I regret that it has been so long since my last post. My wife is in the end-of-life stages of a terminal illness. Caring for her needs at home and making the final arrangements for her have consumed much of my time and energy.
I have been blessed by help from family and a wonderful hospice service. For these, I will always be grateful.
I am being sustained by the Word of God and by Christ living in me. (Philippians 4:13) I know that my wife of 45 years will be with Jesus in heaven immediately after she leaves her earthly body. (Philippians 1:23, 2Corinthians 5:6-9)) Yet, for those of us who will be waiting to join her, it will be painful to live on here without her.
The Word tells us that we who are in vital union with Christ have the blessed hope of the Rapture, when Jesus will return, accompanied by the souls of the believers who have gone before, to gather His people unto Himself:
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV)
“And
just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes
judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are
eagerly waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:27-28 ESV)
I am sustained because in
the meantime I can lean on Jesus. Praise
be to Him who loves us so much.
Acknowledgement: The scriptures quoted were copied from: https://biblehub.com/
