The Long Goodnight.

Sono Harris passed away, and her son Josh wrote on his blog that he takes great comfort in the words to this song.  You can go here to Josh's blog to listen to the song.  While you're there, pray for the Harris family. 


I journey forth rejoicing

From this dark vale of tears,
To heavenly joy and freedom,
From earthly bonds and fears;
Where Christ our Lord shall gather
All His redeemed again,
His kingdom to inherit.
Goodnight, goodnight till then!


Why thus so sadly weeping,
Beloved ones of my heart?
The Lord is good and gracious,
Though now He bids us part.
Oft have we met in gladness.
And we shall meet again,
All sorrow left behind us.
Goodnight, goodnight till then!


I go to see His glory,
Whom we have loved below:
I go, the blessed angels,
The holy saints to know.
Our lovely ones departed,
I go to find again,
And wait for you to join us.
Goodnight, goodnight till then!


I hear the Saviour calling,
The joyful hour has come:
The angel guards are ready
To guide me to our home,
Where Christ our Lord shall gather
All His redeemed again,
His kingdom to inherit.
Goodnight, goodnight till then!

I often wish I had the hope of seeing again my loved ones who have passed from this life to the next.  Those who died (Grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles) without ever expressing hope in Christ leave me wistful.  Those who died with a faith in Christ leave me with a sense of joyful anticipation.  I look forward to a grand reunion some day with all those who have trusted Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.

Promoted to Glory!

Chris Klicka - with the Lord!

His wife Tracy shared the following poem today:

"No longer cloaked in frail humanity,

His spirit soars to gain Celestial joys,

Unimpeded by death's dark night

And free from the weight of sin's alloys.

My beloved sings! The object of his song

Is the One who bled and died for him,

No sweeter name did e'er he speak

Or treasure in his inner man."

Remember to pray for the family in the days and weeks ahead.

Too Tired to Blog

Seriously.

I inadvertently ate a little crumb of wheat yesterday. I was making a sandwich for my dear husband, and must have dropped a crumb on the leftover tomatoes as I was carrying his sandwich to him. I went back to the kitchen to grab a snack of tomatoes with salt (bad idea, because I am suffering from a HUMONGOUS canker sore, and tomatoes don't help that situation at all) and without thinking, popped a chunk of tomato into my mouth.

What was that yummy taste? Tomato, in its vine-ripened deliciousness, hit my palate. Salt, yes. A bit of pepper, check. But there was something else, something good, something I hadn't tasted in a while.

Oh, NO.

Wheat.

It was a teensy, tiny bit of wheat.

I have to tell you that it tasted GOOD. Really, really good. Made me realize how much I miss good old-fashioned wheat bread, toasted in the toaster, slathered with butter and mayonnaise and tomatoes and salt and pepper. I could almost kill for a tomato sandwich ( a REAL tomato sandwich aka wheat bread) right now.

But it wasn't at all worth it.

As I sit here, I have a bloated stomach. My eyes are blackened with huge, dark circles that indicate that I was wheated. Oh, yes, "wheated" is a verb in a family burdened with celiac disease. When we ingest wheat accidentally, we tell each other, "I was wheated, and this is what happened...yada, yada, yada."

I miss the taste of wheat. I miss the texture. No matter how hard I try to believe it, rice and tapioca and amaranth and sorghum, and all of the other flours combined NEVER make bread or buns that taste the same as good old-fashioned wheat does.

But, you know, the sore joints and the canker sores and the rashes and the headaches and the gut pain and the gas and the diarrhea and all of the other miscellaneous symptoms of being wheated are just not worth it.

Next time I make my husband a sandwich, I will be ever-so-vigilant. I won't let a crumb touch my plate. I'll scrub my hands thoroughly. I'll be careful.

And I will look forward to the day when I will feast on the manna of heaven. One day, I will eat wheat in my glorified body, and I'll enjoy it.

Revelation 20:6b “Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

I am invited. I am blessed. I will be healed of celiac disease. I will feast at the Marriage supper of the Lamb!

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

My gut will be healed. I will know no more pain. Nothing I reach for will hurt me.

One of God's chosen people will soon be leaving this world. He is a true servant of God, and has suffered for many years with a different, debilitating disease. He will know the joy of being pain free. Blessed in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.

A Letter from a Dad to his kids

Dan Cummings is more alive than any of us here on this earth. He passed from this present world to the next in February, 2009. His letter to his children is so significant, so weighty, so important, that I urge you to read it.

There is something `other worldly` about those Christians who know they will soon be dying. They have one foot here on earth, and one in heaven.

Frequent readers of my blog will notice that I have focussed much on those Christians who have died and gone before us, or are in the process of dying. That`s because the message is of ultimate importance: YOU ARE DYING! I don`t care if you`re in your teens or in your fifties, like I am. This life is but a vapour, and will soon be over. You`d better start preparing for the next life.

One of my favourite puritan Pastors is Richard Baxter. He was a pastor in the 1600`s, who battled illness his entire adult life. He never was sure he would wake up the next morning, his health was so precarious.

Al Mohler writes,

Reflecting poetically on the urgency and centrality of preaching, the Puritan pastor Richard Baxter once remarked, "I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men." With vivid expression and a sense of gospel gravity, Baxter understood that preaching is literally a life or death affair.

I, too, understand that preaching is a life or death affair. I am not a preacher, per se, but my life speaks volumes. The Bible makes it clear that my life is a living epistle... a book for others to read.

So, I plead with you. If you do not know Jesus as your personal Saviour and the Lord of your life, seek Him. If you do, but you are living each day in the `here and now`, with no view to the future, wake up. Our days vanish like a breath. (Read Psalm 78.)

Go back to the top of this post, click on the link to the letter from Dan Cummings to his children, and ponder.

Heaven

We don't think about heaven much, because most of us don't have it so bad down here.  God is with us, and we Christians know that, and take comfort.  We aren't heartsick for heaven, we don't long for heaven, simply because we don't really understand how wonderful it will be.

Heaven isn't "the big sleep", as some insist.  We'll be wide awake, in the presence of Christ.  Absent from the body is present with the Lord, the Bible states.  There won't be any purgatory, and certainly not any "second chances".  No, as it is appointed unto man to die once, and after that the judgment...and we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  That brings great joy to those who know Christ as their Saviour; it should terrify those who don't.

Revelation 21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw a the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold,  the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

We have a new heaven and a new earth to look forward to.  God will dwell with us.  And He will wipe away every tear.

There are some things that we can speculate on when we read what the Bible has to say about heaven, and there are some things that we know for sure.

We will dwell with God.  He promises again and again that He will be our God, and we will be His people, and that He will dwell with us.

We will recognize our loved ones.  Jesus, in His glorified body, was recognized by his friends.

We will have work to do.  Creative work, fulfilling work.  The Bible says in 1 Cor. 6:1-4 that we will be judging angels.  

We will have no more sorrow.  Life is hard here on earth.  Children die young, or are born with disabilities.  Infidelity, loneliness, pain, disease, corruption, regret, sadness... the list goes on.  All of that will be eradicated.  There will be no more sin.  No more pain.  No more sorrow.

We will see no more wicked and sinful things.  Nothing impure will be in heaven.  The only ones who will be there are those whose names are written down in the Lamb's Book of Life.  Because of the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God, the coward will be changed, the vile will be holy, the immoral will be made righteous.  The blood of the Lamb will wipe away our sin.

Royal posed a penetrating question to us today:  "When you consider the joy of heaven, the creative work that you'll have, the fact that you'll know your loved ones and dwell with God...think about this:  Could you be happy in heaven if Jesus were not there?"

Did you recoil?  Did you think, "Oh, NO!"?

Jesus is the Bread of Life.  He is the Living Water.  He is the Alpha & Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.  Without Him, there is no heaven.

Do you thirst for Him?  

Or, are you comfortable without Him?

Listen to Rachel's Testimony, then think about these things.  Eternity is a heartbeat away.

The Door

My friend Royal preached yesterday on a topic that is too often neglected - Heaven!  It was an uplifting message, and it culminated with a poem that Royal wrote.  He gave me permission to post it here:

The Door

 

Before me waits a darkened door,

And terror’s tentacles reach out to grip my heart,

Yet gazing more, golden wisps of misty light,

Stream from lintel,

Cascade under door,

Seep through cracks,

Caress, surround, enfold me,

Pry open terror’s talons, so that,

Black fear falls vanquished to the floor.

 

Beyond the door a loving King,

Waiting until I shall pass,

In golden wisps sends Spirit, life, and hope,

Eternal life begun, abundant life secured

What terrors now can there be?

For when that deathly door opes for me,

My soul shall float on trusted golden mist

Find refuge, endless delight, pleasure unspeakable,

In presence of nail-pierced triumphant King.

 

Royal Hamel

April, 2009