Some of us are coping with another parting of life from planet earth. J.B. had a good life – a full life – that was called by God. Over the past two years she had been dealing with cancer and over the past months dealing with the degrading that cancer causes. The last days were tough but with drugs, not severe except for those of us seeing her and seeking to communicate with her. Her moment came and away she went; leaving behind her “house.”
Ecc 12:7, the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
(We will lay her body in the ground to return to dust.)
Ecc 8:7-8, Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come? As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death.
This reminds me of a tale retold in “Appointment in Samarra” by John O’Hara which opens with this ancient Mesopotamian tale:
There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
And such an event awaits each of us – DEATH! One-out-of-one!
But death and the grave aren’t our final stop! No, there is life on the other side and then a reverse of death coming when spirit and body will be reunited to live in combo again forever.
Call it an undeath – death undone!
John 5:28, A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
This reverse of death to a life with spirit reunited to body will result in either a life full of blessings or a life void of blessings.
Such being the case: that I’m destined to die and knowing that death will be reversed so to live possibly in condemnation, what do I do?
So? Ecc 12:7-8, Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
And, 12:1, Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them.”
The Bible charges all men that before death knocks: to look to, learn from and submit to the Creator’s will, which is to love His Son!
The dividing issue will be what is done with Jesus in this first life – in life now before death. At “undeath”, those in this first life who are faithful and following Jesus will receive a great eternity while those not amazed and faithful to Jesus in this life will live away from kindness and goodness – ugh!
At “undeath” for those who love Jesus this truth will come true: I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him. Job 19:25-27.
Ecc 12:7, the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
(We will lay her body in the ground to return to dust.)
Ecc 8:7-8, Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come? As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death.
This reminds me of a tale retold in “Appointment in Samarra” by John O’Hara which opens with this ancient Mesopotamian tale:
There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
And such an event awaits each of us – DEATH! One-out-of-one!
But death and the grave aren’t our final stop! No, there is life on the other side and then a reverse of death coming when spirit and body will be reunited to live in combo again forever.
Call it an undeath – death undone!
John 5:28, A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
This reverse of death to a life with spirit reunited to body will result in either a life full of blessings or a life void of blessings.
Such being the case: that I’m destined to die and knowing that death will be reversed so to live possibly in condemnation, what do I do?
So? Ecc 12:7-8, Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
And, 12:1, Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them.”
The Bible charges all men that before death knocks: to look to, learn from and submit to the Creator’s will, which is to love His Son!
The dividing issue will be what is done with Jesus in this first life – in life now before death. At “undeath”, those in this first life who are faithful and following Jesus will receive a great eternity while those not amazed and faithful to Jesus in this life will live away from kindness and goodness – ugh!
At “undeath” for those who love Jesus this truth will come true: I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him. Job 19:25-27.
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