for
Westside Care Center Tuesday September 25, 2012
for
Westside Care Center Tuesday September 25, 2012
Tomorrow, Bernie Meisler would have been 95. This is the length of His Dad’s Life whom he often said he wanted to out-live. Today we can affirm Bernie Meisler is not dead, and though both have died physically, WE ARE SURE Bernard Meisler Sr. (born Sept 26,1918) Lives forever!
In early, 2003 Bernie moved into Westside Care Center. He had heard about Jesus the Jewish Messiah probably throughout his life. But in 1992, he decided to go on the Lady Fenwick with a friend at Alberta Manor Nursing Center where I had taken my parents from CO, their only visit to be in CT. I shared an English Bible with him, and a willingness to take him to a very friendly church. The rest is the work God did on his heart to save his soul.
We look forward to seeing him in heaven. Surely a Jewish man made complete through the Messiah will be an amazing scene in Heaven!
Living in 2012 is more and more uncertain for we who are still alive, and yet this is an amazing time to be living, and especially in America. Though we have an abundance of negative news facing us each day we live-- we have the HOPE of the Gospel that saved Bernard Meisler, SR. in early 2003, and made public in October, 2003 in a revival meeting and again in May, 2004 when he was baptized at Truth Baptist Church.
At
Truth Baptist Church we have monthly fellowships where such occasions as
birthdays can be celebrated. Mrs. Jennifer Morrell provided this cake and Mr.
Paul Creech provided a shirt and tie and Bernie had a brand new set of friends
in his family... for his last 5 years of life. Bernie hardly missed a service,
every Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday Evenings.
Heaven will be a lot like this for us who live in a sin-cursed dwelling place like earth is now. It says in Romans 8:22-23
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Bernie
left this earth in December, 2008. But it was not his choice to die in a
hospital. No. Where did he want to die? At Westside Care Center. Yes-- you see
it was his last home on earth. It was the home where he received a new
life after 85 years of frustration and a life without purpose. We get used to
the place we live. Sometimes we get too used to it, especially when little seems
pleasant about it. It is 2012 now, and what about YOUR LIFE, YOUR HOME?
God has promised us a home in a heaven of indescribable beauty and blessedness.
John 14:2-3
"In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. "And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may
be also.
Where are you most at home? If it's not a place you like to be, it can
change just as dramatically as Westside Care Center changed for Bernie Meisler!
Bernie's life changed completely in the course of 8 or 9 months while there and everyone saw the change. 2 Corinthians 5: 17 says
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new.
His new life is was testimony that everyone who knew him could experience the
same dramatic transformation that he experienced. It is so dramatic because GOD
IS DOING THE TRANSFORMING, NOT WE OURSELVES.
We are living in the midst of troubled times, and you need to really know what the Bible says about trusting God:
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
All of Bernie's life he instinctively avoided Jesus Christ (John 3:19 "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil.) except in expressions of profanity.
The sowing of a copy of the Bible in his heart in 1992 planted a seed there he couldn't ignore, and when it came time for the first room change at Westside in 2003, he found a picture of Jesus on the wall of his room left there by the last resident. It was his testimony, 'I'm not taking that picture down in here.' I believe this was the day Bernie Meisler 'got saved' because he had faith that Jesus Christ would lead him to a better life, indeed, an eternal life! As a Jew he began trusting "Messiah" which is the Old Testament Name for Jesus in the Bible because Jesus was 'the Annointed One' who would deliver Israel from their sins.
Some thought maybe it was the day he decided to quit smoking about 6 weeks before I first came to Westside on Saturday October 18 that year. People at Truth Baptist Church thought it was the 19th, Sunday night, when he came down the isle and prayed with Mr. Ron Radziewicz at the beginning of our revival with Jerry Sivntsky that year.
And everyone knew by Memorial Day 2004 Bernie Meisler's faith in his Messiah was real when he was baptized by immersion. The Bible in Romans 6:4 says, Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. And in Romans 9:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. To an unbelieving world there is no doubt that a change is come when baptism occurs.
Whenever it really happened is not as important and the fact of the act!
Friend, whether you knew Bernie, or not, or just know someone who knew him or not even that, you need to know Bernie's Messiah. We encourage you to come to him today:
John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me,
and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.