Christians have said to me, “I am not afraid of death. But how I get there concerns me.” The Apostle Paul wrote to those who have understood the Gospel and made the decision to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior:
2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
We believers in Jesus Christ have God’s guarantee that when we leave this earthly body by whatever means, we will be instantly in Heaven with Him. “absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
My Sweetheart wife read me a short piece from a book that I thought was appealing and appropriate. John and Betty Stam were missionaries with China Inland Missions in 1931. Betty’s favorite verse was Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” They were captured by the Chinese Communists and as they knelt side by side, they were decapitated for their faith in Christ. (Yes, the Islamo-Fascists are not the only ones who behead Christians).
This poem and the story of the Stams was published in the book “Women Who Loved God” by Elizabeth George.
Afraid? Of what?
To feel the spirit’s glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid — of that?
By author Rev. E. H. Hamilton, missionary of the China Inland Mission
Notes From A Retired Preacher 