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Dalton
Roberts |
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My friend Jenny Hooper
told me about a terminally ill man turning to his doctor as he was
preparing to leave the examination room and said, "Doctor, I am
afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side." The doctor said,
"I don't know." "You don't know?
You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?" The doctor was holding
the handle of the door and on the other side came a sound of
scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, his dog sprang
into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the
patient, the doctor said, "My dog has never been in this room
before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his
master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear and
found a loving touch. I know little of what is on the other side of this
life, but I do know my Master is there and that is enough." Loving arms welcomed
us into this life and since this little piece of our experience is just
a tiny sliver of God’s infinite life we are given to experience as a
personality, is there any reason to doubt we will be welcomed by all the
manifestations of God-life on the other side? I recall a verse,
“To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Can
anything be more exciting and pleasurable than the thought of being with
the most loving person to ever live on this planet? I may leave this life
kicking and fussing but that is not my desire. I simply don’t know how
I will react. No one does. But I do think the attitude we hold toward
anything and everything has a lot to do with how we experience it. My
attitude is not to fight it. It must be natural since seventy billion
people have done it. I am reading the Buddhist writings on “easy
death” and I hope it takes root. While I love Buddhism,
it was to Jesus that I turned over my life. He has been such a dear
friend to me in this life, I anticipate with great joy the experience of
being with Him. He even told the thief on the cross, “This day you
will be with me in paradise” so surely I will be welcomed by Him, too.
I believe He gave us the parable of the Prodigal Son to show us how we
will be welcomed home. Read Luke 15 and turn your death over to God’s
Great Welcoming Committee. (D.R.’s website
is www.daltonroberts.com)
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