As I stood in church and worshipped one Sunday, a few weeks after my dad had died, I saw a picture of him in heaven.  He was young.  He was healthy.  And he was happy.  The peace that came over me in that moment and in the moments after have filled me and strengthened me.  I still miss him very much…..but I have peace in my heart that I can not explain or understand…..except to maybe someone else who has experienced it……I think, however, that I have read about it in the Bible.

 

1 Corinthians 2

9 However, as it is written:  “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

 

Dad opened his eyes and looked at us all just before he died.  In my mind, he was coherent and lucid in thought……something he had not been in the 12 months before that moment.  As we all spoke to him and told him how much we loved him, I also held scripture cards in my hand and read them to him.  As this was going on, he looked up at the ceiling in the house I grew up in but seemed to see beyond it…..

 

I believe that he looked into the heavens and saw that very verse in 1 Corinthians come to life.  I can only describe it by saying that it was one of the best, and worst, days of my life.

 

My mom has now taken ill.  And I ask that you pray for her, and us, as you see appropriate.  I had a good cry outside her house at Bross Street Assisted Living…..she has been so much to many and now is slowly fading as she enters her 80th year of life.

 

It is a hard thing to look death in the face …… but it is a reality that we will all face.

What I want to communicate here is this:  Jesus defeated it.

 

It says in:

Colossians 2

15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

 

I love that verse.  He stood over the enemy like a linebacker stands over a receiver who dared cross the middle into his zone…..and made a spectacle of him.

 

We have hope and we have a future.  In Jesus we have an eternity to get it right and we all need to cry out to have Him come and start changing us right here and now.  

 

You see, I know some “on fire” followers of Jesus and they inspire me.  I can see Him carry out His work in them and I am challenging you to have Him carry out His work in you.  In Jesus, we not only have a great eternity, we can cry out and have Him fix the now as well.

 

So let’s remember this day that we are not physical beings living in a spiritual world, but that we are spiritual beings living in a physical world.

 

I think that’s why we say in the Lord’s Prayer:

 

Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven.

 

So let’s cry out and begin to ask Him for His Kingdom to come…..because His Kingdom brings Jesus….and Jesus fixes everything.

 

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

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Coach J