Month: June 2021

A Life of Last Days

Photo by Jordan Benton from Pexels

Every day, I see pictures of two men whose influence has outlived their time on earth. At my desk, I reread the laminated life story framing Steve’s face, on the 4×6 card prepared for family and friends at his funeral last year. Every time I get into my car, I see Nick’s picture that I folded and tore from the program at his memorial service last year.

Every day, I see their faces and remember something really important. I’ve kept thinking, “I really should write about this…” 

And this week, I can’t get away from it. Tonight, I added another picture beside Nick’s. Silas, a nineteen-year-old, a son-brother-uncle-friend, was buried today.

What do Steve, Nick, and Silas teach me? In three different ways, the same thing: life is short, and every day could be my last.

I remember talking with Steve’s son after his funeral. “Any regrets about the days leading up to Dad going into the hospital? Anything you feel like you missed?” After battling long with cancer, beating cancer, and suffering cancer’s return, Steve had gone to the hospital with concerning symptoms. But nobody expected the hospital stay to end the way it did. Steve went to sleep, and three days later, God took him.

There were no cognizant last moments. Steve didn’t get the chance to formulate the last words he’d want his family to hear before he was gone. Did they miss that?

“No, not really,” Jordan shook his head and smiled a little. “If Dad had known that his last words were going to be his last words, he would have just said the same things he already said. He told Mom, ‘I trust the Lord with my soul – how much more can I trust Him to care for my family?’ He was constantly telling us that he loved us, that God is sovereign, that he was at peace trusting the Lord.”

Steve didn’t know those words would be his last. And yet…if he had, he would have said exactly what he did. He spoke a legacy of last words.

I remember sitting at Nick’s memorial service a few days after Steve’s funeral. Though we both studied on the same campus, I never met Nick. But when a student dies, it seems right for the student body to gather and collectively honor the Lord in lament and worship. So I went.

Pastors, parents, sisters, fiancée, friends – everyone who spoke at the service said the same things. Nick was a godly young man who pleased the Lord, honored his authorities, welcomed outsiders, and loved his friends, family, and fiancée well. His character was above reproach, blameless. He was passionate for the kingdom and its advance in his home country of Canada.

Nick’s death was inexplicable. He had gone to a park with his fiancée, sister, and friends, and collapsed. All medical interventions couldn’t bring him back. He was young and healthy. Why…?

Nick got up that morning with no idea that was the last day of his earthly race. And yet…if he had, I imagine he would have done exactly what he did. He went to classes to prepare for ministry. He loved the people around him. He walked with God. And then God took him.

So this week, here we are again. Silas got up on a Saturday morning with no knowledge that was his last day. And yet…if he had, I imagine he would have done exactly what he did. He brought joy to his sisters by his words and acts of service. He spent time with the people he cared about, who cared about him. And then God took him.

Each man lived a life of last days.

Life really is a vapor. We never know which day will be our last.

When a believer dies, we have a sure hope that we will be reunited in resurrection…but it still hurts. “Where, O death, is thy sting?” will be a rhetorical question in the future, when Jesus swallows up death in victory. Right now, it’s a real question with a real answer.

“Where is your sting, Death?”

It’s right here. It’s in that casket, it’s beside that grave, it’s in the tears of the saints who remain when one departs. We know his soul is with the Lord, but we grieve the loss of the beloved’s words and living presence with us. That’s what we lose at death.

So if I believe that my life is in the hand of the Lord, and I am not promised another moment past this one, what would I want my last day to be? How do I know if I am faithfully stewarding the time God gives me for His kingdom’s cause?

If at death I lose the opportunity to love people with words and presence, then every day I live should maximize opportunities to do those things. Every morning, I aspire to ask…

How can I speak words today that will encourage? How can I speak love to my neighbors? What should I write that might build up a brother’s faith? What saint should get a letter, email, text from me?

How can I use physical presence to bless people today? Whom can I be with? Who may need a hug, a hand on the shoulder, a smile? Whom will God put in front of me that just needs to be seen?

And at the end of the day, I want to go to sleep trusting my soul to the Lord, with a clear conscience. If I wake up in His presence, which would certainly be far better, I want that day to have been a faithful investment in the kingdom. May I speak every word as if it would be my last, and live a life of last days, for the glory of the King.

Peace in Christ

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels

I know, starting with a super-long quotation is not the best writing strategy. And I know, I tend to skip reading the quoted Bible verses too. Resist the urge to skim, and savor this text:

“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:11-22)

Aliens. Strangers. Hopeless. Godless. These are the words Paul used to describe anyone who was not a Jew. We had no provision to relate with God in any degree, utterly estranged in destitution. We had no divine law except what was written in our hearts, no revelation except what we saw in nature, no promises extended whatsoever. We had no words from God providing us with clarity of what He expected from us, and we had no chance of fulfilling His requirements. Peace with God? Peace with other people? No way.

And then there were the Jews. They had been given covenants of promise. These were the chosen of God: the people to whom He had revealed His law amid thunder and lightning on the holy mountain. They had His words, spoken through the mouths of prophets and seers. They knew precisely what He expected. They had peace with God, right?

Wrong. Revelation from God does not equal peace with God. And revelation from God did not produce peace with people “not like us.”

When Christ came, He had to break down the wall separating Jew from Gentile, to abolish the enmity germinated by the law that the Jews had and we did not. Christ came to make peace between Jew and Gentile by bringing us together in His own body.

But the reconciliation is not exclusively horizontal. Christ came to reconcile Jews and Gentiles alike to God. We were all estranged. We were all at enmity with God. We all required the work of another to slay that enmity and bring us in peace to the God we had offended.

Christ came to preach that offer of peace both to us who were far away and to them who were closer to truth. Being closer to God than their Gentile counterparts did not give the Jews peace, because they still needed the complete work of Christ just as we did.

The law given to the Jews did not provide them with access to God. It revealed their hopeless inability to fulfill God’s righteousness. The law, which was holy and good, became enmity toward God: they knew what God expected and failed to do it. They had the covenants of promise and broke them. We only have access to God, Jew and Gentile alike, through Christ and by the Spirit He has given. 

Christ’s work on the cross is finished, so the enmity of the law is abolished. He grants us His Spirit so that we now can obey what God has commanded. 

Christ was punished for our acts of rebellion so we can be at peace with God.

Christ has made us part of His own body so that we can be accepted in Him. 

Christ has made us members of the household of God, sharing in the fellowship of the ones He has made holy.

Christ has established us as stones in the temple He is building, founded upon Himself as the cornerstone heralded by both prophets and apostles.

Christ is building us together in Himself to be a dwelling place of God through His Spirit.

So look at Christ. Consider what He has done. Remember who you were. Look at each other, and see how the Savior unites people from every category we can create. Salvation by grace through faith brings peace with God that gives us peace with each other, in Christ.

“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:27-29)