More Friends in Heaven

Because of age and circumstance, I have more friends in heaven than I do down here. Heaven is loaded with friends. First and foremost, there is a man in heaven who is my best friend, my most faithful friend, and his name is Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus told his disciples, henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends. Jesus is my true and faithful friend. I can't wait to see him.

I've spent so much time with him in prayer. I've come to love him like no other. He's been with me in trouble, sickness, and sadness, and I've learned to lean on him like no other.

He has been there for me when all else have deserted me. He's a rock I can stand upon when the swirling tempest of life is rising around me. Jesus will never let you down, and he'll never let you go.

Jesus is my true and faithful friend, and he is in heaven waiting for me. I was going through my Bible, and I found a handwritten note from one of my dear friends who is now in heaven. In the note, he writes, I'm writing this note on a book I picked up.

It is Preacher in Prayer by E. M. Bounds. Marian Price wrote that note to me, and he had the privilege of leading E. M. Bounds' son Osborne to the Lord. Marian always loved reading books on prayer by his hero E. M. Bounds.

Now Marian gets to hang out with E. M. Bounds in heaven. Heaven is a wonderful place where we will all have all the time in eternity to hang out with our heroes in the faith and to see our family and friends once again. I was going through one of my other Bibles, and I found several letters from Adrian Rogers to me.

As I held them in my hand, I thought about Adrian. I thought about the last time I saw him. It was about a month before he died.

He was so worn out from his cancer treatments he could hardly walk across the room. I was in a library with him and Henry Blackaby and Ted Randall, and I remember him hugging me so hard for such a long time it became almost embarrassing, but it was his way of saying goodbye to me. But it was not a permanent goodbye.

I'll see his smiling face again when I get to heaven. I decided to go find and locate and read all my correspondence from letters from friends to me through the years. This younger generation today will miss out because of technology, because the art of letter writing is dead.

But I found my old letters from friends like William McDonald and J.I. Packer and John Phillips and Stephen Olford and others who are now in heaven. And as I reread those letters, suddenly I felt like a very rich man, because a man's real wealth is not counted in investment portfolios and bank accounts, but in good friends. And I realized that I have more friends in heaven than I do down here, and I can't wait to see them and spend time with them and enjoy them.

I believe when a Christian dies, he goes immediately into the presence of Jesus. And I also believe there is a welcoming delegation to heaven, and at the head of that delegation stands Jesus, and all around him are our loved ones and friends we knew in life. They are there to greet us and welcome us and rejoice with us for that victory in Jesus.

I remember J. Siddle Baxter commenting when he was in his late 90s. He said, I'm more up there than I am down here. I believe I can say the same.