Just a few days before the conclusion of 2024, a dear soul whose life shaped the world took flight from earth to the glories of heaven. Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States went home to be with the Lord on December 29, 2024 at the age of 100. His was a life shaped by his salvation in Christ. Before Carter became president, he was a peanut farmer, Sunday School teacher, evangelist, prayer warrior, devoted husband to his one and only wife, Rosalynn who preceded him in heaven by one year, statesman, and governor of Georgia. When his naval academy classmates pressured him into isolating the only black student in the school, Carter made the man his friend and came to his defense. When militants overran the US Embassy in Iran in 1979, Carter who was then president was found not in the Oval Office but in prayer at church. While president, he spoke openly about being born again, the veracity of the Word of God and the efficacy of prayer. Beyond the limelight of the presidency, Carter was a humanitarian, working tirelessly with Habitat for Humanity, building homes for the needy. At 84, Carter was spotted with a handsaw cutting wood for a house that was being built for the poor. He and his wife stopped volunteering for month-long projects when he turned 96 (and she was 93).
As 2024 turns into 2025, my mind turned to what it meant to live a life that counts for God. Watching Jimmy Carter’s life unfold is like reading the pages of Scripture about a man named Elijah – prophet of fire, worker of miracles, teacher of prophets, discipler of Elisha, cleanser of Israel. In the end, it is not the amount of money one accumulates, or the success of one’s career that one puts into a resume, or the heights of power that one achieves as a measure of one’s greatness, but the humble walking with God that makes each word, each action and each decision count in the Throne Room of Heaven. Jimmy Carter had biographers track him through the years after he ended his presidency in 1981 to his homegoing in 2024, and every biographer has been awed by his gentle spirit of godly determination. Paul in the Book of Romans describes this godly determination in the words, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8). Like the Prophet Elijah, I see Jimmy Carter taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. And down from the skies drifts a cloak that defined his life. Pick up that cloak, and you will see the joys of the godly life. Now, wear it as we walk into 2025.
Just Church
At Just Church, our determination is to nurture disciples who will live each day for Jesus. “The vision of Just Church is to establish a church in just the way Christ called the church to be – true to His Word, loving Him, loving one another, and loving the lost.”
