Legacy

"But our citizenship is in Heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power than enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body."

The different headstones read: "Abundantly satisfied in Jesus, In the arms of Jesus, and For to me to live is Christ....to die is gain!" How poignantly written. Last week we had a staff retreat at Miango, SIM's mission rest home. Their is a cemetary behind the chapel where many SIM missionaries and their children are buried. During my visit I stopped to read the caption written on each headstone, and God pricked my heart with many capturing thoughts of a life well lived. It made me think about leaving a legacy. What will my headstone read? What will people say about me after I am gone? Will they say I lived for Jesus more than anything else in this life? Will people remember me for what I did or who I was? Do I really believe to live is Christ and to die is GAIN? There are many days when I just want to go and be with my Jesus; to depart is better by far. However, He has not called me home yet. He has called me for such a time as this. I want to live every moment as if it were my last. When I am in Heaven with my maker, it will be too late to share Christ with those who need to hear. For those who I will meet in Heaven will already have the gift of divine deliverance. It is here in this very moment that I must remember my purpose in life.That is to testify to the gospel of God's grace. Like the Apostle Paul, many hardships face me and war wages against me, but I am confident that He who began a good work in me will complete it. May my legacy be that Christ was shining through me, so that when others see me, they will say "yes I believe that God exists; that He lives and is the only true GOD (Isaiah 43:9)!

A poem by Martin Luther about John Wycliff's life and ministry says it all:

"Fling to the heedless winds

On the water cast

Their ashes shall be watched,

And gathered at the last.

And from the scattered dust

Around us and abroad,

Shall spring a plenteous seed,

Of witness for God.

Jesus hath now received

Their latest dying breath.

Yet vain is Satan's boast

Of victory in their death.

Still, still though dead they speak,

And triumph-tongued proclaim,

To many a waking land

The one availing name."

That's what I want, after death for my life to STILL proclaim the ONE AVAILING NAME!

"But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and striving toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me Heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Philipians 3:13b-14