Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” Having said this, He breathed His last.” Matthew 23:46
“It is finished!” and bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:30
I have always been fascinated by the last words people say as they lay dying. Did you ever wonder what your final words would be? How do you want to be remembered? I volunteered in a Nursing Home and the Christian nurses said there was a huge difference between the death of a believer, versus the death of an unbeliever. I did a little research and found some interesting facts about different famous people who passed into eternity. Two themes seem to be repeated: hopelessness, depression and a feared fate, contrasted by hopefulness, shouts of joy and this message, “This isn’t the end, death is the BEGINNING!” Ponder these deathbed quotes:
Martin Luther: “Our God is the God from whom cometh salvation. God is the Lord by whom we escape death!”
Voltaire: “I am abandoned by God and man! I shall go to hell! O Christ, O Jesus Christ!” His nurse said, “For all the money in Europe, I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.”
D.L.Moody: He turned to his sons and said, “If God be your partner, make your plans large. If this is death, it is sweet. There is no valley here. God is calling me, and I must go.” On his tombstone was 1 John 2:17, “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
Winston Churchill: The man who said, “never give up,” said on his deathbed, “I am convinced there is no hope.”
Augustus Toplady author of the hymn “Rock of Ages,” said, “I enjoy heaven already in my soul. My prayers are all converted into praises.”
Thomas Paine: “I would give worlds, if I had them, if The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help he! Christ, help me! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone!”
King Charles IX, the French king who gave the order to massacre 100,00 Huguenots suffered in his last hours. To his physicians, he said: “Asleep or awake, I see the bloody forms of the Huguenots. They point at their wounds. Oh! That I had spared the little infants! What blood! How will this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever! I have done wrong!”
John Knox: “Live in Christ, live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death.”
John Wesley: “The best of all is, God is with us. Farewell! Farewell!
Charles Wesley: “I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness—satisfied, satisfied!”
Napoleon Bonaparte brought death to millions said on his deathbed: “I die before my time and my body will be given back to the earth. Such is the fate of the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ!”
Jim Elliott: “Only one life will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
“To me to live is Christ and to die is gain!” Phil. 1:21. For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36.
Jesus Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25. Hallelujah!!!
Your friend, Jean