Ultimate Healing

         Upon checking my email this morning, I had a report from one of the missionaries that I know who has been in Belgium for the past 30 or so years. His message was letting us know of yet another missionary who had been in Norway for the same amount of time and who was from the same mission board in which we all had served. The account opened up with the following message. “NEWSFLASH: Gwen Taylor Martin COMPLETELY HEALED!!! On Monday, 14 October, 2019 Gwen Martin was completely healed and is now pain-free!” It was the opening line of the obituary. Gwen had been suffering from pancreatic cancer for the past six months and had been in a lot of pain. The announcement may have given off the feeling that she had been physically healed, but that was not the case. The thought from the obituary was what happens when we have the ultimate healing. Second Corinthians 5:8 says, “ We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

        In this life, we are plagued with a number of ailments, aches, pains, weakness, breathing problems, unreal sugar readings, heart rhythm that is uneven, dizziness, eye problems and whatever else. You get the idea. As you get older, you just live with them and realize that is what happens when you get to a certain age. The above obituary is what happens when you leave this world. It is, however, what happens when a believer leaves this world. It is not the case for a person who refuses salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Contrary to public opinion, not all religion leads to eternal life and peace with God. The Lord Jesus Christ made that quite clear in John 14:6. He is indeed, the Only Way. For the believer, this is what happens when a person passes from this life to the eternal peace offered by God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul reminded the Corinthians that to be absent from this body is to be in the presence of God. There is no holding cell or a period of time in la la land. It is instant. One moment, you are here in your pain and the next you are with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is truly, absent from the body, present with the Lord. That is the comfort and the real hope of every person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can have the confidence of not only this verse of Scripture, but all of the promises we find in God's Word. As Alistair Begg once said, If Christ had not been raised from the dead, you wouldn't even have known anything about Him. Time in history has been marked by His presence since it is now 2019. Our calendars point to the existence of the Lord Jesus Christ in spite of the world's attempt to make it “common era” instead of “the year of our Lord.” Death is not confined to just old people. No one is guaranteed the next second or the next breath. It is all in the hands of God. The thought of humanity however, is that life has no hope and that it is all just a pipe dream but that is not what the Bible says and I would rather put my faith in the Word of God than the empty expression of humanity. One day, if you are a believer, then you will experience the “ultimate” healing for whatever infirmity you have. Praise God today for the hope that only He can give.