By James Dobson, Love for a Lifetime: Building a Marriage that Will Go the Distance, 1987, pages 115-117 (a book of advice for newlyweds). Â Â Â In August, 1977, my wife and children joined me on a trip to Kansas City, Missouri, for a short visit with my parents. Â We enjoyed several days of family […]
553) Just Passing Through Read More »
FROM A FUNERAL SERMON, June 2006:     Death is never on time.  It always comes either too soon or not soon enough. What that means is that death hardly ever suits OUR timing. God’s timing is, of course, another matter, and I am not about to make any judgments on that. But when
546) Coming and Going Read More »
From chapter 16 in THE IMITATION OF CHRIST by Thomas a Kempis  (1380-1471)    Whatever I can desire or imagine for my own comfort I look for not here but in the hereafter.  For if I alone should have all the world’s comforts and could enjoy all its delights, it is certain that they
538) True Comfort Found in God Alone Read More »
 By Randy Alcorn, September 24, 2014 blog, at:  http://www.epm.org    Years ago when my children were still at home, before leaving on trips, sometimes I would say to them, “I’m not expecting anything to happen, but remember, if it does, I’ll see you again in Heaven.”    Some would consider this morbid or
533) Being Open About Death Read More »
By Randy Alcorn, July 21, 2014 blog, see:  www.epm.org    When five-year-old Emily Kimball was hospitalized and heard she was going to die, she started to cry.  Even though she loved Jesus and wanted to be with him, she didn’t want to leave her family behind.  Then her mother had an inspired idea.  She
516) Through Heaven’s Doorway Read More »
  The rapid progression of Evelyn’s disease shocked everyone who heard of it. First, she wasn’t feeling well, and then she didn’t have an appetite. Then, her skin turned a little yellow, and the doctor was called. Test were taken, but even before the results were in, she had to be taken into the
504) Death at Work / A Funeral Sermon Read More »
Adapted from Randy Alcorn’s July 18, 2014 blog at:  http://www.epm.org    Peter encouraged Christians to find joy by focusing not on the trial that will go on only “a little while” but on their heavenly inheritance that will never perish.  As missionary martyr Jim Elliot put it, “He is no fool who gives what
469) Keeping an Eternal Perspective Read More »
 By Johann Gerhard (1582-1637), a German Lutheran pastor and professor of theology.  He wrote dozens of books, including Sacred Meditations, a collection of 51 meditations published in 1606. You will more truly be able to rejoice in the hardships of life with a good conscience, than amidst all its pleasures with a guilty one.  Against all
460) Insights from Several Meditations Read More »
By C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity       (The time will come when) it will be too late to choose your side.  There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up.  That will not be the time for choosing:  it will be the time when we discover which
450) Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve Read More »
Painting above: The Raising of Lazarus, Rembrandt, approx. 1630 ************************ From my sermon at the funeral of my mother-in-law, November 5, 2010.  The sermon text is John 11:1-44.    John chapter 11 begins with these words, “Now a man named Lazarus was sick.”  JoAnn’s family in this past year has seen plenty of what
432) Sickness Unto Death; First Century and Today Read More »
