"His coffin was packed."

My first thought, when I saw this subject line on an email, was of ancient pagans who wanted their coffins, and their crypts, packed full of things to take along into the afterlife. 

But then I read this wonderful quote from All In: You are one decision away from a totally different life, by Mark Batterson. And I realized that this had nothing to do with occult visions of an imaginary afterlife; the author simply meant that the man who was his subject was ready at any time to leave for the Christian's ultimate destination. 

"A. W. Milne . . . set sail  for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunters who lived there had martyred every missionary before him.  Milne did not fear for his life, because he had already died to himself.  His coffin was  packed. For thirty-five years, he lived among that tribe and loved them. When he died, tribe members buried him in the middle of their village and inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone: 
 
When he came there was no light.
 
When he left there was no darkness." 

May that be the legacy of every born-again Christian! 

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) 

If you've been looking for more proof that this verse is indeed true, here it is! 

Trapped in Hitler’s Hell is a first-person account of a young German Jewish girl’s trials, tragedies and triumphs in the years before, during and after World War II – a wonderful book on so many levels, appealing to every aspect of soul and spirit.
 
First, it’s a cliff-hanging adventure story to rival the finest I’ve ever read. I found it nearly impossible to put down. 
 
Second, it’s intellectually satisfying for anyone who’s fascinated by modern European history, by a world that allowed Hitler to put his demonic plans into motion, and especially by what it must have been like to live through such terrible times. 
 
Third, it’s a love story that captures, in well-chosen and well-told vignettes, a daughter’s devotion to her mother. 
 
Fourth, it’s a story of a rock-solid belief in happy endings, a belief that may appear baseless but seems to be its own reward through unimaginable ordeals.      
 
Finally, and most importantly, it’s a story of complete faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – in the childlike trust He wants us all to have as we labor through earthly lives that are plagued by loss. It is in fact a story that shows us precisely what it means to live for the Lord … and to take Him at His word when He promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 
 
My only criticism is that Trapped in Hitler’s Hell is too short. The author has done a magnificent job of giving readers just enough detail to feed our imaginations, without bogging us down. But as quickly as I raced through its pages, desperate to find out what happened to this daughter and her mother, I was very sad to turn the last page. I did not want this girl’s story to end. 
 
Come to think of it, thanks to her relationship with the Messiah Himself, her story never will end. 
 
Many thanks to Anita Dittman and her talented memoirist Jan Markell for an unforgettable book!  For details about the book and its new companion DVD, visit the Hitler's Hell website. 

Is there any human bond more significant than the mother-child relationship? I don’t believe so, and I’ll bet most people would agree.  
 
If you’re among them, here’s the big question: will you enjoy that relationship for all eternity?
 
There’s only one way to be sure, whatever our culture may be trying to teach us.  And that’s repenting and trusting in Jesus Christ’s full payment for our sins on the cross.
 
I have no doubt that this is true. Back in 2000, faced with the death of my own Christian mother, I investigated the two most important questions a human being can ask: Is there a God? And if so, which one’s the real deal?
 
The first one turned out to be easy. Anyone who questions the existence of God is either not paying attention, or is as “willfully ignorant” as I was for most of my adult life. In either case, he or she is more interested in his or her own thinking than in overarching truth.
 
The second question – which God? – was tougher. I did not head straight for Christianity, figuring that it was too restrictive, too intolerant, too blasé for my exotic tastes. So I looked into every other major religion first, searching for the “everyone’s welcome” truth that would put me on a path to joining my mother forever.
 
Except that I came up empty. I found no evidence of truth in the world’s “anything but Christianity” religions – not in Islam, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or the Baha’i faith, or the New Age, or any of the major offshoots of these worldviews.
 
So at last I turned to Christianity. Since I was looking for proof, and had nothing but books to guide my search, I naturally turned to the Bible.

​And was blown away by what I discovered in its pages.
 
My memoir Heaven Without Her details this journey in what author Mark Buchanan called “a wonder of storytelling and a testament of grace.” There are a number of excellent Christian apologetics books available today (some described in my bibliography). But if you are not absolutely sure of your eternal destination, or your mother’s or child's, Heaven Without Her may be the perfect book for you to read and share this Mother’s Day. I hope you’ll check it out soon.