Precious Rest August 20, 2009

Fear of dying.  It colors so much of my life.  I don’t want to die. That’s why I go to the doctor, I buckle my seat belt, I eat my vegetables, I exercise.  If I follow all the directions and rules, I just might live and live and live and….

It’s that eternity that God has placed in our hearts.  We can’t shake that desire to live forever.
“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; …”  Ecc. 3:11

So…this desire to live and never die comes from God.  Life is good.  But I believe it is godly to be bold in the face of death.  It is godly to not fear death.  God has promised…..

^“and whoever lives and believes in me will never die…..”  John 11:26

I’m always a bit taken aback by how God addresses the death of the saints.  I have to look again.

“Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his saints.”  Psalm 116:15

“Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.”  I Kings 2:10

The death of his saints is precious rest.  I have a long way to go to adopt that view.  He will change me.  He will prepare me.  “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”  2 Peter 1:3.  He is a gracious God.  He will also give me everything I need for death.  He is my God.

To Die Is Gain March 10, 2009

Death and dying are topics that are difficult for me to discuss, difficult to get my mind around, difficult to even think about.  But Paul says in Philippians that for him, death is gain.  Really?  Really?  Death is gain?

I went through a period in my life when I was very afraid to die.  My children were small and needy.  What in the world would happen to them if something happened to me?  It became a paralyzing fear.  I couldn’t answer the question.  What would happen to them?

I knew all the right answers, but I couldn’t seem to square those right answers with my heart.

At that time in my life, “For to me, to live was caring for my family and to die was to abandon them.”

If death is not gain for me, is my living Christ?  When I can say that to die is gain, can I then be confident that for me to live is Christ?  I wonder…

How would you fill in the blank?

For to me, to live is______________________  and to die is____________________.

same kind of different As me February 27, 2009

Meet Denver, a man raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana in the 1960s; a man who escaped, hopping a train to wander, homeless, for eighteen years on the streets of Dallas, Texas. No longer a slave, Denver’s life was still hopeless-until God moved. First came a godly woman who prayed, listened, and obeyed. And then came her husband, Ron, an international arts dealer at home in a world of Armani-suited millionaires. And then they all came together.

But slavery takes many forms. Deborah discovers that she has cancer. In the face of possible death, she charges her husband to rescue Denver. Who will be saved, and who will be lost? What is the future for these unlikely three? What is God doing?

Same Kind of Different As Me is the emotional tale of their story: a telling of pain and laughter, doubt and tears, dug out between the bondages of this earth and the free possibility of heaven. No reader or listener will ever forget it.

from Barnes and Noble

Denver Moore, page 80:

I slept in the doorway of that United Way over on Commerce Street for a whole lotta years. And every mornin for all that time, a lady who worked there brought me a sandwich. I never knowed her name and she never knowed mine. I wish I could thank her. Funny, though. That United Way buildin was right next door to a church, and for all them years, nobody at that church ever looked my way.

For starters, I don’t like sad books. This book broke my heart. I cried several times. But it’s been recommended many times by many good friends…I felt compelled to read it.

I am so glad I did. It is a precious book. Maybe I don’t mind sad books after all. I was strengthened by the way this couple faced disaster. They included people in their struggle and maintained their service to God through personal pain. It helped them cope with their heart break.

I hope I will handle life’s pains and struggles with similar fortitude and focus on eternity.

The story is told through the eyes of Denver, the poor homeless man, and the eyes of Deborah and her husband, the wealthy volunteers.  The reading is awkward when Denver tells the story because the spelling and grammar try to be authentic.  However, it was worth the time and energy to see the lives of these three who are striving to die to themselves.

Let me know what you think.