I know of your disbelief about a future beyond this existence, but I do know for certainty in my own mind that it is for real, big time. When you look at the calendar to check the date, the date itself is a constant reminder of a Man whose presence on this earth over 2.000 years ago split all of time as we know it into two periods, the time before His coming and the time after His coming. A.D. is the Latin term for "In the year of our Lord," and the Lord referred to is Jesus Christ. He said unequivocally that He is King, and that His kingdom is not of this world, and that anyone who accepted Him would never see death but rather spend an eternity of happieness, joy and bliss in His Father's kingdom.
In Aramaic, the language of Christ spoke and which was used for the first 3 or 4 centuries in the Christian Church, the Aramaic word for "death" was "moot," which translated means, "not here, in another place." The death of the body in this life is simply leaving this body we have been living in behind and going through the fates of death to "another place." Our spirit is who we really are, and it is that which continues on to the "Promised Land" for those who love God and find their way through the merits of His son, Jesus Christ.
Faith is an outright gift of God to all who will accept it. We can do nothing to earn it; it is ours for the asking. Once we accept it and repent, all or our transgressions are forgiven and forgotten by a merciful and loving God who does not want to see even one of His creatures lost for all Eternity. Jesus took all the sins of all mankind, past, present and future upon Himself as He allowed Himself to be cruelly crucified on the cross at Calvary. Yet, even in His agony, with His dying breath He asked His Father to forgive those who crucified Him saying that they did not know what they were doing. He really died for the sins of all, and that includes both you and me. He paid the price for our salvation and all we have to do is claim it. He said that no one who believed in Him would ever perish, and if you can't trust the words of Jesus Christ you can't trust anyone in the universe, period.
In closing, I am going to pray to our heavenly Father to send you an angel to be by your side constantly to take you by the hand so you don't get lost on your journey to the next place. This angel will be there to comfort you and counsel you as things continue to occur in your final days here. I asked God to send an angel to my brother-in-law, Russell in his final days and he told Annie when she came to visit him, shortly before he died that just before she got there, he reached out from his bef to an outstretched hand which held his hand for a short time, but when he popped his eyes open there was no one viible in the room. When I saw Russell the next day, I said to him, "Has the angel showed up yet or told ou his name?" He looked up at me with a very peaceful expression on his face. This was only a day or two before he "went to another place." Annie can verify Russell's feeling a hand take his shortly before she got there. I hope I have helped you rethink your situation from another perspective, Shirl, and again, Barbara and I and our entire family wish the very best for you.
This just shows you the type of man he was.
Congrats for getting to the end.
I love you Grampie. I'll be seeing you.
Love,
Cecelia "Loved" Melody
