I Won't Be A Stranger

Memorial services are always such a mixture of emotions. When we know that our loved one or friend is with the Lord, we rejoice that they have made it “home,” but our own hearts grieve. The human heartache of missing them can only find it’s ultimate comfort in the Holy Spirit — God’s Comforter.

  At one such service, a dear preacher friend of ours was remembering several friends who had made the crossing to the other shore. As he was sharing, he verbalized his feelings in a rather unique way. Looking out across the crowd he said, “It kind of makes me feel like I won’t be a stranger when I get there.”

  So true. Everyone who goes on before us will be there to welcome us when it is our turn to come through the pearly gates. Oh, no! We won’t be a stranger.

  Best of all, when we have accepted salvation through Christ, and given our lives to serve Him we will know the welcome of God our Father when He says, “Well-done!” God the Son — our dearest Friend will take our hand in His nail-scarred one, as we worship Him, praise Him, thank Him for the redeeming power in the blood that fit us for such a glorious place. How we’ll praise the gift of the Father — the precious Holy Spirit for His ever present guidance as we walked in the world but not of it. Our Godhead — Three in One knows us! We certainly won’t be a stranger.

  So, when the world “down here” seems to be going cross grained with everything God has put in our hearts from the world “up there” — simply smile and listen closely! There’s a cloud of witnesses cheering us on! The band is marching to a different time. Tune your spiritual “inner ear” to hear the interceding to the Father for you!  You won’t be a stranger then, because you are not a stranger now!

   Living here is not forever — not our final home. We truly are just passing through. Like the song says:

This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through

   My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door

   And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

Albert E. Brumley

   When you weep with the ache of the earthly loss you know — don’t weep without hope. There is another day coming. A day when future will be known as reality. A day when we will be “forever with the Lord.” When it comes . . . We won’t be a stranger!                                                     

    Janene A. Dubbeld/FGG

“How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116:12-15

Two Scenario's and a, "What If?"

Scenario #1:

She stood there for a moment – her hand on the door knob. The few extra unplanned minutes in her busy schedule nagged at her brain. It wasn’t because she couldn’t fill them; it was what to fill them with. See, ever since last Sunday’s sermon it seemed she was bothered. Bothered that she had been a Christian for so many years but seemed less passionate now that she had ever been about spiritual things.

Life was busy. It was just all the legitimate things – the day to day concerns – like now – all the stuff she needed to do loomed up and seemed to consume the person who she needed to become. She was bothered by this fact. Who was she becoming in the process?

She shut the door, dropped her keys on the table and shrugged out of her coat. On purpose she went to find her Bible, and get on her knees. It was just a few minutes – but it was a start – a way back to renewing the passion of what really mattered.

Senario #2:

He reached for the remote – after all it was time to relax a few minutes before dinner. It had been a hard day – he deserved it. Before he even turned it on he felt a twitch inside. His brain began to replay the words he’d heard in the sermon the Sunday before. He tried to shrug it off – he dropped the remote. Why was it so hard to be the spiritual leader of his home he needed to be? He worked hard to provide. He took time for the kids. Why was it His love for God seemed to find him in hot pursuit for awhile – then off to back burner? 

He picked up the remote – then laid it back down. He didn’t want it to be this way this year. He reached for His Bible, and prayed in his heart. “God, help me keep you first.” More than he knew – he was on the right track.

"What If?"

We take it literally . . .

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 

Loving Him most and keeping Him first is always the best way to live.