Meditation Moments 38: "ENCOURAGEMENT THROUGH TRIAL"

         Greetings and welcome to Meditation Moments. The dear Lord bless you and make you a blessing each day. We're so glad to be back with you again. You know about the trial that we went through, that my precious companion passed away last week.
         He went to be with his Lord, and it was such a glorious going. You know he had such a wonderful life and he had served the Lord so faithfully and he loved the Lord so much, and I said as I stood by his bed towards the last,
         "Well, Daddy, you've lingered so long here in the vestibule, it must be that they're getting ready a great reception for you Over There, and I wish that I could be there to welcome you when you go, when you enter into the Lord's presence."
         I want to tell you that never have I been so glad that I was Christian! Oh, the privileges of being a Christian! The comfort, the blessing, the peace in the hour of trial! I've been so glad for the hope of the Christian! So many of the cards that I got would write that verse, "We sorrow not as those that have no hope."
         In the hospital when I was tending my husband, I saw people that had no hope, and I talked to some there that had no hope. There were loved ones that stood by the bedside of dying loved ones and they had no hope. It's an awful thing to die without hope, but the wonders of being a Christian!
         With all the hope that we have, we couldn't possibly sorrow like they sorrowed. you know, I'm glad that we come into a world of beauty and opportunity, and all that there is here: but it's also a world of sin and suffering and trouble and death, and it just doesn't seem to me there would be any purpose in life at all without Jesus Christ, without being a Christian.
         Thank God today for the blessed Word of God that is such a strengthener also in the time of trial. So many precious Scriptures have just comforted my heart and lifted my spirit, and they just seemed to be created just for me!
         I thank God for His wonderful plan of redemption that makes me to know that through it I'm going to meet my loved one. And this plan was already worked out in God's mind from the foundation of the World, that though we sin, we can be justified, that though we die, we shall live again!
         And thank God for the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanseth us from all sin if we just believe and repent. And I thank God for this wonderful message of the Gospel, the good news that proclaims to us that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and the third day He arose for our justification. I wonder if you've experienced that?
         I wonder if you've taken him at His Word, and you have this blessed hope? And you live in God's Word and it becomes a lamp to your feet also, and will help you in your time of trial, your time of testing? Because it's coming, my friend.
         If you haven't passed through deep waters, it will come! And death comes to all, God's Word makes that very very plain: It's appointed to man once to die! Thank God for this precious Word, a light to our pathway when we tread a perilous journey, and we come to the waters of death and we have Jesus Christ.
         It seems like He gives a special dispensation of grace and glory and blessing when we need it. We don't have it beforehand, but when we come right up against it, why there He is, and He'll meet you. When the time comes there'll be this special dispensation of grace and blessing and comfort. I'd often sing to my husband, stand over his bed and sing -- I don't have a beautiful voice, but the hymns were beautiful -- and he'd love that verse in "How Firm a Foundation."
         Fear not, I am with thee
         Oh, be not dismayed,
         For I am thy god
         And will still give thee aid.
         I'll strengthen thee, help thee
         And cause thee to stand
         Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent
         hand.
-- And how he has upheld us! How the glory has been in our hearts because we've seen God's Word proven so true, that when we come to the waters they would not overflow us.
         And when through deep waters
         I call thee to go,
         The rivers of sorrow shall not
         overflow,
         For I will be with thee
         Thy trials to bless
         And sanctify to thee thy deepest
         distress.
-- I want you to know Jesus Christ because He'll be your only comfort in such a trial.
         You know, life doesn't have any purpose without Him and life never comes to its fulfillment without Jesus Christ in your heart. He says that He came that you might have life and have it more abundantly, and how true that is!
         It's such an abundant life when you have Him. Why don't you, right now, get ready for just such a thing as my husband has passed through? And then you can have all the peace in the World, and you don't have to fear death.
         God's Word says that there are people that all their life they lived in bondage to the fear of death, then all that fear is taken away. I found this little poem in daddy's Bible, written by a little Chinese girl.
         Afraid of what?
         To feel the Spirit's glad release?
         To pass from pain to perfect peace,
         The strive and strain of life to cease?
         Afraid of what?
         Afraid of what?
         Afraid to see the Savior's face,
         To hear His welcome, and to trace
         The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
         Afraid of what?
         Afraid of what?
         A flash, a crash, a pierced heart?
         Darkness, light, oh Heaven's art.
         A wound of His a counterpart.
         Afraid of that?
         Afraid to enter into Heaven's rest?
         To serve the Master, blessed
         From service good to service the best?
-- No, he wasn't afraid, and you won't be afraid either, because you'll know that He'll be with you.
         Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He says "I will be with you." He'll be with you to comfort: His rod and staff will comfort you. Oh, won't you take Jesus Christ as your Savior right now? Something might happen tomorrow!
         Many things that have happened today to other people can happen to you tonight or tomorrow, and you wouldn't be ready unless you have taken Him as your Savior. There's no other name given under heaven among men whereby you can be saved.
         I want to close by saying that never has God's love proved so great, never His mercy so sure, and His grace so abundant! And I'm praising Him with all my heart for the fulfillment of His Word, and for His faithfulness. God bless you. He's still on the Throne and prayer does truly change things.



Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family -- This file has not been proofread.