Heaven's Gain

We learned today that another brother-in-law in Wisconsin died. He was diagnosed with ALS about 18 months ago. We are at the stage in life when our siblings and their spouses are mostly in their 70s and 80's. One by one, we see God calling them home to be with Him. It is a comfort to know they belonged to God thru faith in Jesus Christ. We are not certain of this for some of their children and grandchildren. The funeral plans are not made yet. 

I attended a ladies' retreat this weekend of women across the span of 20 to 75 years. One of our Friday evening activities was to decorate booklets/journals one of the ladies made for us. She had generously brought all kinds of stickers, paper, colored pens, ribbons, etc. A main emphasis of our talks was to be saturated in the Truth, the Word of God so we can defend against the lies Satan tells us. I decided to turn my booklet into a Scripture repository. I decorated the left-hand side of the open pages with items (stickers, cut-outs) representing topics (beauty, the Names of God, prayer, casting out fear, birds, flowers, light/flame, etc.). On the bottom of that page and on the facing page I plan to write verses down. I only did half the book Friday night, but Saturday afternoon when I was home again I rummaged thru my scrapbooking supplies (which aren't many) and did some more.

I have decided to go thru concordances and other tools and peruse my Bible to find verses I want to have handy to meditate on before finishing out the topics and the decorating. One of my topics is heaven; what joy it will be to remember God's promises about our future abode as I think about our losses. I am excited about this project though I won't really get into it until after this very busy week. 

The above were from the retreat supplies