Hop On The Bus!

"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.  Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing." (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 ).

Well Barb and I finally made it up to Prescott Valley, Arizona.  I've always wanted to see what it was like to live in a mountain area and it is absolutely beautiful up here.  We got checked into the RV Park here and are looking into deciding if this will be our home (for at least a year) and I'm hooked already.  We played bingo with some of the other tenants tonight and noticed that we looked as though we were teen-agers compared to some in the room, but what the heck, they were young once too.

Last Monday I wrote about an old family friend who was not doing so well.  She was diagnosed with the same type of cancer that I have just a year ago and this afternoon she breathed her last breathe here and went home to be with the Lord (we will miss you Kathy-Marie).  Now the news is not all bad either.  Since she had given up her own heart to live for Christ, she was accepted in heaven with our Lord today.  That is very good news because John 14: 1ff says "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also.  And you know the way where I am going."  Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?  Jesus said to him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. (John 14: 1-6 NASB).

So this is the way I look at my own situation each and every day of my life.  I am here trying, daily, to express the Love of Christ to others on my journey and while I do that, My Lord is "preparing a place for me"!  Now some people would, out of habit, drag this to it's negative conclusion because that is the way they look at life.  On the other hand, there are those of us who look at "this life" as a type of "bus depot" and we are only waiting here to catch the bus that will deliver us to our eternal resting place.  With me, that is in heaven with my Heavenly Father (along with Kathy-Marie and my very own earthly Father).  

So to the Tarvin/Hixon family I would simply say "Rejoice, and again I say Rejoice" for that loved one whom you feel you have lost is now in heaven with a hammer in her hand, helping our Lord "prepare your place" for that time in life with your bus arrives.  Be joyful and rest in knowing that she no longer suffers, and is overfilled with joy in her heart tonight as she kneels at the feet of Jesus Christ.

We love you, Kathy-Marie,

Dave & Barb Stallings