Sunday, November 30, 2008

Death and Hades were Thrown Into The Lake Of Fire. This, the lake of fire, is the second death. Rev. 20:14.

Death is an extremely ugly business. It would be bad enough if death simply lurked somewhere fare in the future. But it constantly finds ways to insert itself into the lives of the living.

A chaplain arrived at the hospital one morning and found a note to call the psych ward. One of the doctors had left some information for him there, of all places. Was this some sort of joke?

The chaplain called the psych ward and a cheerful voice chirped, "One East." After identifying himself to the woman, he heard, "Oh, are you chaplain who got bitten last week?"

"Yes, I'm the one."(It was a long story, not worth explaining to a stranger.)

"OK, the doctor said to tell you that the guy who bit you last week was HIV. . .[he heard the shuffling of papers as she searched for the document] . . .ummm. . .HIV. . . [the chaplain listened in frozen silence] negative!" she finally blurted out.

With pounding heart the chaplain gently reprimanded her "beside manner" and hung up the phone.

A woman in her late 40s refused to let her 88-year old mother die. Her mom came into the hospital for a new heart valve, but ended up on a respirator and wanted to be taken off the apparatus. The daughter thought she didn't really want to die. But doctors were required to honor the mother's wishes. The daughter, however, said plaintively, "I'm not ready for my mom to die."

My mom is 91 years old as I write. She is strong and still well able to take care of herself most of the time. But eery so often she gets frustrated by her limitations of sight, hearing, and physical mobility.

"I want to make it to January 15-some checks are coming in then. After that, I just want to die and get it over with."

"You'are probably got 10 years left in you, Mom," I say hopefully.

"Why would I want to live that long?" she askes (she did die on September 1).

Death and everything that leads up to it is a genuinely ugly business. The book of Revelation certainly doesn't sugarcoat the problem. But it confronts it with good news. Death is not permanent fixture of reality - it's not natural to the universe. One day death itself will die! That's why Jesus died, so that one day He might destroy death itself. I'm looking forward to that day, aren't you?

Lord, thank You for the promise of a life that transcends death. May the reality of eternal life transform the way I look at death.

you are the children of God you are partakers of His nature, and you cannot but be like Him. Every child lives by the life of his father. If you are God's children, begotten by His Spirit, you live by the life of God. In Christ dwells "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9); and the life of Jesus is made manifest "in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11). That life in you will produce the same character and manifest the same works as it did in Him. Thus you will be in harmony with every precept of His law; for "the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." Psalm 19:7, margin. Through love "the righteousness of the law" will be "fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:4(TFMB 78).