In one month's time, four of my friend's husbands have passed away. Alan, 72, Paul, 64, John,74, and Bill, 67. Also my Dad's cousin, Myron, who was 96. You expect the 90's, but not 60's or 70's. That seems young to me, now that I am 70! Last January another friend's husband passed, Bob, and he was 51. And in the past couple of years, even more friend's husbands. My heart breaks for these young widows. I remember my mother once saying "All my friends are dying. I just go to funerals anymore." I have felt that recently.
My husband has told me several times, "Deb, if I die before you, keep the eternal perspective." Which is not death at all. It is actually the beginning of non-dying, as once we are born, we begin the death process. It is really a change of location.
I love this quote from Dwight L. Moody: “SOME day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; gone out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body like unto His own glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.”
I love Anne Graham Lotz' piece on the narthex.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Westminster Abbey in London. It is a grand cathedral where many of the kings and dignitaries of England are buried, and where the kings and queens receive their coronation. The narthex is small, dark, and cramped-just a brief space to pass through between the outside door and the door leading into the cathedral itself. I can’t imagine anyone visiting the abbey and being satisfied to stay in the narthex. I also can’t imagine anyone who would make an enormous effort to stay there with no thought to passing through to the glory of what lies beyond.
Your life and mine here on earth is like the narthex to a grand cathedral. Our lives are simply an area to pass through on our way to the glory of eternal life that lies beyond the door of death. Physical death for a believer is simply a transition into real life. And it’s God’s purpose that you and I live forever-with Him. - Anne Graham Lotz
The Lord is preparing a place for us. Are we ready? Do we cling to the "narthex" and fear the "grand cathedral"?
I have loved Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven" and also John Eldredge's book "All Things New." If you fear death, these are great books that expound what the Bible teaches about eternal life!
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Hebrews 9:27
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live." John 11:25
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." John 5:24
"Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." Psalm 139:16
My friend Shirley, when her husband died told me "We will not die until it is appointed for us."
