Wuantia Adkins (1935 -2022)

Last Tuesday night, Wuantia Adkins went home to be with the Lord. The doctors told her about four years ago that she had a month to live. We had a church service at her home because we thought she wasn't long for this world. But she was back to church a couple of weeks later. She loved going to church. The family told me that when she started getting sicker, she would wake up and ask when the church service was. That was always on her mind and heart. Waunita loved the Lord's house. She loved hymns, often reading through them before church, and loved to sing one of her favorites, Saved to the Uttermost. Waunita was always good and kind to my family and me and always a blessing to the Buffalo Valley Baptist Church. She always had an encouraging word for me after sermons, and especially loved to hear about God's sovereignty in salvation. Wuanita was a devoted wife and loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother. And right now, she is with Jesus. She is free from pain, and she is free from disease, happy, and blessed.

But I want you to know that Waunita is not in heaven because she was a sweet lady. She is not in heaven because she went to church. She is not in heaven because she was a devoted wife or a loving mother. As far as people I know, she was one of the best. But she wasn't a perfect person, and she'd be the first to tell you that. She was a sinner by nature and a sinner by choice. The Bible says all have sinned and that sin's wages are death. All who are under the law are under the curse of the law. And that's every one of us. That's you. It's appointed unto man once to die, and after that, judgment. We are born into this world sinners and by nature, children of wrath, walking according to the course of this world. You know it, and I know it. We've all sinned, and that's a problem.

But Waunita IS in Heaven -- and it's because Jesus loved her. God, who is rich in mercy, sent His only begotten Son into the world to save his people from their sins. By God's grace, He gives eternal life in Christ. Waunita is righteous because she had Christ's righteousness. Waunita is in heaven because Jesus paid for her sins and gave her eternal life. She is in heaven because she knew Jesus was a Saviour and believed it and rested in Christ as HER savior. Waunita trusted in Christ for pardon, and she lived in Christ for power. And now she rests in Christ for all eternity.

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.