(Getting To It Is Quite Rough)---II Corinthians 5:8; Hebrews 2:14
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. II Corinthians 5:8
Child of God, do you fear dying? Let me share with you a simple, but true testimony of one that has gotten their promotion from exile to going home. Though my first wife is with Jesus, she is still speaking through some of my sermons. A few weeks before she graduated to Heaven, she and I were talking about what she was going to wear at her funeral, who was going to sing and the Preacher that she wanted to take care of the service.
A nurse was busy taking care of the many bags, bottles and various other containers of medicines, and other necessary things. She stopped suddenly, what she was doing and said with a very perplexed look on her face, “how can you sit there and talk of death so calmly and make detailed plans for your funeral.?” “Doesn’t it bother you to talk of dying? You should be talking of living while undergoing chemotherpy, new blood and platelets almost daily.” But Betty, very calmly, and with the greatest assurance of faith that I have ever witnessed, said, “There’s nothing to dying, I’m a Christian, I’ve been born again; but getting to it has been quite rough.”
We are all very close to Home, only a breath separates us from it. Life is hard, and is filled with many disappointments. Getting to death, our final enemy will no doubt have many difficulties for us along this journey, but dying is not death to the believer, it is finally living. All of the storms of life will be over, and we may struggle with our last breath here, but our next breath will be in Glory, where there is nothing but peace and happiness, forever and ever.
Note: We hear every day of friends and family who are and have faced death ... even as late as the last few weeks a sister has gone home to be with the Lord and a Preacher friend who saw his wife leave this life and now walking the streets of Heaven, and our dear friend who is going through leukemia and the list can go on and on. It is the hope of every Christian ~ Heaven. If you or your loved ones are facing a departure of this world to the next, we pray that you are saved and can say as Betty did, “There’s nothing to dying, I’m a Christian, I’ve been born again; . . . " And HER testimony lives on!
“Our Home Is Just Beyond”
Just beyond the veil of tears, Just beyond the sadness of years, Just beyond the sorrows of grieving; Lies our hopes of glad receiving. Just beyond the broken dreams Lives that are filled with things and schemes, Just beyond lies deaths’ dark domain, getting to it has left scars and pain, All of those that have left before us--cheer us on-”It’s Heaven you’ll gain! He died and arose, we tell it with fondness, we're not afraid, while looking for home.
Because it lies, just beyond us.
-Tom Milam
Daily Jewel:
“There’s nothing to dying.”
Tom & Linda Milam
Missionaries to America
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