THE PASSING OF MARY'S DAD
and Proof of Heaven and Hell

My father-in-law passed away a couple of hours before dawn this morning. There is nothing quite like going to bed, fairly certain you are going to get "the call" before sunrise. It came at 4:44 AM. It seems I had just fallen soundly asleep for the first time all night when the phone rang. I answered on the first ring, fully awake. A kind voice from hospice care, choking back her own tears, announced Lee Eldred's 73 days of hell were over.

Christmas morning we had expected him to come over for lunch. He went to the emergency room instead. What started-out as possibly a month-long illness, became terminal. Somewhere during the ordeal, (and an ordeal it was), Lee decided his 85 year old body had had enough, and he said he was ready to go "home". It became clear to him that if he recovered, he would go to a nursing home. He had always said, that a place such as that wasn't an option. He considered assisted living once, but he demanded a view. (Man does he have a view now!) So he went to be with the Lord. (II Cor.5:6-8) Until December 25th, 2009, he lived alone and drove his own car. He was a man's man from the Greatest Generation. You can read about him in a moving tribute here, written by his son Jody.

I learned and witnessed some remarkable things over the course of the last 10 weeks...Not counting the fact that my wife Mary is half-angel and half-steel. Jesus truly lives within her.

• When I consider that, "Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him", (Acts 10:38) I become that much more convinced of Heaven and Hell's reality. Having been around sickness and disease for 73 days, and simultaneously been in the Presence of the Lord, it is a certainty that there is not a "teamwork" going on between God and Satan. Sin and sickness are of the devil. Healing and forgiveness are of God.
• Our will means so much more than we even realize in matters of living, dying, receiving from God, etc. If someone is saved and they want to go home to be with the Lord, and you are at peace it is His will, let them go. Death isn't defeat in this case. It is victory!
• As Lee transitioned between this world and the next, for the last two weeks he lived in both, carrying on undiscernible conversations with His mother and sister, who had both gone on before him. Yet, he could be interrupted, and he would give you his attention. He told the nurse he wanted to go to Paradise. She thought he said Parrot Ice!
• Situations like this are a remarkable place to show the love of God...to the patient, family, workers, and patients and families of others.

Finally, we are all going to get a call one day. "The Call". It is going to come from Heaven and it will be Jesus' voice. He will be calling us to Himself. There is nothing quite like living, knowing you are going to get that Call!

If Jesus is not Lord of your life, repent and believe today. Believe that He died for your sins, and that God raised Him from the dead. Now confess Him as Lord of your life. The Lord says when you sincerely do this, your sins are forgiven and forgotten, and you are His child!

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