Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to see/hear a video of of Sandi Patty singing We Shall Behold Him, declaring the glory of leaving this earth to be with our Lord FOREVER … in all of His glory!!
Highlight Passage: 2nd Corinthians 5: 8 [NKJV} …
8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
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Highlight Context - NKJV: 2nd Corinthians 4: 6-5:8 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Forever with Jesus - face to Face …
Reference Passage #1: John 14: 1-6 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Jesus promises we will join Him in heaven
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Anne Cetas, related some stories about family reunions and the good-byes which always end a family time together. And the ODB author’s illustrations reminded me of my own family as we try to gather at least annually - somewhere - to spend a week together.
Part of our family, with three of our grandkids, lives a little over 1700 miles away from us; and we don’t get a chance to see them very often unless we go to them or bring them together to be with us. And when we can gather it’s so good to experience the “hellos” and the joy of togetherness. However, after our pre-determined vacation time together, there are the sad “good-byes” which must be shared until we can gather again sometime down the road.
That was the intense experience of Jesus saying “good-bye” to His inner 12 Disciples in that “upper room,” where we read of His promise to bring His faithful followers to be with Him in a forever reunion in Heaven (see the John 14 passage above). What Jesus promised the 12 (actually only 11 of them) was a forever of HELLOS with no more goodbyes. And that’s also what the Apostle Paul wrote about to the Church in the ODB highlight passage, linked above.
In fact we often hear the highlight verse from 2nd Corinthians 5: 8 at funerals where, for Christians, there is the comforting truth that the one we miss in the flesh, the deceased, may no longer be present for us to share time together in the here-and-now; but he or she has been transposed to experience a forever of “hellos” with Jesus. And it is also comforting in the passing of a loved one to know that we will one day have a forever reunion with our loved one in heaven. You know the promise of the 2nd Corinthian passage … "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
And as I think about the reality that, at the age which my wife and I are now, we will only have a few more years to experience the “hellos” of reunion here in this life; but it is so comforting to remember Jesus’ promise that He will bring us to be with Him in glory; and in that time there will be a forever of “hellos” with our family in Heaven.
And do I sense some supportive “HALLELUJAHS!!” from those reading with me today.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, … Thank You for the Hallelujah of Hellos which You will bring our family to share with You in Glory. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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