As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
This past Sunday, I spoke in a small church in northeast Wisconsin. Knowing of the love that many in that congregation have for Bible prophecy, I shared that Dr. Jimmy DeYoung had been announced as the featured speaker for this fall’s IFCA Wisconsin Regional meetings in October.
I did not realize until that evening that—by the time I gave that announcement—Dr. DeYoung was already experiencing that which the Apostle Paul described in Phil. 1:21:
The most prominent reality at a funeral is also at the same time the most difficult subject to discuss. That reality, of course, is the subject of death. As one man has noted, “Death is the one experience that will be shared in common by every person …. Every moment we live, the sand in the hourglass of our existence continues to flow, bringing our final end ever near.”1 And yet, despite the “commonness” of death, most people prefer not to talk about it. There seems to be a kind of natural aversion to death.
“Washington, Colorado and Oregon are now among the US states that have legalized the process of converting bodies into soil, a procedure the Catholic Church said fails to show ‘respect for the body of the deceased.’” - RNS
“The day we received the report was one of the hardest we’ve had since he died. Yet there was also some comfort in it. It was comforting in the sense that he did nothing wrong and we did nothing wrong. It was comforting in the sense that the people who tried to save him did all they could… And it was comforting in the sense that it was so clearly an act of providence in which the Lord just took him.
“In recent months I have often mentioned the growing importance of poetry in my life. As we come to Good Friday and Easter, I have been enjoying some of the devotional poetry of days gone by, and was especially struck by Hannah Flagg Gould’s “To the Mourner.’” - Challies
“James Meikle beautifully tells us in these words. ‘Why so much complaint of death? It is true, death is the fruit of sin, for by sin, death came into the world. But it is also true, that death is the finisher of sin to the godly—for by death sin shall be cast out forever.’” - Challies
“There has been a skyrocketing preference for cremation over the past decades in the United States …. There are various causes, but the greatest, by far, is the combination of secularization and economics. Fewer people test the practice with biblical criteria, and more people want the cheapest solution.
“If Nick’s death was not a lapse in God’s sovereignty, it was also not a lapse in his goodness. If there was no moment in which God stopped being sovereign there is no moment in which he stopped being good—good toward us, good toward Nick, good according to his perfect wisdom. God can’t not be good.” - Challies
“While Halloween has largely been overtaken by inflatable witches and gory masks, the holiday’s roots in Christian belief and practice offer easy opportunities to engage my children in conversations about death and grief and Christian hope.” - TGC
“The closest thing we uncover to a near-death experience in Scripture is Stephen’s martyrdom in the book of Acts. … we find Stephen’s eyes being open to events in heaven just before he was killed.” - AiG
Discussion