I will never forget the day for as long as I live. I was sitting on the living room sofa in my home in Warren, Mich., listening to my sister on the phone from Atlanta.
“The doctor says its brain cancer. Mother only has three to four months to live.”
I was not in total shock. My family and I had just returned from visiting with her in Atlanta the day before. We knew something was wrong. But you always think that it will be something with a cure. Just think about all of the advances in medicine. “No cure? That can’ be?” But it was.
In at least one way my mom beat the odds. She lived eight and a half months after the diagnosis. Furthermore, she was alert and able to talk up until four days before she died.
I kept the roads and airports between Detroit and Atlanta hopping during that time, and I talked to her on the phone every single day. She was able to offer blessings to my dad, to her two children and our spouses and to her five grandchildren in countless ways as she approached her final days.
But on April 7, 2005, she went home to be with the Lord.
Oh, about that last fact. What I am saying is that she went to heaven. Do I really believe that to be true? You bet I do.
In fact, all of Christianity depends on the reality of heaven and the resurrection. On one occasion the Apostle Paul wrote, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
I am both sure that it is true, and I am also certain that it is the most important thing about my mom at this point. The Bible says in 1 John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” In other words, it is possible to know that your eternal destiny with God is guaranteed.
There are many people today who reject the idea of the hereafter. “This world is all there is,” is their motto. One well-known atheist was quoted to say, “The cosmos is all there is.” But I wonder: Are they absolutely sure about that? How can they be? Of course they may wonder how I can be so sure of my position. I’m so glad you asked.
The Bible is the source of my confidence. Over and over we are told in its pages about God and eternity and heaven. God promised that there was more to life than what we see. I am sure that someone might question my confidence in the Bible. After all, it is such an old book. Can we really trust what it says?
Let me simply put it this way. In the Bible are hundreds and hundreds of predictions about the future. And so many of those have already come true. Over and over in the Old Testament there were predictions about a coming Messiah. Just read Psalm 22, Isaiah 9, and Isaiah 53 for three examples. Jesus fulfilled those time and again.
You cannot read the book of Matthew without being struck by his use of the phrase, “This was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Matthew realized that Jesus was the fulfillment of so many of God’s promises. And yet there are many promises that have yet been fulfilled.
Jesus Himself said, “I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you I will come again to receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also.” In those words He guaranteed that there is more to life than what we see. He has kept His word in the past. He will keep His word in the future. You can count on it.
Heaven is real. Do you believe it? And are you prepared to go there?
“The doctor says its brain cancer. Mother only has three to four months to live.”
I was not in total shock. My family and I had just returned from visiting with her in Atlanta the day before. We knew something was wrong. But you always think that it will be something with a cure. Just think about all of the advances in medicine. “No cure? That can’ be?” But it was.
In at least one way my mom beat the odds. She lived eight and a half months after the diagnosis. Furthermore, she was alert and able to talk up until four days before she died.
I kept the roads and airports between Detroit and Atlanta hopping during that time, and I talked to her on the phone every single day. She was able to offer blessings to my dad, to her two children and our spouses and to her five grandchildren in countless ways as she approached her final days.
But on April 7, 2005, she went home to be with the Lord.
Oh, about that last fact. What I am saying is that she went to heaven. Do I really believe that to be true? You bet I do.
In fact, all of Christianity depends on the reality of heaven and the resurrection. On one occasion the Apostle Paul wrote, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
I am both sure that it is true, and I am also certain that it is the most important thing about my mom at this point. The Bible says in 1 John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” In other words, it is possible to know that your eternal destiny with God is guaranteed.
There are many people today who reject the idea of the hereafter. “This world is all there is,” is their motto. One well-known atheist was quoted to say, “The cosmos is all there is.” But I wonder: Are they absolutely sure about that? How can they be? Of course they may wonder how I can be so sure of my position. I’m so glad you asked.
The Bible is the source of my confidence. Over and over we are told in its pages about God and eternity and heaven. God promised that there was more to life than what we see. I am sure that someone might question my confidence in the Bible. After all, it is such an old book. Can we really trust what it says?
Let me simply put it this way. In the Bible are hundreds and hundreds of predictions about the future. And so many of those have already come true. Over and over in the Old Testament there were predictions about a coming Messiah. Just read Psalm 22, Isaiah 9, and Isaiah 53 for three examples. Jesus fulfilled those time and again.
You cannot read the book of Matthew without being struck by his use of the phrase, “This was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Matthew realized that Jesus was the fulfillment of so many of God’s promises. And yet there are many promises that have yet been fulfilled.
Jesus Himself said, “I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you I will come again to receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also.” In those words He guaranteed that there is more to life than what we see. He has kept His word in the past. He will keep His word in the future. You can count on it.
Heaven is real. Do you believe it? And are you prepared to go there?