Today I Write Of Something Of A Serious Nature. Something That Needs To Be Shared.

There is someone that is near and dear to me that rests in a hospice house and it could be a matter of days when they will be in the presence of the Lord in heaven. I will write on a subject today that maybe you are afraid of or possibly may fear it yourself sometime in your life. I can write about this because I walked this road before and I can tell you that it truly is a blessing to those that choose to do this and live on when a person that is near and dear to you dies and goes to be with the Lord. Please notice that I said "goes to be with the Lord." Not everyone that dies goes to heaven there will be people that die and their final demise is to go to hell for eternity. They are not forced to go there they just chose to not accept Jesus into their heart when the gospel message was preached to them or an evangelist came across their path, etc. Before I go any further in writing lets pause a moment and let me give you the opportunity to know that when you die you can be assured that you will be in heaven forever. Did you know that salvation is a gift freely given to you and you do not have to pay anything for it? Jesus came to earth and was born of a virgin. He suffered and died upon the cross and on the third day he rose from the dead. The Jesus I am speaking of is alive this very day he is not in a grave somewhere like other leaders of other denominations. Jesus took on the sins of the world when he was beaten and mocked and spit upon . He did all of that and endured all of that for you and me. That is love, that truly is love. Would you like to be introduced to this Jesus? Just say this simple prayer with me. "Jesus, I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you and I ask you to forgive me and wash me clean with the blood that you shed for me leading up to and to the very end when you died on the cross. I believe that you died and rose from the dead. It is by the work that you did on the cross and your resurrection that allows me to be with you in heaven when I die or if you should come to claim your people before that time. Come into my heart and be the Lord of my life and teach me your ways and let me learn about you through reading the bible. I thank you for saving me this very day and for doing all of the work to allow me this opportunity to be saved and born again and not have to perish in hell for eternity. Let me be a shining example among my family and peers of the saving grace of salvation and let me be a witness to others of how you picked me up and changed my life around so they can have and experience this very freedom in you Jesus. In Jesus name I pray. Amen." If you prayed this prayer and you would like further prayer I will have a link to a great church that reaches out to the hurting and there will be someone that I am sure will pray with you.
Several years ago my father was diagnosed with kidney failure. It was presented to him that if he continued on with dialysis his quality of life would never improve it would only prolong his life. He had a choice to make. He could continue on with his life via dialysis and no improvement of quality of life, but he would have life. The other option being he could choose to not continue with dialysis and he knew that with that decision it would be approximately a week to 10 days that he would die. He chose the later and he was then admitted to a hospice house. I will tell you this. From the moment he made the decision and left the hospital setting and entered the hospice setting an incredible peace came over him. The agitation and unrest that he experienced in the hospital was now peace and rest at the hospice house.
He did not live the expected time he was told. He entered the hospice house on a Thursday and he went to be with the Lord early Sunday morning. I received a call from them telling me to come in his breathing changed but not to rush. I was an hours drive away. No sooner did I hang up the phone and I received a phone call 5 minutes or so later telling me that he died.
Let me share my experience with you about hospice house so you can have your fears taken away from you. Not only was it a beautiful surrounding it is the manner in which they take care of your loved one that makes all of the difference. At this time in my life I was making banners and I had a particular one that was navy blue and I used burgundy crushed velvet to create a cross and droplets of blood that came from the cross with these words "I Shed My Blood For you." I followed the prompting of Holy Spirit to hang this banner on the wall of his room. There was already a nail in the wall where it was to hang. I had fears of staying a night in a hospice house because death seems to be evident and it is all around you if that makes sense. I had to overcome this fear and I chose to sit with my father the Friday night before he died on Sunday. I would never go back and undo those precious moments I had with him. They had a tape recorder in the room and Holy Spirit prompted me to play gentle praise/worship music in the background. I did because that is what he will be doing in heaven praising God for all of eternity.
It may have been 2AM or 3AM when a nurse came in the room to feed my father some sherbet or something like that. She looked at me and said "I think he would much rather like it if you fed it to him." I did. It can get a bit eerie at night at the hospice house. Reality is that there are people that come there to be comforted in their end days so you will see the reality of death there. I remembered looking out into the hall and there went a body bag past the room of someone that was probably being delivered to a funeral home or wherever it was to go. I couldn't think about myself at that point because I was there for my father. Think of it like this...when a person is diagnosed with a disease and they only have so much time left in their life to live I can only imagine that they may have questions about death and probably fear about it too. Look beyond your comfort zone and reach out with love to those you love and try to bring comfort and peace to their remaining life. Not only will you bless them you will find that your life has been blessed also. Yes, it may be uncomfortable but God brought you there for a purpose and reason.
In the few short days that I was there I met a woman that I led to Jesus after my father died. I met a young child that had a large tumor that bulged out of their eye area. This child was in a wheel chair and this child blessed me so. At the time I carried a variety of percussion instruments with me in the car for praise and worship at church. I wanted to let this child be blessed with creating music in their last days if that makes sense. I asked permission first to see if I could let this child pick out an instrument to keep and I was told yes. I followed through. If I recollect it I think they selected a small drum of some sort. My father died in early October and when I went back after Christmas I was told this child died a bit before Christmas. That just tore my heart to see a child so sick. I know that children go to heaven if they are of an age that they are not held accountable yet when they die. I will see this child in heaven one day.
I was taught that even if a person is in a coma they can still hear you, that hearing is the last sense to go. So be careful of the words you speak when you are in their presence. Speak loving words when you are with them. It is OK to ask them to forgive you if you need to do that and tell them that you love them. Thank them for loving you and for providing for you or whatever. Think about this, say things that you may want to hear yourself if you were in the reverse situation. Don't slam them with hateful words but embrace them with kind and loving words. Does that make sense? I was also taught that even though they are in a coma you can still offer the plan of salvation to them. At this point speak to them and tell them that you know they can still hear you and let them know that they can still ask Jesus to forgive their sins and ask him into their heart. Until the last breath is breathed by them they have an opportunity to receive Jesus and make things right in their life if things need to be made right. Speak into their ears and lead them to Jesus. I conclude with this...it is a honor and privilege to minister to a person that is born again because it will probably be the closest thing to touching glory on earth. What do I mean by that? That very person as they take their last breath of life on earth will then be escorted by angels to heaven. You had the opportunity to bless a person that will be with Jesus walking on the streets of glory. You may have been given the opportunity to be the last person on earth to embrace them with your love or give them a gentle kiss just before they are received into the arms of Jesus in heaven. Pretty awesome when you think of it like that right? The bible states in 2 Corinthians 1-10 ::We know that if the life we live here on earth is ever taken down like a tent, we still have a building from God. It is an eternal house in heaven that isn't made by human hands. In our present tent-like existence we sigh, since we long to put on the house we will have in heaven. After we have put it on, we won't be naked. While we are in this tent, we sigh. We feel distressed because we don't want to take off the tent, but we do want to put on the eternal house. Then eternal life will put an end to our mortal existence. God has prepared us for this and has given us his Spirit to guarantee it. So we are always confident. We know that as long as we are living in these bodies, we are living away from the Lord. Indeed, our lives are guided by faith, not by sight. We are confident and prefer to live away from this body and to live with the Lord. Whether we live in the body or move out of it, our goal is to be pleasing to him. All of us must appear in front of Christ's judgment seat. Then all people will receive what they deserve for the good or evil they have done while living in their bodies."