Water of Life

Made For Life

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2

It seems strange, though it shouldn’t at my age, to think that so many of my family and my friends have gone into eternity while I remain here. That sobering thought turns me to wondering what it will be like in my own last moments here and first moments before God. How brave will I be when I put my foot into the boat that will take me across God’s great river?

Though for the Christian there is no fear in death, it still seems so wrong – so unnatural – so contrary to the joy of life that is seated deep within our hearts no matter our age. One day it came to me; that, it feels unnatural because it is. God made us for life!

Everything in heaven is about life. Jesus is the way the truth and the LIFE. The words He spoke were Spirit and LIFE. He offers a a drink of LIVING water and whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal LIFE. There is nothing in God’s plan that has anything whatsoever to do with death. We must choose to live every day with our focus on life, because that is what He created us for. We may no longer be strong, but the strength of the life of Christ is greater in weakness. We might not be able to do certain things easily, but we can do all things through Christ. Then one day, in the words of the Apostle Paul, when death has been swallowed up in victory we will be changed from this life to the next. Depression and the fear of death lose their grip when we remember that Jesus has a life to give us that is more abundant and overflowing that we could ever imagine!

This wonderful video from the Mullett family is not just a well filmed piece – it is their story. Their son Austin passed away in 2010 after17 years of battling through one serious medical condition after another and yet they have turned their grief into a ministry of the joy of life that Jesus gives. I hope you will be as blessed as I was to watch. Maybe you will shed a happy tear when you are touched by the mystery of the joys and sorrows we pass through on the way to eternal life. Have a blessed week-end everybody!

Strength for The Journey

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IMG_4727And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”           I Kings 19:7

Elijah was on a journey and like we who are facing the beginning of a new year, he only knew where the journey began. As I look back over 2014 I am in some ways thankful that we didn’t know in advance what we would pass through. Two of our closest friends were kissed good-bye for the final time, our grandson’s kidney failure continues its path unabated, and dear friends moved away to Brazil. But along with the struggles have also come great blessings such as our son finally finding a wonderful job after a year-long search. These are just a few of the many threads which God chose to weave into the pattern we can see now only as we look back .

Today we stand at the starting line of a new race. There will be many miles, mountains and valleys to pass through and one part of me is like Elijah. I just want to do the minimum and lie down to sleep again. I feel exhausted just thinking about what may lie ahead on this road to points unknown. But God has promised above all things to be with us. He will neither leave us nor fail us. He has baked bread with His own hands on the coals and brought us a cup of cold water directly from His crystal river. He is shaking us awake. We dare not sleep as the disciples did when Jesus prayed at Gethsemane. Our greatest challenges lie ahead and we will need to be wide awake and eat and drink all that our God has sent. In our own strength the journey will be too great. But God has sent His angel. God has given us living bread and the water of life, and these will give us His strength to journey all the way to the mountain of God!