It's that time of the week when we think of heading home after a week away on business. There's nothing quite like heading home!
As my regular readers know I have been in Lossiemouth for the week conducting bible teaching meetings and visiting schools.
Despite the early rise at 0415 I was still delighted to get to Inverness Airport to discover that the flight was going. This was despite Hurricane Abigail and the ongoing stormy weather that they are experiencing in Scotland.
So that I had steady nerves, last night a friend posted a video of a plane landing at Inverness Airport. Despite the stormy weather the plane landed safely. What a feat of good piloting. The plane came in sideways, wavering and drifting back and forwards and yet the pilot gradually and carefully dropped it to the ground and made a safe landing. These guys are worth every penny they get paid. It needed a good pilot to get the plane and the passengers safely on the ground. More of this later.
As I approached the airport this morning I wasn't quite sure what awaited me. Would we fly, would it be a 'heart in the mouth' flight or calm as a mill pond? That's a bit like life. We all know that one day we going to depart, putting it bluntly we will all die. But unlike my planned journey to Manchester none of us know when we will make our journey from this life to the next! And for many they don't know what the journey will be like.
It's slightly different for me as a believer in Jesus Christ. I don't know when my life on earth will be over - will I die young (relatively speaking) or live to old age? I really don't know! But I know this. My passage to the next life has been planned and is under control.
You see as a Christian I believe that God has the ultimate control over life and death.
In Genesis 18:10 God visits Abraham to tell him he will return and they (Abraham & Sarah) will have a child. While humans produce a baby ultimately God gives life. That's why abortion is so wrong.
In the bible another man called Job had to face many tragedies in life. He struggled with his circumstances and tried to reconcile God's right to act with his inability to change his circumstances. In Job 1:21 he says 'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord'. He recognised that God has both the power of life and the authority over death.
We can see from both of these verses that God is in control both of birth and of death.
As a Christian I can claim the words of Psslm 23 with confidence: 'yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow death I will fear no evil'. No one is elated at the prospect of death but the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ knows that the Lord will be with them as they pass through death.
The believer also knows where they are going. The Lord Jesus went to heaven after his death, burial & resurrection and has prepared a place for those who trust him to come to, John 14:1-6.
Jesus promised to come back to collect the Church and take it to heaven (John 14, 1 Thessalonians 4). I am hoping that this happens before I die. But if it doesn't I know I'll be with Christ which the bible says is far better than being on earth, 2 Corinthians 5.
What are you depending on for your safe arrival on the other side? You need that experienced and skilled pilot to guide you through life and bring you safely to heaven. Only Christ is 'the way, the truth and the life'. You can come to the Father (God) through him.
Be careful!
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