There comes a time in all of our lives when we must face the inevitable.  Sooner or later we all will pass and meet the Creator of the Universe.  In a split second, our spirit and soul will leave our body and we will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ face to face.

"I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."  John 14:6

There is one way to God the Father and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  So, there we will stand, face to face with the very One who gave His life for us.  And, Jesus will speak.  He will request a search to see if your name is written in the Book of Life.  He already knows the answer.  He knows if you are one of His or not.  So, looking in that book is for your benefit.  Or, lack of benefit if your name is not found there.

As that angel looks for your name and, if found, reads your name out loud, it is only then that Jesus will welcome you into Heaven to see the Father and all that He has prepared for you for an eternity.  If your name is not found in the Book of Life, Jesus will honor your decision to have rejected the truth that He brought in the gospels, and you will be sent into the eterntiy of Hell, being separated from God, family, and friends forever.

When men of faith go home to be with the Lord, it is a joyous meeting with Jesus Christ.  They leave behind spouses, sons, daughters, grand-children, friends and business associates.  They leave behind a life that has been a struggle and they are finally free from all this life weighs them down with.  Once there, they will open their arms to be received by Jesus Christ the Son, God the Father, and familiy who have gone on before them.

This morning, a dear friend, a Christian brother, a godly man, a husband, a father, a son, a CEO of a company that held his name, stepped out of his body and into the presence of the Lord.  How wonderful that meeting must have been.  I do envy what you are seeing at this moment, my dear friend.

Welcome home David M. Armstrong.  For us who are left behind, it was way too early for you to go.  For God, He had written the number of your days long ago according to Psalm 139.  "Your ears say my substance yet unformed.  And in Your book they were written.  The days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them."

You ran a good race.  Enjoy the prize.  This Chaplain will miss you.