ONE DAY, TIME WILL BE NO MORE

I began writing this blog in 2009.  I had been hospitalized for numerous blood clots in my lungs, and was actually told that if I was not admitted immediately, that I would not make it through the night.  I am obviously still here, but have often wondered if I didn't make a mistake!  Like the Apostle Paul, I would much rather be "absent from the body and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8)!  And, like him, I realize I am still here because the Lord wills that I stay for the sake of others; Paul wrote:

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I (know) not.  For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:  nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.  And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith" (Phil. 1:21-25).

In the past twenty months, I have lost a grandson who died in a head-on collision, and my dear sweet Mother-in-Law who entered the Lord's presence exactly seven months after Corey died.  Although my grieving has been comforted by knowing they no longer suffer the trials and tribulations of this sorry world, it is also very comforting knowing I will see them again!  My wife has had a difficult time with her mother's passing, as has my daughter with the death of her oldest child at the age of twenty-nine.  Of course, there will come a time, perhaps today, when I am no longer needed by those who need me now.  At that time, I will either enter Christ's presence having "put off this mortal shell," or I will enter it with the entire Body of Christ at the "twinkling of an eye" commonly known as the Rapture.  In two passages of Scripture, the Lord assures us that we will be okay:

Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions:  if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (Jn. 14:1-3).  And Paul wrote, "...the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Th. 4:16-18).

So, since I am still here, I will make the best of my time praising Jesus, my Lord and my God!