what is it like to touch God?
Yesterday I had the honor of sharing the pulpit with Greg Laurie at Harvest Christian Fellowship. Okay, Greg wasn't actually there with me, but I did get to speak at a believers "Going Away Party", that was held at Harvest C.F.
The going away party was for my friend Steve Esaki. Steve was a man who spent 54 years of his life rejecting God, until September 5th of this year, when he surrendered his life to Jesus, by confessing his sins to God, and placing his trust in Jesus alone for salvation. Steve's salvation was due to the steadfast prayers of his wife and her faithful walk with Jesus over the past 30 years, as well as the prayers of many believers throughout the years, and of course, the incredible mercy and tender heart of God to open up Steve's heart and give him understanding about Jesus.
While at Steve's going away party, I shared an incredible event that took place between he and I, while visiting him at the hospital less than 24-hours before he would be ushered into the presence of God. I will never forget this for the rest of my life. When I arrived at the hospital, his kids who are all young adults, where trying to awake him so that he could say hello to me. It wasn't easy due to the fact that he was close to going home to be with his Savior. It was very clear that Steve had one foot in heaven, and one foot here on earth. After a few-minutes of his kids pleading for their dad to wake-up, Steve finally opened his eyes. When Steve opened his eyes and saw me, I was so blessed to see his face light-up with joy. Steve had a huge smile on his face and then he quickly gave me a high-five and shook my hand. We then shared a few words, and he dosed back off to sleep for the remaining time that I was there. His wife told me later that this was his last human-interaction before going to heaven the next morning.
The going away party was for my friend Steve Esaki. Steve was a man who spent 54 years of his life rejecting God, until September 5th of this year, when he surrendered his life to Jesus, by confessing his sins to God, and placing his trust in Jesus alone for salvation. Steve's salvation was due to the steadfast prayers of his wife and her faithful walk with Jesus over the past 30 years, as well as the prayers of many believers throughout the years, and of course, the incredible mercy and tender heart of God to open up Steve's heart and give him understanding about Jesus.
While at Steve's going away party, I shared an incredible event that took place between he and I, while visiting him at the hospital less than 24-hours before he would be ushered into the presence of God. I will never forget this for the rest of my life. When I arrived at the hospital, his kids who are all young adults, where trying to awake him so that he could say hello to me. It wasn't easy due to the fact that he was close to going home to be with his Savior. It was very clear that Steve had one foot in heaven, and one foot here on earth. After a few-minutes of his kids pleading for their dad to wake-up, Steve finally opened his eyes. When Steve opened his eyes and saw me, I was so blessed to see his face light-up with joy. Steve had a huge smile on his face and then he quickly gave me a high-five and shook my hand. We then shared a few words, and he dosed back off to sleep for the remaining time that I was there. His wife told me later that this was his last human-interaction before going to heaven the next morning.
This is a special memory for me knowing I was the last person he interacted with on earth, and Jesus was the first person that he interacted with in heaven. How incredible is that? Knowing that the hands that I touched, and the eyes that I looked into, and the person that I was interacting with, left the reality of this world, and was a short-time later ushered into the reality of heaven, where he touched Jesus with the hands that I had just touched, looked into Jesus' eyes with the eyes that I had just stared into, and interacted with our Risen Lord and Savior after last interacting with me. What a very special and meaningful privilege this was for me!
So even though I did not get to officially touch Jesus and see Him in the flesh yet, I feel like I came really close, and that is a thrilling and exciting thing to think about! This sure does inspire me to live for Colossians 3:1-2 which says, "... Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."
