John 14:1-14
14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
14:2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
Luk 23:41
And we indeed justly so, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this Man has done nothing amiss.
Luk 23:42
And he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.
Luk 23:43
And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.
What other promise do we need to hear from our Savior. He promised His disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them and that they would be coming to meet Him. To put a punctuation on the promise He told the thief on the cross next to Him that he would be with Him in Paradise on that very day.
Funerals always get me to thinking about life and death. Funerals are not my favorite part of the Ministry but they are the part that help me exercise my deepest faith walk. The fact that I believe that there is life after death is something I cannot prove but there is nothing I believe in more. That Maui sunset picture above is one my good friend Melvin Croaker took on his last trip to Hawaii. Melvin passed from this world to the next with a smile on his face. I was there and I saw it. I can only say he must have been seeing something that made him really happy. Melvin was a disciple that was learning so much through his disease and was rewarded a place because of the forgiveness that the cross brings to all who believe in Jesus Christ.
Jesus not only taught His disciples that a life walk on the path of “Love for your neighbor” was the right and only way for us to live but He also taught us that we must live our lives as people in a natural world. We are subject to the environment that we live in and those that we live with which makes it that much more important for us to stay on the path which He has set before us. A life lived in “love with your neighbor” is what Jesus wants from us. Lets all give it to Him. He gave us the greatest example of how far we might have to go. To give your life for a friend. Thats the love that He wants us to show the world.
Give your life to Him and your love to the world and He will bring,
God’s Peace and Blessings to all,
Randy
Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX 
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