Getting Ready

     It was bedtime at my house and my wife had already nodded off, but I wasn't quite ready to go to sleep yet, so I opened my  Bible.  I was reading in a book called 1 Chronicles.  Now if you're not familiar with it, it's in the Old Testament past 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings but if you get to Job and Psalms and Proverbs, you missed it.  Now in all fairness, 1 Chronicles is one of those books that have a bunch of crazy (to us) names that we would rather skip over.  But often times, in the middle of the crazy names, God will show you an absolute gem that he picks out just for you.
     That's just what He did for me tonight.  I was reading about as King David (the same guy who killed the giant when he was a teenager) as he was wrapping up his affairs and turning over his kingdom to his son, Solomon, when all of a sudden  in
1 Chronicles 29:28 (ESV) said:  "Then he died at a good age, full of days, riches, and honor. And Solomon his son reigned in his place."
      Can anything more or greater be said of a man and his life than "he died at a good age, full of days, riches, and honor."  The age that my Heavenly Father decides I have finished my task, my purpose, my mission for Him, my life will have been "full of days", days that matter, that count for the purpose of eternity.  Because of the presence of the LORD, when you see LORD in all caps understand that that was Hebrew code for crying out the name of our God, Yaweh.
     (If you are not in a personal relationship with God the Father through faith in Jesus Christ, please don't call Him that.  It would be like you, as a stranger, came up to my wife and addressed her as "my precious Verna."  That would be very rude, and, trust me, I would be offended.  Addressing her that way is reserved for family and loved ones.  If you don't know Jesus as your personal savior through His sacrificial death, burial and resurrection you ARE NOT part of the family.) 
      Because of the presence of Yaweh in my life, even though there may have been times in my life that I couldn't find two dimes to rub together,  my life has been so rich in so many ways.        And filled with honor?  Every little thing that I have had the opportunity to do or even take part in for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has been such a wonderful blessing and honor my heart is filled with joy.   Whether it has been standing on a muddy levy in India and watching crowds of hands fly up when you ask them "Who would like to give their heart and life to Jesus now?"  Or praying one on one with people lined up waiting to pray and/or give their heart to Jesus.  Or even that precious youth you ministered to years ago and they are all grown up now, but when they see you, they go to the effort to come over and hug your neck and say "Thank you for the time and prayers you invested in my life.  You can't imagine what God is doing in my life now!" 
      You talk about honor?  How honored it makes me feel that in ANY small way my  Father and my King would allow me to do even a small part of His kingdom's work. 
      Billy Graham used to have a featured singer by the name of Cliff Barrows and Cliff used to sing a song that as it runs through my mind, all I can say is, "Amen."  It was called The Longer I Serve Him, The Sweeter It Grows.