{"id":4,"date":"2007-08-06T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=4"},"modified":"2007-10-03T15:32:57","modified_gmt":"2007-10-03T22:32:57","slug":"homegoing-by-pastor-cecil-a-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/homegoing-by-pastor-cecil-a-thompson\/","title":{"rendered":"“HOMEGOING!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

II Corinthians 5:6-9<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last week I presented a depiction of\u00a0the entrance into Paradise by a woman named Dee.\u00a0If, for some reason you did not receive that Daily-E-Votional with the title, “HOMECOMING”, please let me know.\u00a0That message, along with today’s called “HOMEGOING”, are intended to open our eyes to the reality of life and death of the believer.<\/p>\n

Del was sitting in his living room\u00a0trying to dissect\u00a0Job1:20-21, for his Bible study next week. “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.\u00a0Then he fell to the ground in worship and he said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.\u00a0The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.’ ”<\/p>\n

He closed his eyes to meditate on what a blow it was when he and Dee had received word that their son had been killed in Iraq.\u00a0It was a time of deep soul searching to find the meaning of God’s dealing with His children.\u00a0He was glad that his precious wife that\u00a0he had\u00a0married forty years ago was\u00a0there to help them through the loss.<\/p>\n

The doorbell interrupted his reflection.\u00a0He thought it was strange that Dee would ring the door instead of using her own key.\u00a0He answered the door and saw a police chaplain standing there with a serious look.\u00a0When he asked to come in and speak with him, he knew what he was going to say.\u00a0He was as gentle as possible, but when he informed him that his precious wife\u00a0had died, Del felt the\u00a0strength go out of his legs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The chaplain remained\u00a0with Del and\u00a0made calls for him to the other three children.\u00a0Within thirty minutes Del was surrounded by his children.\u00a0The pastor also had been notified and came in to pray with the family.\u00a0Soon the house was filled with friends from the church who shared their love and concern with Del.<\/p>\n

It was after midnight before Del was able to slip into his bedroom.\u00a0As he knelt beside his bed, the tears rolled down his cheeks.\u00a0He was on his\u00a0knees for a considerable amount of time.\u00a0It was then that the Holy Spirit began to use the words of that passage in Job 1, to minister to him.\u00a0He had poured out his grief, and now it was time to worship the Lord, just\u00a0as Job had done when he heard that all ten of his children had been killed.<\/p>\n

Del knew that there had to be a deeper meaning to all that had just happened.\u00a0He had seen other people\u00a0who had lost loved ones and had been so devastated that they could hardly function.\u00a0In the midst of his pain with the realization that his precious Dee was gone, he turned to God.<\/p>\n

“Lord, I want to be Your man.\u00a0My heart is breaking right now, but I want to be Your living testimony in the face of this terrible loss.\u00a0I want to be able to be a radiant example of how Your grace is sufficient.\u00a0Let my words and actions to my family and friends be consistent with Your Word.”\u00a0Del fell asleep on his knees.\u00a0It was the sleep of a child who is cradled in the arms of a loving father\u00a0In fact it was his Heavenly Father!<\/p>\n

In those few seconds when he first roused, he thought of the fact that Dee had gone home.\u00a0It was the home of all of those who have been born again.\u00a0The pain of his loss was still as great, but he began to visualize her\u00a0set free from every struggle of this old sin sick world.\u00a0The thought of it made him homesick for heaven.<\/p>\n

While still on his knees he recalled that old hymn written by Luther Bridgers many years ago.\u00a0Bridgers wife and sons were killed in a house fire while he was away from home preaching in an evangelistic\u00a0service.\u00a0In his agony he penned these words;<\/p>\n

“There’s within my heart a melody
\nJesus whispers sweet and low,
\n‘Fear not I am with thee,
\nPeace, be still In all of life’s ebb and flow.’
\nJesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know
\nFills my every longing,
\nKeeps me singing as I go.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When he rose from his knees he knew what he had to do.\u00a0He had to keep singing and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.\u00a0He had to become the cheerleader for all who would listen, that from earth’s point of view she was gone, but from heaven’s point of view, she was finally and eternally home!<\/p>\n

Blessings dear hearts.\u00a0Walk with God\u00a0today, trust Him completely, and be a blessing.<\/p>\n

– –\u00a0– Pastor Cecil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

II Corinthians 5:6-9 “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-e-votionals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}