On My Way Home - 07/22/00 11:35 PM
by Daryl Fawcett
I was driving towards home from a Fredericton SDA Church Business Meeting. I had just driven by the Regent Mall and the RCMP Headquarters. I was reaching for my cell phone to call my wife and tell her that I was on my way home when all of a sudden I looked up and only had time to exclaim, "Oh God, no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My next thought was "What happened? Where am I?" I stood up and looked around to try to determine where I was. I was no longer in the car. In fact, the car was nowhere to be seen. All I could remember was another car coming towards me. I must have been thrown from the car. "Where am I?" I thought once again.
I suddenly remembered my cell phone. I looked around for it but it was nowhere to be found. I wondered how long I had been here and thought that my wife must be wondering where I am. I decided to look for the highway. Everything sure looked different.
It was then that I noticed something shining ahead of me so I decided to walk towards it. I figured it must be something being reflected by the sunlight. It might be my car. As I walked I noticed other people off in the distance heading in the same direction. I called out to them but they were too far away to hear me. They soon disappeared over the top of the hill. I ran up the hill trying to catch up to them.
When I reached the top of the hill I couldn't believe what I saw because there in front of me was the dazzling and bright and shiny Holy City, the New Jerusalem. I then realized that I must have been hit head-on by that other car coming towards me. I must have been killed.
I was so excited and happy that I jumped for joy! I ran up to a group of people and recognized some of them that attended the Church Business Meeting on that fateful night. They seemed surprised to see me.
As I looked upon that city I noticed the array of people and military weaponry surrounding the city.
Suddenly the realization hit me and I began to tremble. I was looking at the city from the outside. I should have been inside the city! They should have been inside the city also. Then another thought struck me. We had been dead for a thousand and some years. We were part of the 2nd resurrection at the end of the 1000 years. We had missed out on the 1st resurrection. We were numbered with the wicked and not with the righteous.
"How can this be?" I asked myself. I was on my way home from a Church Business Meeting. I was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I was a Sabbath School Teacher. I was an Elder in the church. I was the School Board Chairman. I attended church every Sabbath. I was also on the Conference Board of Directors. Then I realized that almost the same was true of many of the others standing here with me. Many of them were as involved in the church as I was.
Then the following reference (Matthew 7: 22,23 NIV) came to my mind, 22 "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Verse 21 says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Verse 20 also says, "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Not by what we say or even do, such as going to church, but by what we are.
Suddenly there was a dazzling brilliance above the city. Through squinting eyes, we saw the form of a man with a crown on His head. It was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I saw my whole life flash before me AND I suddenly knew why I wasn't inside the city.
We all fell on our knees.
And then fire rained down from heaven and devoured all of us outside the city.
*****************
If you were to be killed on your way home from church today, how certain are you that you will be a part of the 1st resurrection and not the 2nd?
On the Fredericton SDA Church web site you will find this verse taken from 2 Corinthians 13:5-7 NIV which says, "5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?
6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.
7 Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed."
What does I Corinthians 10:12 NIV say?
"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"
And then we also have the following words found in Matthew 10:22 which says, "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."
What are these verses telling us? What do these verses mean?
First of all……. How do we examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith?
Let's examine ourselves now a little………
What does it mean to be in the faith?
John 14:12 says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
The great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, describes those who have been found to be in the faith.
"1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
How sure or certain are we in our faith?
Do we really believe or are we just playing church?
Are we just trying to play it safe by coming to church?
What motivates you to come to church?
"2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."
Our Sabbath School lessons in the 3rd quarter of 1999 was on "God's Creation." Do we still believe in a literal 6 days of creation when the world even most of the rest of the Christian world is saying otherwise?
Christ even asks in Luke 18:8 whether, when He comes, He will even find any faith left on the earth. What a startling statement!
"5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God."
Do we please God?
"6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
Do we really believe that He exists. Better yet, are we earnestly seeking Him everyday or only on the Sabbath, if even then?
"7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."
He obeyed and went.
"13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own."
Say what things? That they were aliens and strangers on earth? Is that what we are saying OR have we become comfortable here with all of our stuff.
Remember Lot's wife.
"15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."
Are we longing for a better country OR AGAIN are we too comfortable here?
You know……every Tuesday evening at Prayer Meeting, we were reading through and discussing the book, "What Shall I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?"
We read some heavy sections of this book. It caused us to take a serious look at ourselves.
*****************
I was driving towards home from the Church Business Meeting. I had just driven by the Regent Mall and the RCMP Headquarters. I was reaching for my cell phone to call my wife and tell her I was on my way home when all of a sudden I looked up and only had time to exclaim, "Oh God, no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My next thought was "What happened? Where am I? What's happening? What's that dazzling bright light I see in the sky?
It's...it's...the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings with so many angels with Him that I can't begin to count them! I must have been killed on my way home on that fateful night!
Hey! I am rising from the earth…..to meet my Saviour and Lord and King in the air!
Is there anyone from my church rising with me?
Beth?
Sharon?
Ralph?
Patti?
Alan?
Bill?
Elizabeth?
Hope?
Pastor Jun?
Douglas Smith?
Clara Murchland?
Mrs. Holt?
Oscar Allen?
Rick McCall?
Now I am truly on my way home to be forever with the Lord!!!!
I am on my way home to enter into the Holy City of the New Jerusalem!
Amen!
------------------
In His Love, Mercy & Grace
Daryl Fawcett :)