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Death & Funeral Related
【Believer’s
Response to Death】The inevitable tomb is not a period at the end of the sentence of life,
but a conjunction connecting us with the life to com.
【Believer’s
Response to Death】A father gave this counsel to his married daughter on the first
anniversary of her mother’s death:
“I
had forty wonderful years with your Mom,” he said, “the best years of my life,
But that part of my life is over. Finished!”
“But
Dad…” “No buts, listen to me.” His clear blue eyes stared intensely into mine.
I couldn’t turn away from him as much as I wanted to. “They were the best years
of my life,” he repeated. “Your mother is no longer with me; this truth has to
be faced. But I am alive and must live the time allotted me until she and I are
together again.” His voice trembled, but it was not uncertain. “She is gone,
but no one can take away the wonderful memories. They are part of me, the happy
memories and the sad ones. But only a part. I can’t let them possess me or I
couldn’t get through my days. Every day is a gift from God. It must be lived
with joy. It is just a taste of the joy to come when we will all be together
again.” I kissed him then, not realizing that our conversation would one day be
one of my fondest memories. Recalling that day has always been a great strength
to me, particularly today—the first anniversary of my dear father’s death.
【Believer’s
Response to Death】Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse told of the occasion when his first wife had
died. He, with his children, had been to the funeral service for her. As he was
driving his motherless children home, they were naturally overcome with grief
at the parting. Dr. Barnhouse said that he was trying to think of some word of
comfort that he could give them. Just then, a huge moving van passed them. As
it passed, the shadow of the truck swept over the car. And as the truck pulled
on in front of them, an inspiration came to Dr. Barnhouse. He said, “Children,
would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow?” The children said,
“Well, of course, Dad, we’d much rather be run over by the shadow! That can’t
hurt us at all.” Dr. Barnhouse said, “Did you know that two thousand years ago
the truck of death ran over the Lord Jesus…in order that only its shadow might
run over us?”
【Believer’s
Response to Death】I am standing on a seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails
to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean blue. She is an object of beauty
and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to meet each other. Then
someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.” Gone where? Gone from my sight,
that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she
left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living weights to its place
of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her, and just at the
moment when someone say, “There she is gone,” on that distant shore there are
other eyes watching for her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout, “Here she comes,” and such is dying. ──《Immortality》Loraine
Boettner
【Believer’s
Response to Death】A little girl whose father had just died asked her mother where her
father had gone. “To be with Jesus,” replied the mother.
A
few days later, talking to a friend, the mother said, “I am so grieved to have
lost my husband.”
The
little girl heard her and, remembering what she had told her, asked, “Mother,
is a thing lost when you know where it is?”
“No,
of course not,” said her mom.
“Well,
then, how can Daddy be lost when he has gone to be with Jesus?”
【Believer’s
Response to Death】Years ago, Dr. Arthur John Gossip preached a sermon titled “When Life
Tumbles In, What Then?” on the day after his beloved wife had died suddenly. He
closed with these words:
“I
don’t think you need to be afraid of life. Our hearts are very frail, and there
are places where the road is ery steep and very lonely, but we have a wonderful
God. And as Paul puts it, ‘What can separate us from His love? Not death,’ he
writes immediately. No, not death, for standing in the roaring of the Jordan,
cold with its dreadful chill and very conscious of its terror, of its rushing,
I, too, like Hopeful in 《Pilgrim’s Progress》,
can call back to you who one day in your turn will have to cross it, ‘Be of
good cheer, my brother, for I feel the bottom and it is sound.’”
【Believer’s
Response to Death】As the great Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson lay sick and about to
die, he said, “I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet
when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away
from his school. Perhaps I feel something like the young bride when she
contemplates resigning the pleasant association of her childhood for a yet
dearer home—though only a little like her, for there is no doubt resting on my
future.”
【Believer’s
Response to Death】When Martin Luther’s daughter, Magdelena, was fourteen years old, she
was taken sick and lay dying. Luther prayed, “O God, I love her so, but
nevertheless, Thy will be done.”
Then
he turned to his daughter and said, “Magdelena, would you rather be with me, or
would you rather go and be with your Father in heaven?” And the girl said,
“Father, as God wills.” Luther held her in his arms as she passed away, and as
they laid her to rest, he said, “Oh my dear Magdelenachen, you will rise and
shine like the stars in the sun. How strange to be so sorrowful and yet to know
that all is at peace, that all is well.”
It
is this hope in the hour of death that the resurrection gives to us.
【Believer’s
Response to Death】There are many instances of those whose faith has triumphed in the hour
of death. D.L. Moody, the great evangelist of the past century, said on his
deathbed, “Earth is receding; heaven is approaching. This is my crowning day!”
【Believer’s
Response to Death】This incident illustrates how the child of God can face the last enemy
with confidence and courage:
Many
years ago, the ship known as the Empress of Ireland went down with 130
Salvation Army officers on board, along with many other passengers. Only 21 of
those Christian workers’ lives were spare—an unusually small number. Of the 109
workers who drowned, not one body had on a life preserver! Many of the
survivors told how those brave people, seeing that there were not enough lifebelts,
took off their own and strapped them onto others, saying, “I know Jesus, so I
can die better than you can.” Their supreme sacrifice and faithful words set a
beautiful example, which for many years has inspired the Salvation Army to
carry on courageously for God. Millions have come to recognize that born-again
individuals can face death fearlessly.
Death
for someone who has not come to know God is a frightening prospect. And indeed
it should be, for when one passes from this life, there is no longer the
possibility of coming right with God. In contrast, the dark door of death for a
Christian is only the other sie of the shining gate of life.
【Believer’s
Response to Death】The dedicated missionary Jim Elliot once said: “I must not think it
strange if God takes in youth those whom I would have kept on earth until they
were older. God is peopling eternity, and I must not restrict Him to old men and
women.”
【Believer’s
Response to Death】Samuel Rutherford, a seventeenth-century Scottish pastor and theologian,
wrote the following to a woman when her young daughter died: “Remember what age
your daughter was, and that just so long was your lease of her…your lease (has)
run out, and you can no more justly quarrel against your great Superior for
taking His own, at His just term-day, than a poor farmer can complain that his
master taketh a portion of his own land to himself when his lease is expired.”
【Enoch’s
Translation to Heaven】Enoch lived to be 365 years old. The Bible says that he walked with God
and God took him away. A little girl described this experience to her mother.
“Mamma,” she said, “one day Enoch and God took a walk together. They walked and
they talked, and they talked and they walked, until Enoch finally said, ‘Oh,
my, dear Lord, it’s getting late. I’d better go home.’ And the Lord said, ‘Why,
Enoch, we’ve been walking so long together, I believe we’re closer to my home
than yours. Why don’t you come home with me tonight?’” So Enoch went home with
God.
【Fear
of Death】A dying man was fearful, even though he was a born-again Christian. He
expressed his feelings to his Christian doctor. The physician was silent, not
knowing what to say. Just then a whining and scratching was heard at the door.
When the doctor opened it, in bounded his big beautiful dog, who often went
with him as he made house calls. The dog was glad to see his master. Sensing an
opportunity to comfort his troubled patient, the doctor said, “My dog has never
been in your room before, so he didn’t know what it was like in here. But he
knew I was in here, and that was enough. In the same way, I’m looking forward
to heaven. I don’t know much about it, but I know my Savior is there. And
that’s all I need to know!”
【Fear
of Death】John Wayne, at age 71, explained that he sometimes had difficult moments
watching his old movies: “It’s kind of irritating to see I was a good-looking
40-year-old and suddenly I can look over and see this 71-year-old…I’m not
squawking…I just want to be around for a long time.”
【Last
Words of a Dying Person】In Shakespeare’s 《Richard II》, the dying Duke of
Lancaster tells the Duke of York: “O, but they say the tongues of dying men
enforce attention like deep harmony; Where words are scarce they are seldom
spent in vain, for they breathe their words in pain.”
【Preparation
for Death】Many people sleep under an electric blanket during winter. The only
problem with this wonderful invention is that it is too good at what it does.
That is, an electric blanket makes a bed so warm and comfortable that on cold
mornings it is very hard to get up. Some people have found that the only thing
that works for them is to turn off their electric blanket so that the bed
becomes much less comfortable and thus it is easier to leave their cozy spot.
Perhaps God lets us deteriorate physically in our late years so that we will be
more willing to leave our ailing bodies for the unexplored future that he sets
before us.
【Preparation
for Death】When Corrie ten Boom was a girl, her first realization of death came
afer a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed her that
someday her parents would die. Corrie’s father comforted her. “Corrie, when you
and I go to
Corrie
answered, “Why, just before we get on the train.”
“Exactly,”
responded her father, “and our wise Father in heaven knows exactly when we’re
going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of him, Corrie. When the time
comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find
the strength you need—just in time.”
【Death of the Righteous】In Sacramento, California, Rita and Jack were in high school together
and one day she asked him to walk her home. That was 68 years ago; 65 years ago they
were married. They built a home in
The family has found her diary.
Actually it was a family history she was writing. In it they found these words: "If the Lord takes Dad first, I
wish that He would let me follow very closely behind." --Associated Press,
【Funerals】In Britain a butcher specified in his will that he be cremated and he
specified that at his memorial service the organ was to play Cole Porter's song
"Every Time We Say Goodbye". Such was the the deceased man's wish. He got half of his wish, but the
musician brought the wrong Cole Porter Sheet Music. At the cremation ceremony he played
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes!" --Associated Press,