Editor’s note: My dear father, Pastor John McClure, whom we called Poppy stepped into Heaven almost 10 years ago. He would have been 80-years-old today… Even though he died due to an accident while having a blast riding ATVs with his brothers rather than from a long illness, I’m picking up Pamela Pyle’s new book Anticipating Heaven because it’s just smart to be prepared. This book is filled with essential and practical information about preparing for end of life and it’s grounded in deep faith in Jesus. Enjoy this excerpt.
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There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God. ~ Cleland McAfee
Billy Graham was one of the greatest evangelists in history. He asked this question with the power and authority of a man filled with the Holy Spirit and on a holy mission: “Are you prepared to die?”
That’s a question that hits us in all its urgency. He wasn’t asking about any of these preparations with which you are now equipped. He was asking, “Is your soul prepared to die?” Then he would share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
His sermons were often followed by phrases like this: If you are not sure, or if you don’t have a day and time defined, then come forward and let’s make this your defining moment!
If you have read this book thus far and found value in the practical content but not so much in the “religious” parts, would you please stay with me in this chapter? The word religion can bring thoughts of division, hypocrisy, and intolerance. But faith — deep, abiding faith — brings unity, transparency, and love. Isn’t that worth seeking?
Or if you have read this book thus far, and the stories and scriptures have given you encouragement and strengthened your faith, may I ask you to do something? Remember the moment or season when you met Jesus and you believed. It will remind you of your first love and refresh you in this moment. If you write it down, it will bring peace, joy, and hope for those you may leave behind.
This chapter is the most important preparation you need to make, whether you are a patient or not.
Are you prepared to die?
A Spiritual Before and After
Let me briefly share the story of a man who was not prepared to die and lived to tell about it. He is my husband, Scott.
Scott knew Jesus from the religion he had experienced as a child. But that same religion resulted in him rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior. He knew personally the experience of sitting in pews on Sunday with those who lived an entirely different life every other day of the week. He experienced the pain of a broken home as so many of us do. But his pain became entwined with the contradiction of his family in church versus at home.
He was too young to discern the human condition from human conditioning associated with rules of religion. He may have heard the message of grace through faith, but his young mind couldn’t comprehend beyond faith through right living, right thinking, right rule following. He stopped trying. It made it easier to walk away than seek truth.
Yet the religion of his youth also taught him the Bible. This Living Word was embedded in his subconscious, and he recalled it when he needed it most.
Two years after we were married, Scott had an accident resulting in extensive blood loss. Drifting in and out of consciousness in the ambulance, he experienced the weight of death without Jesus in his soul. He remembered these words from the Scripture reading of his youth: Every knee will bow, every tongue confess, every knee will bow, every tongue confess, every... Jesus, save me! Jesus, save me!
He was remembering the words of Philippians 2:9–11:
God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in Heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
That night, Scott was changed. He now had a before and an after. In between was the moment of his salvation, the moment of being saved by Jesus.
The transformation in my husband was something I couldn’t explain, and this transformation ultimately led to my own before and after.
Have you rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior because of religion? Or perhaps have you mistaken religion for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Maybe you were like me in that season of life, considering Jesus to be a story like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Or has life brought you to this moment and you consider yourself beyond redemption, beyond God’s mercy?
If this makes you wonder, Am I prepared to die? Am I confident of my destination? then please lean into what I am about to write. Friend, the Holy Spirit, who whispered to me in my before, lives within me now. He may be within you or beside you right now as you read.
- God can bring beauty from ashes.
In chapter 11, we learned the power of forgiveness and that faith, hope, and love were built on blood-drenched ground in Rwanda. If God can do that for a country, then He can also do it for you.
Know that you are here in this moment for a reason. The God of the universe and creator of all loves you so much that He will pursue you until your final breath.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. — 2 Peter 3:9
Because this is true, I anticipate Heaven will be populated by many who are there because of God’s “longsuffering,” or patience.
He pursued me too. I had to run to the end of myself before I realized that my soul would never be satisfied by the things of this world. I have shared my testimony many times in written word, from a stage, and one-on-one. However, not until that very moment, when Jesus saved me in my misery of miseries, did I realize that I didn’t fully understand the gospel.
I understood the intensity of my own unworthiness, the sin embedded in my DNA, and the darkness of my soul without Him. When I turned to Him in complete desperation and repented, He responded by sending the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of the gospel and the centrality of the cross. And now I couldn’t survive without Him.
The Cross
If you or your loved one have received a serious or terminal diagnosis, you may be experiencing a multitude of emotions. Fear, trepidation, anxiety, and depression are common when we are faced with our own mortality. The unknown journey of dying may be the source of many of these. You may grieve your own death as you consider separation from those you love. But peace, joy, love, and anticipation can be found when you experience the hope found in the cross.
The cross is central to understanding the gospel. It is the place where God’s righteous justice and infinite mercy reside. It is the place where death occurred and life was promised. It is the place of unimaginable despair and enduring hope. As a believer, the cross represents the death we deserve and reminds us of the cost that was paid for our healing. Without the cross, there would be no resurrection, and without the resurrection we could not anticipate Heaven.
To understand the importance of the cross, we must understand why we need it. Let me give you an illustration I used on mission trips in Rwanda to explain the cross to children.
Our mission team often would set up stations outside the medical clinics we served. Under big tents, people enjoyed shade, water, and snacks, and these stations became places for laughter and games — which especially drew in children. And one of the games we played illustrates why we need Jesus.
We drew two lines in the dirt, approximately twenty feet apart. We lined up the children on one side and asked them to run and jump the expanse between the two lines. But it was way too far! No matter the physical ability of the child, none were able to jump such a distance.
We then sat down and described how we must view sin. On the other side of that distant line lives a perfect and holy God. He wants us to make it to the other side, to be close to him. But each of us who tries to make that jump will always fall short.
Earlier, before the children came, we had connected two long pieces of wood by rope to make a twenty-foot cross. It was great fun for everyone as children tried to jump farther than their friends and laughed when one of us would try and also fall short. They especially loved when our friend Andre Davis, an NFL record holder, tried and still couldn’t make it across.
After everyone made their attempts to jump to the other side, we would gather together and bring out the cross and lay it across the great divide. The children could then walk across the cross as a bridge.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” — John 14:6
Jesus is the only way to enter the holy presence of the glory of God and the only bridge to the other side. He becomes more than the person we may have heard about as a child, more than a prophet believed in other religions, more than the person we read about, and more than just a “good dude” who had some “righteous” moments (okay, this came from a young surfer I once met).
Jesus died on that cross as the perfect Lamb of God. He bore our sin and experienced separation from his Father for the first time in eternity.
You might wonder, How do we find hope in a story where Jesus dies? The hope came three days later when death was conquered and Jesus Christ was raised from the grave to the right hand of the Father.
The hope is in the resurrection.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. — 1 Peter 1:3
Because of the resurrection, I anticipate that my death has been conquered, and He is the fulfillment of my living hope.
Excerpted with permission from Anticipating Heaven by Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle, copyright Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle.
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Your Turn
Most people don’t want to think about our own death much less the death of those we love. Without Jesus, death is scary. Without Jesus, it’s devastating. We need Him because our Savior is our living hope; He is the bridge! ~ Devotionals Daily