Cast Your Eyes Upon Jesus
By Emil C. Liko

"Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath." (Psalm 39:4-5)

How painful it is to watch a loved one slipping away. Family and friends gather to see them before the end. Some come to say, "I love you." Some to try to say all they feel that needs to be said. An asking of forgiveness, one last promise to be made. One last chance to hold them tight. I too have been there, sitting with a loved one who is at death's door. The pain in our hearts seems at times too much for us to bear.

Then someone asks the question and a positive answer brings peace in a time of despair. "Do they know Jesus?" When the answer is "yes," it is like a breath of fresh air. All is not lost. They will soon be with Jesus. "The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety (Job 5:11)." Suddenly there is a confidence and a sense of security, knowing what will happen to those whom we love. Sometime in our lives we will all be faced with this kind of situation.

I experienced this only a month ago, with the family of a man named Earl. He was dying from heart failure. When I arrived, the doctors and nurses were unhooking and shutting down Earl's life support systems. All the family was present including Earl's wife of almost 50 years. Each took their turn saying good bye and telling Earl how much they loved him. I asked if Earl knew the Lord and was told, "Oh yes!" As time passed and Earl began to fail, the family's grief grew. Earl was conscious throughout this and I noticed that he began to become less aware of the family surroundings and more aware of things unseen to us. Earl's son-in-law asked, "Pop, what are you looking at?" Then he looked at me and said with a smile, "I know what he's looking at." I couldn't help but sense the sweetness and the peace and the presence of Jesus which had settled upon the room. Every time I looked at Earl I knew he had fixed his eyes upon Jesus. Just as the Lord promised, He had come for Earl! To take him to a place which He had prepared for him (John 14:2-3). The Lord in whom he had believed for most of his life was here! "Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised (Hebrews 10:35-36)." "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2Corinthians 4:18)."

In the Bible Jonah thought his time had come and that he was about to die when he was swallowed by a huge fish. Jonah said at that moment, "To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple (Jonah 2:6-7)." Even at the point of death Jonah knew to whom he had entrusted his life. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39)."

Three years ago my Uncle Emil, my namesake, began to fail. I went to see him daily. Just days before he passed away, he motioned to me to come over and lean down towards him. He said, "I want to know who your friends are?" "My friends?" I asked, not knowing what he was talking about for there were only the two of us in the room. He replied, smiling as he looked at the foot of his bed, "Your two friends that come in with you each day, the two big guys in white suits. They come in with you but when you leave, they stay with me throughout the night and every time I look at them they just smile at me but never say a word!" A Christian dies and heaven waits. "The bride, a princess, waits within her chamber, dressed in a gown woven in gold. In her beautiful robes, she is led to the King, accompanied by her bridesmaids. What a joyful, enthusiastic procession as they enter the King's palace [heaven] (Psalm 45:13-15)."

"In that day he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken! In that day the people will proclaim, 'This is our God. We trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!' (Isaiah 25:7-9)"

All good things must come to an end, they say, but this is far from true when you have Jesus in your heart. For although your life here on earth will inevitably end, life with Jesus never ends! "When this happens-when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die-then at last the scriptures will come true: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?'… How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, my dear brothers and sisters [in CMA], be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless (1Corinthians 15:54-58)."

"Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and to those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God (2Corinthians 2:14-17)."

We have mastered servant evangelism.
Let us now evangelize.
Are you up for the task?