No Stranger by Gene Kissinger

Death is no stranger to me. 

Redeeming the time brothers podcast:

 A podcast by Gene Kissinger and Norman Kissinger, two brothers who spent their lives in ministry and raising large families. Our desire is to provide a digital place for those who long to belong. We want to bring multiple discipleship tools across multiple platforms to bring about a Rapture Ready body of believers so that when Jesus Christ comes back he will not have difficulty recognizing his own kids.

 

 the nightlight that I have for you tonight is out of Isaiah chapter 46, 

 

 hearken unto me, O house of Jacob at all you remnant of the house of Israel, which were born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb, and even to your old age I am He even to the foreheads or the gray heads, will I carry you I have made and I will bear and I will carry and we'll deliver you.

 

What a good God to offer to take us from the place of birth. To birth us, to carry us until they bury us. That's a good God. 

     I want you to know that death is a part of life, inextricably linked to life. When I was a pastor, as a pastor in the same community for nearly 30 years, I can't I can't ride down a road without looking at a house and thinking that there is somebody in that house that I either preformed a marriage or was there when they were celebrating the birth of a child, or when somebody in their family was buried. In other words, I was there. Sometimes I was there before The mortician was. When the family went through the trauma. They gave me a call and I came in and I cried with them and prayed with them. Remember a little Tevin. Tevin only lived to be about four years old. He was an amazing little man. His little mama She was the best little mama you could ever imagine. I mean that God couldn't have made a better mama than her. She loved her little baby. He had a he had a disorder that caused a hardening around his heart. And it was constricting his heart. Eventually, that's what took him.  His Mom fought for his life. I mean, fought for his life. I remember getting the call that he passed, and I drove over, came to the house in the middle of the night.  I just held him. She had not yet called  the mortician.  I just held his little body and rocked him he had passed already, He was an arms of Jesus, already in heaven. 

     

     I've helped carry people's loved ones to the hearse.  I'm no stranger to death. I've seen it. I've been Been in the room when people have passed have held their hands and cried with the family when the line went flat and There was no more breath. I'm not trying to be morbid about it but death for the believer is a doorway to heaven.  When I did little Tevin's service, I used the quote that Ronald Reagan gave when the challenger exploded. Just a matter of seconds after it lifted off.  He said "seven brave souls have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of God". 

   Tevin slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of God.  May Scarrow slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of God. So many of my friends, they've slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touched the face of God. Death is a friend for the believer. Death comes into the room and and he's one to escort you to a better place, he escorts you to heaven to be with God. That's only true if you have a saving relationship with Jesus. It is only true if you know Him as Lord and Savior. It's only true if your heart is right already. I'm afraid too many of us we live not ready. We live unprepared for that most important trip of all. If you knew you're going to make a trip and it was going to be sudden, you didn't  know exactly when it was going to happen. You would live with your bags packed.  You'd live you live with your stuff in boxes, because you'd be ready to make the trip. because it was important, and the trip is going to be an exciting trip. But the most important trip of all most people are not ready for, they've not yet trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I'd like to encourage you to do that because you never know when death will come knocking on your door and you'll be ready for that hour.