The Dying
READ: Isaiah 40:9-11
Thomas Gredding was 57 years old when he died. Some say he went to heaven, others say he descended to the murky depths of hell. No one knows, but God. Before his final gasp of air, he lay on his death bed with lung cancer. He denied Christ and the church and blamed them for what was happening to his body and his life. He spit on several pastors who had come to comfort him and pray with him and tell him of Jesus’ love. He truly mocked God. The irony of it all was that God still loved him. He loved Thomas even when he denied His existence, as He loves us all.
The night this man died, a great thunderstorm raged outside of the hospital. Then, in the wee hours of the morning, when the nurse walked in to check on her patient, he was lifeless. Do you know what was the strangest thing about it was? He was holding a Bible opened to Isaiah, Chapter 40. You just read what he may have been reading at the point of his life’s end. The last thing he ever saw was the Bible’s words of truth and mercy and comfort.
Some people say he was condemned, but if he believed in what he read, he is in heaven with Jesus right now. When a person is dying, he or she may tend to blame God for all their agonies. God's Word brings hope hope and comfort to the dying through God’s grace.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: Do you think Thomas Gredding went to heaven or hell? How do you witness to someone who is blaming God?
PRAYER SUGGESTIONS: Pray to keep all those dying in the faith and to keep yourself in the faith.