Fix your eyes on Jesus

I was listening yesterday to the "Haven of Rest" radio broadcast. My favorite keyboardist, Duane Condon, was accompanying magnificently, and one of my favorite singers, bass Glenn Shoemaker, was singing "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah." (I listen to "Haven," on which Ray is the speaker, every morning at eight. I do things before and after, but at eight I turn on the little bathroom radio and dress and put on my face while I'm listening.) Duane and Glenn came to verse three, and their music became slower, more majestic, and charged with triumphant exhilaration: When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside; Death of Death and hell's Destruction [What magnificent names for Christ!] Land me safe on Canaan's side; Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to Thee! I thought of my precious friend Becky, in my small group of disciples last year, who just the day before had died of cancer, barely thirty years old. I leaned onto the mirror to put cover-up on some wrinkles. And though I love her and I miss her already, I thought, "You lucky rascal, Becky! You beat me there." I remember Ray preaching one time about Lazarus dying and his sister's grief and Jesus raising Lazarus again. With tongue in cheek, Ray described the scene: Lazarus is up in heaven. He's been there four days, and it's fantastic. He's gotten his robe and his golden shoes and they've already started him on his harp lessons. Then he gets the news. "Lazarus, you gotta go back." "What? Go back? No way . . . Why?" "The girls want you." Lazarus groans. "The girls? You gotta be kidding . . . Do I have to go?" He finally gets persuaded, and he starts taking off his golden shoes. He hands his robe and and harp in the locker he's been assigned, and he says, "Fellas, don't touch those things, my name's on them. And look, I'll be back!" And he struggles back into his lousy old grave wrappings . . . If we had any idea how wonderful the next life is, we wouldn't hang onto this one so tenaciously! Of course the pain of losing loved ones -- though temporarily -- is real enough. We don't "grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13), but we do grieve -- sometimes terribly, deeply, excruciatingly in our loss. But as far as death goes, we can be absolutely light-hearted. We've been freed from all fear of it (Hebrews 2:15); it has no more victory over us, no sting (1 Corinthians 15:55). That wonderful Twenty-third Psalm says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. If a truck runs over you, you can get really ruined. If the shadow of a truck runs over you, what happens? Psalm 23 speaks only of your walking through the shadow of death . . . Is that all? In your thinking about dying, get Jesus' perspective. And when your own time comes to die, fix your eyes on Him. "Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven [the King James Version says 'looked up steadfastly'] and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open . . ." "Then . . . he fell asleep" (Acts 7:55-56, 60). When the waters are rough and the sky is dark, look towards the shore; the lights shining there will attract and encourage you. Stephen saw those lights . . . There, where his Savior was, was his destination, his home, and from thence came the grace and power that carried him through.1 Fix your eyes on Jesus! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why don't you sing this song to Him? Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand; I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light; Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. When my way grows drear, precious Lord, linger near, When my life is almost gone; Hear my cry, hear my call, hold my hand lest I fall: Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. When the darkness appears and the night draws near, And the day is past and gone, At the river I stand, guide my foot, hold my hand, Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.2 * * * * * Looking unto Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Only three little words, but in those three little words is the whole secret of life. --Theodore Monod, early twentieth century ____________ 1. Clifford Lewis, "Keswick Calendar", Tuesday, January 15, 1991. 2. Thomas Dorsey, 1938. Copyright 1938 Hill and Range songs, Inc. Copyright received, assigned to Unichappell Music, Inc. (Rightson Music, publisher). Used by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.