Heavenly Bound

By Gregory Armstrong

This book was written by my mother more than thirty years ago when she was inspired to tell her story about how important life is here on earth and about the beauty of life after death. The book explains how she experienced life as a Christian and prepared her life before going to heaven. My mother was very spiritual and believed in the Lord, and she wanted to share her experiences about preparing yourself before you pass away and meet the Lord. This book will be instrumental to those who know they are about to pass away and want to get right with the Lord and themselves before they die. This book has helped different people ease themselves, knowing there is a place after life that is greater than what is here on earth.

My mission in life is to please both the Lord and my mother by getting her message out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543428681

Gregory Armstrong

My name is Gregory Armstrong. I’m a retired Houston firefighter, third generation. I worked two jobs nearly my entire life, and don’t regret it at all. I’m a person that believes in second chances, and willing to share the secrets to others to achieve their dreams that slipped by them the first go around. UPDATE 10.25.19: My name is Gregory Armstrong. I’m a retired Houston firefighter, third generation. I worked two jobs nearly my entire life and regret none of it. I’m a person who believes in second chances, and I am willing to share my secrets with others so they can achieve the dreams that slipped by them the first go-around.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Gregory Armstrong.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017908860

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5434-2867-4

                Softcover       978-1-5434-2866-7

                eBook            978-1-5434-2868-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 06/05/2017

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Contents

In The Will Of God

Heavenly Bound

At The Cross

Give Me Patience, O My Lord

To My Grandchildren, With Love

Thank You For Being My Friend

From Sister, With Love

Mothers

Introduction To Our Greatest Commitment Of All

Our Greatest Commitment Of All

A Tribute To My Family, With Love

The Words Given to Me by the Inspiration of Our Lord and Savior

The Holy Bible, King James Version

Jo Ann Armstrong

This book is dedicated to my loving husband, Billy Armstrong, and children Gerald, Gary, Greg, and Sandra, who supported me. I especially want to thank my son Greg for his hard work and enthusiasm in seeing that this book be published.

IN THE WILL OF GOD

Dearly Beloved,

I N COMING TO accept my death, after being told that there was nothing that could be done for me, I had to accept living first. I knew that death held no boundaries for me, that as a Christian, I know my Lord, my God, went to the cross for me that I may have life eternally with him. It wasn’t the dying that bothered me. I just didn’t know about the living part of it, until I wrote this letter to you.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was one of the first secular psychologists to observe that people and their loved ones may go through five stages in the dying process. Most people in the medical and psychological fields agree that a person doesn’t march through the five stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance like a programmed robot. These stages may coexist, be reversed, or be skipped, but the pattern is common in many sufferers.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross made a great contribution to the understanding of death and dying, but her conclusion stands in stark contrast to the hope of the Christian. In an interview she was asked if patients’ religious orientations affected their view toward resignation in the end. She answered, I have very few religious people. The few I have—and I mean those with a deep intrinsic faith—have it much easier, but they are extremely few… . Many people become religious in the end, but it is not really effective.

Billy Graham wrote a book called Facing Death and the Life After. In the book, Graham speaks of his father-in-law, Dr. L. Nelson Bell, who served as a missionary in China and wrote many years ago, The uncertainty is not the dying, it’s the preparation.

Dr. Bell, who had seen many die, said there was a vast difference between the reactions of believers and nonbelievers at the time of death.

In contrast to the anguish and anxiety of the person with no eternal hope, Christians can look to Christ for hope and encouragement. Because of our faith in Christ we do not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Whatever suffering and agony we must endure, either in our own body or for someone we love, we are assured of his presence. And ultimately we will be resurrected with a body free of pain, an incorruptible and immortal body like his. This is our future hope.

The journey through the valley may be extremely difficult, but what a glorious destination awaits us when we travel with Jesus Christ.

Not only are we Christians, but we react humanly. We want to reach out to our loved ones, to prepare them for our departure and help them accept our separation not as a final act, but as momentary. We want to ease their pain and suffering and talk to them about how they feel about death. We want to make it easier for them to go on living and into their future without us. We who are dying want to tell our loved ones to accept Christ as their personal Savior, so that we will not be separated by death but bonded together in eternity, going ahead for only a little while until the Lord calls them home also.

I was once hurt by a remark about my faith as a Christian. The person, with all good intentions, said, If you really believed in God, you would pray for him to cure you completely and extend your life for a long time. I read my Bible continuously and prayed about what had been said to me, and then the Lord’s answer came to me.

I said, Lord, if you want me to live, so be it. If you want to heal me or extend my life, so be it. For whether I live here or whether I die and go home, I am in the will of God. I am his, whether I live here on earth or in the kingdom of God.

Being in the will of God, I have no anxiety, because as a child of God, I can be secure here, living the final days of my life in peace. The worst part of dying for me has been my struggle to be patient.

In the last days before a Christian goes to be with the Lord, Satan will seek to steal his or her peace. The weakness caused by disease or pain or the confusion of the mind may cause even the greatest of saints to have moments of doubt.

Herbert Lockyer (1886-1984) was a minister and best-selling author of over 50 books. He was most influential, however, after crossing the Atlantic to preach and write in the United States. He tells about finding an ancient work called The Book of the Craft of Dying. The unknown writer of this early treatise discusses five principles out right confronting the believer. They are translated into modern understanding and worthy of examination:

1. Faith must be maintained.

This is what so many seek, when doubt clouds the minds as the last hour approaches. It does not seem to matter how long the Christian has walked in the path of faith. We are all like children who constantly need to be