Miss Dottie Nixon's beliefs

Introduction:

It is sad that we are meeting under such circumstance. A wife, daughter, mother, sister and sister-in-Christ will be laid to rest today. What I want to do here is to highlight some of her beliefs so that you will see what drove her.

So what drove her life?

She believed in the depravity of man:

She knew that because of our first parents’ sin, all of us were corrupted by that sinful nature. We inherited from our first parents. For this reason, none of us had the ability to come to God or enter into a relationship with Him. In , the prophet writes, “We, all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; we are all born with the inclination to walk away from God. This was the result of our first parents’ disobedience in .

…to overcome our depravity, we have to accept Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins:

It was on the cross of Calvary that the greatest unfair exchange took place. It was on the cross of Calvary that Jesus took our robe of sin and gave us His robe of righteousness. And because of the exchange on Calvary, we are today dressed in His righteousness.

A song written by Chris Anderson conveys this sentiment. “His robes for mine. O Wonderful exchange! Dressed in my sin, Christ suffered beneath God’s rage. Draped in His righteousness, I am justified. In Christ I live, for in my place He died.” She held to this belief…that Christ took her place on the cross of Calvary.

…by accepting Christ’s sacrifice, she became a daughter of God:

John states in 1:12 of his gospel, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in His name, He gave them the right to become children of God.” She knew that she became a child of God not because of her heritage but because of her acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

She knew that when she became a child of God, she became an object of God’s love.

…life on this side of eternity was short:

Some days, when I was at the office, she would come in to drop some supplies. I will remind her that the church was praying for her. Her response was something like this, “I want to beat this cancer, but if i die, I know where I am going.” In , the Psalmist talks about the brevity of human life. He writes, “The life of man is like grass, they flourish like the flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone. She knew that we only have a very short time on this side of eternity. We are here today and gone tomorrow.

Because she believed that her eternal destiny was with Christ, she was not afraid to die.

She knew that when she dies, life with God was going to be better than anything she experienced on this side of eternity. She was echoing the sentiment of the apostle Paul. In , he said, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Like Paul, death is a gain for her because she will be with Christ. It is a gain because in the presence of Christ, we will not be plague by the effects of the fall. In the presence of Christ, she will be free from the effect of cancer.

She was patient:

She was patient:

On her honey moon in Chicago, she went to a double-header with her husband. Now some of you may be asking, “What is a double header?” According to Wikipedia, a double header is a set of two baseball games played between the same two teams on the same day in front of the same crowd. Now that is patience.

Conclusion:

Conclusion:

Her relationship with Christ drove her life. She loved her Savior and today, she is in heaven worshipping God with the saints and the angels. May I ask you, do you have a relationship with Christ? Have you accepted the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for your sins? And if your life comes to an end, will you be spending your eternity in Christ’s presence?