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John Paul Friedrich Richter
As winter strips the leaves from around us, so that we may
see the distant regions they formerly concealed, so old age
takes away our enjoyments only to enlarge the prospect of
the coming eternity with God.A 17th
Century Preacher
John 17 is the greatest prayer that was ever offered on
earth, and it followed the greatest sermon that was ever
preached on earth.
The Holy Spirit: Who He Is and What He Does
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Adolph Monod
When I shall enter the invisible world, I do not expect to
find things different from what the word of God represented
them to me here. The voice I shall then hear will be the
same I now hear upon the earth, and I shall say, "This is
indeed what God said to me; and how thankful I am that I did
not wait until I had seen in order to believe."
John Knox of Scotland
During his last days, when he knew he was dying, he asked
his wife to read John 17 to him several times a day, and it
was actually while she was reading that he passed from time
into eternity.
How To Be Filled With Spiritual Power
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R. A. Torrey
We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have
power. We have many services but few conversions.
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In the The Great Divorce , C. S. Lewis'
book about Heaven, Lewis takes his protagonist
on a visit to heaven, where, among other things, he talks with
George MacDonald, who died in 1905.
 On earth
MacDonald had
been a popular theologian and writer.
In the Introduction to an anthology of quotations by
MacDonald that Lewis published, he wrote, "I dare not say
that he is never in error; but to speak plainly I know
hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more
continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. I have
never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master;
indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did
not quote from him." At some point in the
conversation in Heaven between Lewis' protagonist and
MacDonald, Lewis has MacDonald saying, and here I paraphrase,
that for those who are saved, Heaven works backwards into
their lives, and turns even their sufferings into glory. And
for those who are lost, damnation works backwards into their
lives, and contaminates even the seeming pleasure of sin.
Then MacDonald says, "Both processes begin before death. The
good man's (or woman's) past begins to change so that his
forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of
Heaven: the bad man's (or woman's) past already conforms to
his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is
why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and
the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will
say, 'We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven," and
the Lost will say, "We were always in Hell.' And both will
speak truly." To put it in my simple words, "If
you go to Heaven when you die and
look back over your life, you will find that
it was Heaven all the time.
And those who go to that other place and look back, will find that it was
Hell all the time."
It was Heaven all the time—from
before your conception, from your first inhaled breath,
through all the ups and downs, lows and highs, rich times
and poor times, bad times and good times, sick times and
well times, until your final exhaled breath, all of it is
guiding, leading, directing, pushing, shoving,
strengthening, sanctifying, and making you ready to enter
that heavenly place that God created specifically for you
before the foundation of the earth. Everything in your life,
the good and the seemingly bad, have been and are directing
and guiding you to that moment when you hear the angels
shout "Glory!" as they welcome you into Heaven. "God causes
all things to work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are
called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28, NASB). Read
aloud and listen to the words of
the song that sings of God's call and preservation of His
saints: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev'd.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come.
'Tis grace that brought me save thus far,
And grace will lead me home. When you enter Heaven's gates, saint of God, and
for the last time look back at this old earth and
your years of passing through it, you will know without a
doubt—it was Heaven all the time!
See you at the house!
Harold J. Chadwick |
