| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time” Our Bible verse for today: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4 (CSB) Our thought for today: “It was day one of Chapter One” The other day a friend and church member passed away. Pete was ninety-one years old and had lived a long and good life. He was in law enforcement his entire career – a homicide detective. For the years that I knew him he was a church member, friend, and an encourager of his pastor. Sadly, the last few years of his life were spent battling Alzheimer’s disease. And yet, right at the end, the Lord graciously granted Pete renewed clarity and peace. When I saw him the day before he died, he recognized me, smiled, conversed for a bit, and shook my hand as I was leaving. His final day was spent with his wife, children, and grandchildren by his side. At one point we gathered around his bed, read Scripture, talked about the promise of life after death, and prayed. C.S. Lewis ends the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia series with a touching scene that speaks a great truth about our passage from this life into eternity. In the story, all the battles were over, evil was defeated, Aslan reigned over his kingdom, and the adventurous heroes were safe and sound in the eternal kingdom: “And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the story. All their life in the world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” That’s what John was describing in Revelation 21:4 (above). This life is just the beginning of our eternal existence. It’s just the cover and title page. Real life, new life, the perfect life, doesn’t begin until we arrive in heaven. That is day one of Chapter One of a story that goes on forever. Last Thursday, very early in the morning, when Pete’s body of flesh and bones finally ceased to function, his spirit was immediately released, crossed over, and entered into the real story – the “Great Story”. This life was just the beginning, just the cover and the title page. For Pete, Thursday was day one of Chapter One of a story that will go on for eternity. God bless, Pastor Jim |
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Oak Hill Baptist Church 
A good friend passed a ptayer to the other day. Not particularly in my nature, I was inspired to respond with my own.
I do not walk alone, for He is always with me. I follow the path that He has assigned to me, but not in fear but rather in curiosity and in awe as to what is to come.