Author: A Little Faith Lift…Finding Joy Beyond Rejection
www.alittlefaithlift.com
AWSA (Advanced Writers & Speakers Assoc.)
I have read about these people but never met one. Until last week. Pam is a respected author/speaker and not one to call attention to herself. She was one of twenty authors with whom I had the privilege of spending time. For five days, we met in Texas, not to network but to be refreshed and encourage each other.
Daily, there were two workout sessions, two messages from speakers, two praise and worship sessions, walks in the parks and times set aside to pray alone and in groups of five. The days were rich and full, but most of all, they were times to enter the lives of women who had spent their years on earth honoring Jesus with their work.
I had heard of Pam and read her amazing work but never met her personally. In the author world, she is near the top. I, on the other hand, am at the bottom…which is why our writing worlds had not collided. Actually, they hadn’t even rubbed against each other. So, when she showed up with a turban-covered head, I did not recognize her from her pictures. Her story is worth sharing.
Normally a healthy person (except for diabetes), when Pam started having chest pains, she asked her husband to drive her to the emergency room. She was in such a bad state, she was placed in a medically induced coma. She died in that coma. It was then she was ushered into the presence of God. I had to know about her experience.
Pam remembers seeing dozens of angels wearing glittery gold and finding herself in the arms of God. There was blinding light all around, and she and God began talking, not with their mouths but with their minds. God explained that she was not yet through the gates of Heaven and that He would not let her enter through them because her work on earth was not finished. As much as she wanted to stay, she could not. And then she woke up.
Two years later when Pam was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, her oncologist told her that the prognosis was not good. Pam smiled when she told him, “Well, either I will stay here and do God’s work, or I will meet Him in glory.” Her doctor said that she was the first person who ever had that optimistic outlook. Who could blame her?
There are 2,667 death cafes in thirty-two countries around the world, cafes where people gather around a cup of coffee to discuss death. It is a subject worth studying. This past month I read the book What Happens After You Die? where author Randy Frazee studies the entirety of scripture to teach his readers about death. He covers what happened to both believers and non-believers before and after Jesus. For the Christian, we immediately (faster than snap-your-fingers fast) shall be in Heaven in our spiritual bodies. No one knows what we will look like, but we can assume it won’t matter because we will be in the presence of God, and nothing matters more than that.
When Jesus returns and this world ends, a “New Jerusalem” will come from Heaven to earth. Frazee puts it this way: “…when we die, we go to Heaven; when Christ returns, he brings heaven to a brand-new earth.” There we will be given new bodies. No one knows the age or appearance of these new bodies, but again, it won’t matter, for we will live in God’s kingdom forever with no possibility of pain, tears, illness, evil or death again.
No wonder Pam didn’t want to leave.