heaven Archives - Kristina Lunde

May 29, 2026 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Deathly Fears in Light of Heavenly Promises

How do we cope with our future, the unanswered questions of what may come? Our deathly fears may include concerns about pain, suffering, unconsciousness, and the dying process. Death is a certainty that impacts all of us. When, where, and how are unknown aspects surrounding our inevitable end to this earthly life. The heavenly promises in God’s Word help shed light on the fears surrounding death. The biblical descriptions of eternity with Jesus help us fight the fears of death and dying.

What is our ultimate outcome?

Physical death is the unavoidable conclusion to earthly life. Although people may make changes to improve health and lifestyle, they cannot escape dying. Notice though, that the Bible gives us two instances when God took people without them dying. Enoch (Genesis 5:24 & Hebrews 11:5) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) did not experience death on earth. So those two, plus the ones who are alive at Jesus’ second coming (1 Thessalonians 4:17), will not face death. But the rest of us can be certain of death as our life’s outcome. Yet God offers us more beyond that death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

God’s son Jesus came in person, explaining His love and forgiveness of sins to all people. Jesus gave a personal invitation to eternal life for all who would choose to belong to Him.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28

When we believe in Jesus, He offers forgiveness and eternal life with Himself and God the Father. After Jesus spoke of preparing a place in His Father’s house for believers (John 14:1-4), He explained the connection:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

What will heaven be like?

Heaven is also called life everlasting, paradise, eternal home, and the Promised Land. Interestingly, God created that longing for immortality within us.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

We may not fully understand God’s plan, but His Word presents aspects of eternal life with Him. One of my favorites describes what heaven will be like when sin and death are vanquished.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4

How do we fight deathly fears with heavenly promises?

In Peter’s book, he writes of the day of the Lord, judgment, the new heaven, and the new earth. This is one verse that gives us hope for God’s promise of heaven:

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:13

But this is not a passive looking forward. Instead, we live confidently with God’s assurance of eternal security.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

The perspective of eternity with God helps us turn our hearts from deathly fears to God’s eternal glory in heaven.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Lord God, help us fix our eyes on You, fighting deathly fears with the promise of spending eternity with You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

April 27, 2026 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

God’s Word Versus Our Deathly Fears

Death is an inescapable conclusion to this life. Although death’s outcome—cessation of physiological signs of life—is inevitable, the when and how details are often unpredictable. Yet isn’t death, albeit a serious outcome, one of the many unknowns that life presents?

As humans, we face life’s unknowns—over and over. Where do I go? What now? How will I get through this? What do I do when faced with life’s challenges? Just as I submit my current situations to God’s will, so I need to trust Him with future unknowns.

My transition from earth to heaven remains an unknown. What will my last days in this world look like? Cancer? Stroke? Car accident? Dementia-related decline? Will I find out in five, ten, or twenty years? Or will death surprise me in months, weeks, or even days?

A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. Job 14:5 NIV

How my earthly life will end, I cannot predict. But I trust the one true God who will be with me through dying, death, and my transition to heaven.

A cross may stand above my buried bones some day, or my remains may be scattered across the ground. No matter what happens to my body after I die, my soul’s certainty is because of the cross. My Savior Jesus Christ died on that cross, thereby saving me from my sins and the resulting eternal punishment. Jesus took the penalty of my sins—and the sins of all who believe in Him—to that cross. Jesus’ death on the cross makes all the difference to me, both in this world and the next. God’s Word tells me that because I believe in Jesus, I am assured of eternal life with Him in heaven.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

From Jesus on His cross to the repentant thief on a nearby cross:

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43

That is my ongoing hope and future: to join my forgiving Savior in paradise when I die. I have no idea about God’s timing for my transition from earth to heaven. So my focus for now is to continue serving Jesus while I live on this earth.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21

Lord God, please teach me to submit everything to your will. Not just death, but help me trust your way in every unknown I face. I want to entrust my future, however long or short it may be, to your timing. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

March 31, 2026 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Deathly Fears and God’s Word

Two octogenarian ladies recently confided their fear of dying to family members. When I heard about that, I felt surprised. These women have loved and served Jesus for over half a century. I could not imagine that they would question their relationship with God or their heavenly destination. For decades, I have witnessed how they lived and loved others in Jesus’ name. How they could be fearful of death confused me.

Deathly Fears

For those who fear death, does the decline from health to the last heartbeat scare them? For example, the potential of a long illness, terminal diagnosis, or painful suffering might provoke anxiety. The idea of facing death alone may seem overwhelming and uncontrollable. Fears of death also relate to what is left behind: unmet goals, unreconciled relationships, or an unfulfilled legacy. There may be unfinished tasks, like a house full of stuff left to children who don’t want anything. Although looking forward to being with Jesus, do they fear that interval between their last heartbeat and heaven?

Although I didn’t speak with these ladies about it, I thought about my own attitudes toward death. Some of those fearful aspects could happen at any time. My current healthy life could stop instantly in a car accident. My father died in a plane crash at age thirty-six. A sudden pain may result in a terminal diagnosis or sudden death. The oncologist told my seemingly-healthy seventy-six year-old mother that she had the body of a sixty year-old. Pancreatic cancer took her life less than five months later. My first husband dropped dead of a heart attack at forty-five, without cardiovascular symptoms or risk factors. From my family history, I have learned that death’s timing is unpredictable—for humans. But not for God.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16 NIV

In Second Corinthians, Paul pictures our body as an the earthly tent that we live in. When that tent/body is destroyed by death, we go to the eternal house in heaven that God built:

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Corinthians 5:1

Jesus also described His Father’s house as a real place where we would go to be with Jesus:

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:1-2

Paul describes our desire to leave this earthly tent for our heavenly home. Expanding the metaphor of tents to clothing, Paul pictures heavenly life overcoming our mortality:

For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 1 Corinthians 5:4

No matter what my own death will look and feel like, I can trust the one who conquered death. First Corinthians 15 quotes Hosea 13:14 in the proclamation of Christ’s victory over death. I pray that any anxieties about death, that I or these two precious ladies have, be reassured by God’s promises. As believers who are forgiven because of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, our destination after death is heaven.

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57