Posted on 06/07/2004 12:50:43 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Ronald Wilson Reagan's life was filled with purpose and meaning. He believed God had a plan for his as well as everyone's life, and that gave his life meaning.
He lived every day of his life trying to do God's will and felt called by God to run for president. President Reagan did not run for power or prestige, he ran because, as Mike Reagan said, "he believed God had things for him to do." Believing that his life was saved by divine intervention after the nearly fatal assassination attempt, Reagan wrote:
I've always believed that we were, each of us, put here for a reason, that there is a ... divine plan for all of us. I know now that whatever days are left to me belong to him [God].
He felt the Lord saved his life for a reason, and he decided he was going to live the rest of his life doing God's work.
It was Reagan's mother Nelle who provided him with "a very real and deep faith." She imparted to a young Ronald an abiding belief in the providence of a loving and merciful God. He used to call it "DP" for Divine Providence or Divine Plan. This belief and faith helped guide him throughout his life. More than anything else, Reagan believed prayer sustained him through difficult and dark times. He once said his faith in God gave him "peace beyond description."
Reagan's living legacy was his ultimate triumph over communism and the Soviet Union, a struggle that began while he worked in Hollywood and followed him over the next 40 years of his life. Reagan's relationship with God fueled his fight against this ever-growing political threat to liberty.
Ronald Reagan would want us to celebrate because he has been "called home" by the Lord to "another place – the better place we've all been promised" – Heaven. He saw death as a passage or a homecoming. Reagan understood his life on Earth was just a temporary journey, and Heaven is his ultimate home. While speaking at funerals and memorials, he often spoke of death's inevitability and reminded listeners of the brevity, preciousness and meaning of life.
When he was only 17 years old, he wrote a poem titled "Life." The poem serves as a reminder to all that we are here on Earth for a brief time, but are promised eternal life. His poem urges us to keep life in perspective and remain optimistic. His own words now offer comfort to us who are mourning his passing.
But why does sorrow drench us
When your fellow passes on?
He's just exchanged life's dreary dirge
For an eternal life of song ...
It was from President Reagan's favorite Bible verse, John 3:16, that he drew his confidence that one day he would have eternal life in Heaven. He often quoted from it, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." Reagan added, "Helping each other, believing in Him, we need never be afraid. We will be part of something far more powerful, enduring and good than all the forces here on Earth. We will be a part of paradise."
When asked what this verse means to him personally, he said, "It means that having accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I have God's promise of eternal life, as well as the abundant life here on earth that he promises to each of us in John 10:10."
It just so happened to be the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded that President Reagan had a scheduled interview to discuss his approaching 75th birthday. With tears in his eyes, having just finished paying tribute to the astronauts, he opened up and reflected on his own life. Sharing with the journalist, he said: "I draw strength from my belief in God and his teaching. That belief and faith in the Almighty helps me to cope with a tragedy like this." He finally steered the conversation around to his birthday to humbly say, "[The] anniversaries of my birth aren't important. What is important is that I have tried to lead a meaningful life, and I think I have."
At the end of his farewell letter to the public, in 1994, in which he announced he had Alzheimer's disease, he thanked the "American people for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."
Ronald Wilson Reagan was a faithful servant who loved the Lord and answered His call, fulfilled his mission on Earth, and he changed the world. Now that his journey is over, he's finally home.
The left still cannot fathom RWR's greatness and what the source of that greatness was....
bttt
well, i'll have to look him up in eternity--along with CS Lewis, my Tia Stella and the apostle Paul...
JOHN 8V43
"why do you not understand My speach?because you are not able to listen to My word."
Text of, and link to MP3 of Reagan's Speech to a Texas Prayer Breakfast in August, 1984. Good Stuff.
...Ronald Wilson Reagan's life was filled with purpose and meaning. He believed God had a plan for his as well as everyone's life, and that gave his life meaning.....
President Reagan was both a wonderful Christian and the most honest and truthful President of my lifetime.
I'm glad to hear that he knew Jesus as his Saviour.
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