This devotion was written one year ago today. I repeat it because we all need to stop and take an accounting of our lives from time to time. Today marks one year that Kristen has been in Heaven. She has experienced real life. Not one of those 365 days has she experienced any pain or sorrow. Her life is real and I’m quite sure she has enjoyed every day in the presence of her Savior and King Jesus.
A dear precious friend went home yesterday afternoon. Jesus had loaned us this saint for 31 years. Now she is no longer a pilgrim in this land, but she is truly home. No, she is not an angel. God made man and woman in his image, and that means we are better than the angels. We can reason, we can have emotions, and we can understand and receive redemption.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
I know Kristin is with Jesus. She was committed to Christ and lived a life of obedience. If Kristin missed church she was sick, and I mean really sick. She was saved as a young girl and never felt a need to “sow wild oats.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
A part of me envies Kristin. She is in perfect health, with a perfect Savior, that loves her perfectly. Would she have chosen to leave three precious children, that she brought into this world? Would she leave a wonderful husband, that she adored and depended on greatly? Probably not, because she would have been making that decision in the flesh, and the flesh fights to stay. She would also have been thinking of them and not herself. That’s Kristin! I can understand why Jesus was ready for this sweet saint. Someone who glorified Christ with her life. That is what he wants from each of us. She is perfectly happy and content to be with Jesus. She is enjoying perfection. Something we know nothing about.
For those of us who have given our hearts to Jesus, and are living a life of obedience, we will one day enjoy the same life. Yes, I said life! The journey we are on now is one that leads to death. From the time, we are born we are headed toward death. It is a passage we all must take unless Jesus returns to take us home. A home that Jesus has been preparing for us and Kristin’s was ready!
John 14:2-3 “Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to Myself.”
I challenge each of you to check your heart and make sure there is nothing between you and Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything in your life that is not pleasing to him. Be still and listen. He will bring it to your mind if you are already his.
I challenge you to be obedient. If the book says it, do it! Don’t miss church. Most of you attend a church where there are three services a week. You need to be there. Each service serves a specific need in your life. You need all three to be a balanced obedient Christian. Study your Bible every day. Pray every day. Start a list of the people that you know that need Jesus and pray, pray, pray!
Live a life so committed to Christ that people dare not ask you to do something that would interfere with church. Act and speak in such a way the unsaved will feel conviction when in your company.
Philippians 1:27 “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,”
Live a life as if Jesus were right by your side because HE IS!
