Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His godly ones. (Psalm 116:15, NASB)
The Zoom call was starting in five minutes. I did not know if I was ready.
Our leader and founder of this Links Players Fellowship was not going to be with us on this day. He was in the hospital on a ventilator and life support as his brain continued to bleed. He neared the end of a gallant 26-month struggle with brain cancer. Everyone in that room at Southern Trace Country Club and all on the Zoom call loved this good man as well. Some even called him a sweet man. How could you not? He lived his faith well and continued to be sweet, kind, encouraging, and bold in his life with Jesus and others. He even filled all divots in the fairway that were not his divots (that became his trademark). He was always filling divots and always thinking of others. What a legacy.
I wrote this in my notes five minutes before our Bible study with the group: “Shelby prepares to go Home, and we continue the journey and prepare to be with him forever. We will all be there soon. In the meantime, let us do a Links Players Bible study this morning. That is exactly what he would want us to do.” So, we started the Zoom call and talked about Jesus and intercessory prayer. I was now ready. Being close to Shelby in spirit was the best thing we could do.
Author Jonathan Cahn has called this life “heaven’s womb.” It is not the Home we are destined for. This life is our preparation for the next. Cahn says, “As the womb was to prepare you for this life… this life is to prepare you for what is yet to come. As an unborn child can never understand or judge his life by the womb, neither can you understand or judge your life by your present circumstances.”
We are born for heaven and made mature through the trials and tribulations of this present world.That, my friends, is good news for us still in the womb here, so to speak. Heaven is calling us all Home, where we will live forever with Jesus himself, but also among men and women made good by Christ (like Shelby).
Another friend of Shelby sent me a text that said, “God knew Shelby’s last breath before he breathed his first breath.” In Psalm 139:16 we read, “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” I believe that even when I can’t understand that truth.
I remain grateful not only that we are we born again here, but we are born for heaven and made mature through the trials and tribulations of this present world. Later we will understand. Amen.
Epilogue: This was written on June 24. In the early morning hours of June 25, I received this text from Shelby’s wife: “Shelby went to see Jesus this morning at 1:30.” Jesus has welcomed the company of a good man!
—
Randy Wolff
July 2, 2020
Copyright 2020 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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