than money (Mt. 10:42). The man who was robbed and left for dead needed a Good Samaritan to help him. This good neighbor did not care what it cost to help a stranger. He even promised to pay for extended care of this unfortunate man (Lk. 10:25-37). What can be more memorable than the boy who gave his five small loaves of bread and two small fish to Jesus, in order to feed a hungry crowd? It would have been much easier to share it with Andrew; yet, Andrew unselfishly revealed that there was some bread available (Jn. 6:8-9). Who can forget Zacchaeus? He was that “wee little man” with the big heart. After he met Jesus, Zacchaeus gave half of his goods to the poor and Zacchaeus restored undue collections four-fold (Lk. 19:1-10). One just wonders, where Zacchaeus found the means to do all that? There also was one leper who came back to give thanks for his healing and he was a Samaritan. To Jesus, that thanks meant more than a purse filled with coins. How disappointed Jesus was when the others did not return to pay homage (Lk.17: 11-19). And to show that one must not be afraid to give, Jesus dealt rather strangely with that Syrian woman from Phoenicia. In a crude way, he told her that it was unfair to give the bread of the children to dogs. She quickly responded, that she was not asking for the bread, but only for the crumbs that the children dropped (Mk. 7:24-30). Those who are truly in need do not ask for much.

Jesus taught that there was one sin, which could not be forgiven. “I tell you, every sin and blaspheme will be forgiven men, but the blaspheme against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mt. 12:31-32). Many preachers and teachers, including myself, have been leading the people into believing that it is unlikely that we have committed any sins against God’s Spirit. Again, and it is due to my ignorance that I held on to that belief. This sin stands in the way of man’s salvation. Salvation is the product of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If we trample on any one of the “Three” we trample on our own salvation. The “Three” are interwoven. Here are the facts. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4:12). “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44). “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (Jn. 14:26). “God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:24). “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Lk. 11:20). And “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (Jn. 6:63).

Satan, the prince of this world comes disguised as an angel of light. Satan blinds us with his glitter of falsified truth. Even good religious people, like the Pharisees of old, were and are misled by Satan. Jesus has come to bring us spiritual sight, but like the Pharisees, we too ask, “Are we blind?” Jesus’ answer has not changed; namely, “If you were blind, you would have no sin, but now your sin remains” (Jn. 9:39-41). The judgment that Jesus has brought was to give sight to the spiritually blind and blind those who hold on to their self-made truth. We already are judged if we cannot distinguish right from wrong and make wrong right. The remarkable thing is that a simple blind man whose eyes were opened could accept Christ and believe in His Message, while good men with stubborn hearts remained in spiritual darkness. It is utterly impossible to see Christ or to hear His Words without the Spirit of God in our life. Peter was told that it was not flesh and blood that helped him see who Jesus was, but the Father in heaven (Mt. 16:17). Those who saw the Spirit also heard the voice from heaven saying, “This is my son, my beloved, who pleases me” (Mt. 3:16-17). Only three of the disciples heard the voice saying, “This is my son, hear him!” (Mk. 9:7). The spiritually deaf heard thunder, angels, or merely noises (Jn. 12:28-29).

Forgiveness is by far the most complicated term among conscientious and sensitive people in our world. Every culture, race, and creed has their philosophy what it takes and what it means to be forgiven. Ultimately, all realize that forgiveness lies in the hands of a higher power. Christians are perhaps the most blessed because the grace of God covers all of their shortcomings. This, they derive from the Apostle Paul, stated in his Epistle to the Romans chapter four and verses seven and eight, "Blessed (makarioi) are those whose lawlessness has been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed (makarios) is the man whose sins the Lord does not add up."

One such gifted individual was delivering his first sermon to his new congregation. Intermittently, he helped himself to a drink of water. One parishioner had invited her neighbor and at the conclusion of the service asked for her opinion. Her answer was, “This is the first windmill that works on water.” The people who had selected that person were looking for wind and not calm weather. In another case, by the time the wind stopped blowing the membership had dwindled down to eleven hardy souls. Fortunately, another humble servant came and allowed the Spirit of the Lord to move hearts to take a stand for Christ and not for the man with the special gift.