Quote from Forum Archives on March 30, 2006, 11:29 am

Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>

Try out the new website at www.theburningbush.net

The old website is at www.theburningbush.org

Several devotional booklets are now available for free download in PDF
format at the new site. Just click on the "Free Book Downloads" link.

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The Burning Bush Devotional

Welcome to the 1,085 new subscribers since November 1, 2005!!

03.30.06

Call Home

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For
in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which
is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be
unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us
the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we
are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith,
not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from
the body and to be present with the Lord. - 2 Corinthians 5:1-8.

Imagine going to a friend's funeral and then later in the day receiving a
phone call from the friend! Can you imagine the shock of just seeing the
friend's number come up on your caller ID? It would be one thing if your
friend said, "I'm in this really dark place and need help getting out." But
then it would be completely different if the friend said, "Just thought I
would let you know that Heaven is great, and hope to see you soon!" Either
way it would be a shocker!!

There is a new phenomenon that is making its way across the globe. People
are being buried with their cell phones. In South Africa, it was reported
that a funeral home will actually include several batteries just in case one
runs down. In some places it would appear the desire is for the recently
departed to be able to actually make use of the phone if possible. In other
places, it is simply the placing of something meaningful in their life to be
with them. I have seen many different personal items placed in a casket with
a loved one and it can be a very touching thing to see. However, if the body
is to be cremated make sure you remove the battery from the phone because
they will explode when heated.

As much as we would like to be able to communicate with our loved ones who
have crossed from this world to the next it is not possible. King David knew
the reality of this when he said of his baby that had died, "Can I bring him
back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me (2 Samuel
12:23b)." As the apostle Paul puts it are bodies are now our "earthly tents"
and if these "tents" are "destroyed" we will then live in a "building from
God" that is "eternal in the heavens." Notice that our bodies are "tents"
meaning a temporary residence but our place of dwelling after death is a
"building" that will be "eternal." While we live upon this earth we are
"absent from the Lord" but when death comes and we leave our physical bodies
and we will then be "present with the Lord."

It would be wonderful to be able to talk with someone who knew exactly what
was going to happen after death. To talk to someone who had been through it
and returned to share about everything that happened. That would be
wonderful wouldn't it? The wonderful thing is that there is a person who has
been there and done that. His name is Jesus. Jesus tells us in Revelation
1:18, "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death." He who has died and rose
again says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me,
though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall
never die (John 11:25-26)."

Make no mistake, God knows exactly where you are and what is going on in
your life. God also knows when His children will die and pass from this
world to the next to their "eternal dwelling." God knows and as the Psalmist
says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Psalm
116:15)."

Copyright © 2006. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.

The Crossmap Christian Search and Portal is a wonderful resource. I would
like to encourage you to visit this great site at www.crossmap.com. Crossmap
has added the Burning Bush Devotionals to their site. You may visit
Crossmap's sister website, the online version of the Christian Post at
www.christianpost.com.

If you have a Christian website you are invited to add the link to my free
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