A TRIUMPH—NOT A TRAGEDY
By Erwin Bourne—August 4, 2002

This is the biblical response to death.  We should see
it as a transition to the unfathomable joys and
fellowship of eternal life.  One godly man’s last
words before death were. “This should be interesting.”
When my own mother was dying in Bentoville, Arkansas,
she said, “I’m going to the glory land.”  Several
years later when Dad died in the Fairbanks Memorial
hospital in Alaska, the presence of God was so
pronounced that the whole roomful of people kept
singing and praising God for four hours before the
undertaker came for the body.

The righteous are far better off in the next world
than in this one.  Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”  Paul
put it this way, “O death, where is thy sting?  O
grave, where is thy victory” (I Corinthians 15:55
KJV).  These Scriptures hint at a place far side of
the river that is more wonderful than we can imagine.
How reassuring it is to know that our loved ones have
gone on to that better world and that as believers
will soon join them.

I returned to the U.S. from a lengthy missionary
itinerancy which took me to Lima, Peru, and other
coastal cities.  Then we went up to Cajamarca—capitol
of the Inca empire, and across the high timber-line
regions in Peru.  And finally our party passed through
points in Colombia and home to Texas.  Here I
collapsed in the Harlingen hospital ravaged with
typhoid fever. 

For eleven days I lay unconscious.  In this comatose
state, I had a vision of my sainted mother on a
shining stairway leading to heaven.  She turned and
gazed back at me.  I asked her if there were others
who had made this last ascent.  Immediately the stairs
were filled with those whom I had known in past years.
I begged God to let me join that throng, but He told
me my work was not yet finished.  Today we labor on
the Amazon in South America.

To those who are hurting and discouraged at this time,
I think it would be comforting to look forward to the
time when the present trials will be a distant memory.
A day of celebration is coming like nothing that has
ever occurred in the history of mankind.  This is the
hope of the ages.

By Erwin Bourne <Outreach_amazon@yahoo.com>