Last Words

I attended another funeral last week – this one for my friend Don Miller. The family said his last words were, “almost to glory!” I’ve often wondered what people think when they know for certain that they are dying. I had a book once that, like many, has disappeared from my shelves, but it recorded the famous last words of dying people. Lady Nancy Astor, awakening briefly and seeing all her family around her bedside, asked, “am I dying, or is this my birthday?” Outlaw Cherokee Bill, with a hangman’s noose around his neck, was asked if there was anything he wanted to say, and he replied, “No! I came here to die, not make a speech.” Russian author Leo Tolstoy said, “Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.” Evangelist D. L. Moody said, “I see earth receding; heaven is opening. God is calling me.” Dying on a cross, Jesus spoke seven times, and His final earthly words were, “Father, into your hands, I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). I want to live like Don Miller so when time comes to commit my spirit to the Father, my final words can be repeated and honored at my funeral.

Join me this week in praying for the following global concerns:
• Pray for the Prosthetics Team that will be ministering this week at the New Day Orphanage in Zambia.
• Pray for volunteer teams that will be doing relief work in Napal.
• Pray for our Partnership Visit this week in Vancouver, Canada.
• Join missionaries who serve among European people groups in their Days of Prayer and Fasting, May 4-6.