"Please don't let me die."

"I don't want to die. Please don't let me die."  - Hugo Chavez  28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013

The last words of a dying man are a bit self defining, I think.  When the king lays dying, all the pomp and circumstance, all the false pride, all the honors of state, all the medals pinned to a uniform, and all the accolades of your 'supporters' come to an end.  What you have left is the stark reality that you are leaving all this behind.  The illusion of power fades and the uncertainty of eternity is real and imminent.  I have no way of knowing where Mr. Chavez's heart was, but I can look at his life, study the fruit on the tree.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  Matt 7:16

I am seeing more thistles than figs in the life of this man.  In an attempt to put a spin on things, this was the response from his government.

"He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips ... `I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," Gen. Jose Ornella 

Well General Ornella, I beg to differ.  I do not think it was love of country that brought those words to his lips but rather a fear of falling into the hands of a just and righteous God.  For the citizen of Heaven, death is when life truly begins.  A grave is just a doorway cut into the sod, a turf portal to a place of rest and the close presence of the God we love....where our faith shall be our eyes.

We have a promise regarding that and God is able to keep his promises.

  

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also...."  John 14:1 and FF

But not for the unbeliever.  For them, this life is as good as it ever will get.

I hope that Mr. Chavez, in that final moment,  reached out to God for mercy and forgiveness.  God is willing that none should perish.  Because when the last breath was breathed, he stood before God and all those medals and powers and puffed up importance were of no worth at all.  Presidents or paupers, God looks at the heart, humbles the proud, lifts up the weak.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first.  How is it that the powerful ruler of a country, a man who held lives in his hands, will fear death while a poor and humble servant of God, someone of no importance, of no great worth or standing in this life, can slip away with a smile on his face and peace in his heart?

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. - John 14-27

And only things done for Christ will last.  

What Does the Lord Require?

⁶ “With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

But for the wicked....

¹¹ Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?
¹² Your rich men are full of violence;
    your inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
¹³ Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    making you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴ You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
    and what you preserve I will give to the sword. - Micah 6