Does the ear of some dear departing saint of God lend itself to the recital of these closing words?
Posted : 28 Dec, 2011 12:49 PM
"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57).
Devotional
Does the ear of some dear departing saint of God lend itself to the recital of these closing words?
Beloved of the Lord, beloved in the Lord, what a blessed opportunity you now have to lean the entire weight of your soul�with all its sins and sorrows�upon the finished work of Jesus, your Almighty Savior, your God, your Redeemer!
The great debt is cancelled. Justice does not exact a second payment, the first from your Surety, the second from you. No, justice itself is on your side! Every perfection of God is a wall of fire round about you. You stand complete in the righteousness of the incarnate God. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Father's own Son, cleanses you from all sin.
Now you see your flaws, your derelictions, your departures, your backslidings, and your stumblings to have been many and aggravated. Sin appears now as it never did before. The sense of your utter unworthiness presses you to the earth.
But who is on the eager watch for the first kindlings of godly sorrow in the heart of the prodigal? Who welcomes his return with joy, with music, with honors? Whose heart has never ceased to love, whose eye has never ceased to follow, amid all the waywardness and wandering of that child? Oh, it is the Father! "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). Behold your God, your covenant God and Father in Christ Jesus! This reconciled Father is yours. Throw yourself in his arms, and he will fall on your neck, and will seal upon your heart afresh the sense of his free forgiveness and his pardoning love.
Heaven is before you. Soon will you be freed, entirely and forever freed, from all the remains of sin. Soon the last sigh will heave your breast, the last tear will fall from your eye, and the last pang will convulse your body. Soon, oh, how soon, "your eyes will behold the king in his beauty" (Isa. 33:17), the Jesus who loved you, who died for you, who ransomed you, and who loves you still! Soon you will fall at his feet, and be raised in his arms, and be hushed to rest in his bosom.
Soon you will mingle, a pure and happy spirit, with patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, and with all who sleep in Jesus, who have gone but a little before you. See how they line the shores on the other side! See how they wait to welcome you over! See how they beckon you away!
Above all�sweetest and most glorious of all!�see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, prepared to receive you to himself! Jesus has gone before, to make ready for the glorification of his church. "I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). Oh sweet words! A place prepared�a room in the Father's house set apart for each individual believer! "In my Father's house are many rooms" (John 14:2). A room in his heart, a room in his kingdom, a room in his house, for the weakest babe in Christ.
The Forerunner has already entered for us, even Jesus! How sure is heaven! How certain the eternal happiness of every pardoned and justified soul!
Does the ear of some dear departing saint of God lend itself to the recital of these closing words?
Posted : 28 Dec, 2011 03:39 PM
I really like this. My step-father of 30 years dies of brain cancer in October. He was a devout Jew (Orthodox) and a few days before he died I asked him what he was going to do about Y-shua� you have seen me and my mother are you sure he is not the One. He replied that he was not sure and we said the �sinners� prayer� together.
It reminds me of Y-shus� parable about the vineyard owner who hired some in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening but all got the same wage.
My mom will still question if he was saved or not but I remind her the only requirement for salvation is to believe in the heart and call upon the name of the Lord. And no man will ever know my dad�s heart at that time. We are called to judge people by their fruit weather if they are someone to hang out with or not we are forbidden to declare who is saved and unsaved.
What I find �cute� in my heart and have laughed over it is my first husband whom my dad hated died in 1990, he was shot and killed, and he got saved in July of �90 and died in December of that year. My dad couldn�t stand him now they are hanging out together around G-d�s throne casting their crowns�. I love the irony of life�lol big smile�.
I hope upon my Living hope I make my Master proud�. If I do anything else in life it is worthless unless I take all that I can with me into the New Age and they know my Y-shua!!!!
