Because of age and circumstance, I have more
friends in heaven than I do down here.
Heaven is loaded with friends.
First and foremost, there is a man in
heaven who is my best friend, my most
faithful friend, and his name is Jesus of
Nazareth.
Jesus told his disciples, henceforth, I call you
not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth, but I have called you
friends.
Jesus is my true and faithful friend.
I can't wait to see him.
I've spent so much time with him in
prayer.
I've come to love him like no other.
He's been with me in trouble, sickness, and
sadness, and I've learned to lean on him
like no other.
He has been there for me when all
else have deserted me.
He's a rock I can stand upon when
the swirling tempest of life is rising around
me.
Jesus will never let you down, and he'll
never let you go.
Jesus is my true and faithful friend, and
he is in heaven waiting for me.
I was going through my Bible, and I
found a handwritten note from one of my
dear friends who is now in heaven.
In the note, he writes, I'm writing this
note on a book I picked up.
It is Preacher in Prayer by E.
M.
Bounds.
Marian Price wrote that note to me, and
he had the privilege of leading E.
M.
Bounds' son Osborne to the Lord.
Marian always loved reading books on prayer by
his hero E.
M.
Bounds.
Now Marian gets to hang out with E.
M.
Bounds in heaven.
Heaven is a wonderful place where we will
all have all the time in eternity to
hang out with our heroes in the faith
and to see our family and friends once
again.
I was going through one of my other
Bibles, and I found several letters from Adrian
Rogers to me.
As I held them in my hand, I
thought about Adrian.
I thought about the last time I saw
him.
It was about a month before he died.
He was so worn out from his cancer
treatments he could hardly walk across the room.
I was in a library with him and
Henry Blackaby and Ted Randall, and I remember
him hugging me so hard for such a
long time it became almost embarrassing, but it
was his way of saying goodbye to me.
But it was not a permanent goodbye.
I'll see his smiling face again when I
get to heaven.
I decided to go find and locate and
read all my correspondence from letters from friends
to me through the years.
This younger generation today will miss out because
of technology, because the art of letter writing
is dead.
But I found my old letters from friends
like William McDonald and J.I. Packer and
John Phillips and Stephen Olford and others who
are now in heaven.
And as I reread those letters, suddenly I
felt like a very rich man, because a
man's real wealth is not counted in investment
portfolios and bank accounts, but in good friends.
And I realized that I have more friends
in heaven than I do down here, and
I can't wait to see them and spend
time with them and enjoy them.
I believe when a Christian dies, he goes
immediately into the presence of Jesus.
And I also believe there is a welcoming
delegation to heaven, and at the head of
that delegation stands Jesus, and all around him
are our loved ones and friends we knew
in life.
They are there to greet us and welcome
us and rejoice with us for that victory
in Jesus.
I remember J.
Siddle Baxter commenting when he was in his
late 90s.
He said, I'm more up there than I
am down here.
I believe I can say the same.