I am dying.

I don’t know the exact day or hour that I will transition from this life, no man does. It could be today. It could be tomorrow. It could be next week or the following. Perhaps it will be next month or the one after. Death may come a year from now, or it may be five years. Perhaps I will live to forty or even fifty. Maybe I will get so old, the face I look at in the mirror will be completely unfamiliar. I may get so old that I will not even be able to see the face I’ve known reflected in a pool of water.

One way or another, the time will come when this physical body is claimed by death. Whether old age, illness, accident, or something worse, this body will fall to the earth lifeless, just as all my fathers before me. It will return to the dust from which our father Adam was created. Every human being must come to terms with this truth, and in the end we will all know the truth personally. It is part of the cursed, natural human life cycle.

Once when I was in college, my mother had a little kitten that she had found and decided to take care of. She brought the kitty home and put it in a kennel she had built for other cats in the garage. She took care of it, fed it, and always made sure it had plenty of water. She loved that cat. One night, very late, I was awake watching television in the living room. My mother was asleep, and her husband was working nights. I don’t remember the exact time, but I felt a very powerful, presence come in through the front door into the house. It passed down the foyer and into the living room and seemed to pause. It was death, and it had come to my home, but not for me. I felt it pass into the kitchen and out into the garage. I heard that kitten cry out in long, loud wails. I decided to stay inside. The next morning my mother informed me the kitten had died. I didn’t tell her what I had felt.

One day, the shadow of death will not simply come by and pause to give its regards. It will come to release me from this cursed body. Many fear that moment of transition, but for those of us who believe in Jesus, there is no more fear. Death no longer has a sting because we have life in Christ forever. I am not afraid to pass into the presence of my Savior and King. In addition to eternal life in Christ, our bodies have also been bought and purchased by Jesus. They will one day be released from the curse of death and given eternal life just as our spirits. From the books of Daniel and Job we see these texts:

“‘But you [Daniel], go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.'” Daniel 12:13 [NKJV]

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Job 19:25-27 [NIV]

How I echo that yearning!

A Father’s Legacy

Today is Father’s Day, and I often think about my fathers who have come before me. I think about the legacy they have left. Which has been very little. A few generations back, and those men are complete strangers. How terrible it is, to not know anything about them. And its only been three or four generations. That includes my mothers.

Then I think of my son and the legacy I leave. To me, the most important part of my life I leave to my son is my trust, hope, and knowledge of Jesus Christ. All of the things I have learned and experienced need to be passed on to him. If that is the only thing that is remembered about me, then I am content. For Christ is the only aspect of my life that has value.

Passing that on to him, and not only to him, but to his children and their children. And passed on to every person those children’s lives have contact. How wonderful it would be to have had a father from past generations, who could have spoken intimately down through the generations about their lives and those things that have happened. To pass on what he had learned through the experiences of life.

How valuable if he could have passed on the experience and knowledge of Christ that is given to each generation, given by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit of God. Not some stranger, but from a father whose love for their child drives them to do so, and the love for their child’s children, and the children of those children. The love I have for my child extends onward to every generation that comes after him, for they are all my children.

There are many reasons why God instituted marriage into the relationship of a man and woman. A man would leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they would become one flesh. There are a number of spiritual aspects to that truth, but we often over look that a man and woman do become one flesh, the child of that physical union.

Malachi 2:14-15, ” …yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring.” [NKJV]

Urgency

I feel an urgency deep within my heart to put down into writing everything I have learned and experienced. I’m not sure why. I feel driven to put pen to paper and share everything I have time to express. I know that most importantly for my child and those who come after, and also for all those who call on the name of the Lord to be saved.

Everything I am, and everything I know is because of and come from the grace and mercy of the living God. I am nothing, but because of His great love, He has blessed me like other believers with the knowledge of His truth.

He has opened my mind in part many times over the years to the writings of the prophets and apostles of the Bible. I still only see in part and still do not understand everything. But I will continue to seek in my life and share what I can with the time I have been given.

Each time He enlightens, its like my eyes have been open anew. And His great light illuminates the words of all those He moved to write down their experiences that we now have in the Bible. He inspired them to write for our learning (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21; Romans 15:4). So that we would not be lost in the darkness of the vast lies that fill this world. His Word is a solid foundation, and a sword that cuts through the webs of darkness that attempt to trap us. So that we might have real hope in this cursed and wicked world.

Blessed is the name of the Lord, and His truth will reign forever.