Issue #3292 - Final Taboo
I'll be away for a few days preaching at a rodeo in William's Lake BC. By the time I return it will be Canada Day so Gleanings will resume on July 2nd. See you all then.
If I was a teenager, it was barely. I was off early on a hot summer morning for a bit of fishing.
The fishing was okay but not great because of the heat and I decided the other side of the river looked better. The other side of the river is "always" better for fishing, just as the grass is "always" greener on the other side of the fence.
I decided to use the railway trestle to cross as I had done many times before. I dwadled across the trestle. I walked on the rails and practiced my balancing. I looked down through the ties to see the river "way down there". I imagined diving down into the cool looking pools below. I wouldn't have made the dive in real life, the water was too shallow and I was too much of a chicken.
Part way across I was alerted to the sound of an oncoming train. The less than subtle sound of the whistle let me know it was coming. I wasn't worried as the trestle had several spots where pedestrians could stand safely out of the way of the train.
I stood in one of those spots and waved to the engineer. He waved back and blew the whistle. It seemed like great fun. That is until the train actually started to pass. It seemed that the train was just in front of my face and travelling at a million miles an hour. The rumble of the wheels on the tracks and the scream of the whistle went from friendly seeming to terrifying. It felt as if I was going to be pulled into the train to my sudden death.
Of course I was never really in any danger, it was my youthful imagination being over active in an unfamiliar setting but at the time it was very real seeming. I was convinced that I was going to die.
Death is one of those things that we must all wrestle with, whether it's an overactive boy's imagination of the reality of our own mortality. It is a subject full of superstitions and fear. In many ways it seems to be a taboo subject to talk about.
We don't even like the words "death" or "died". We use plenty of Euphemisms for death
- At room temperature
- Dirt nap
- Pushing up the daisies
- Passed...(over, on, away, etc)
- Demised
- Ceased to be
- No more
- Bit the big green weiner
- Expired
- Gone to meet their maker
- Stiff
- Bereft of life
- Resting in peace
- Kicked the bucket
- Shuffled off the mortal coil
- Joined the choir invisible
- In a better place
- Six feet under
- Crossed over
- Crossed the bar
- Bought the farm asleep
- belly up
- checked out
- defunct
- departed
- done for
- late
- in repose
- buy it cash in (or out)
- check out
- croak
- last dance
- Gone into the west
- Kicked off
- Got a one-way ticket
- Sprouted wings
- Succumbed
- No longer with us
- With the ancestors
- Gathered to his people
- Give up the ghost
- "going to the big ___(whatever) in the sky" Destroyed
- Worm food
- Buy a pine condo
- Go into the fertilizer business
- Become living-challenged
- get your wings
And I'm sure you can add many more to the list.
Why is death such a taboo subject? Because we're all going to die and we're afraid of what's going to happen when we do.
As Christians we don't have to fear death. We have the promise from Jesus of a much better place than this world. Death has lost its sting.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58 NIV
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Death has no power over believers. It can take our bodies, but not our spirits. Even the taking of our bodies is temporary because we'll get new glorified bodies when He comes again.
We have nothing to fear in death.
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed
Kevin
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. You have value in the eyes of God so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that heaven will not be complete without you.
Help for the Hurting
If you haven't yet surrendered to Jesus you do have a reason to fear death. Your sin has condemned you to an eternity of suffering and torment. The only way to change that is to throw yourself on the mercy of Jesus before it is too late. He offers forgiveness, peace, hope, joy and more. Will you accept His gift?
If you want to know how to do that simply email us and we will send you some Bible verses that will explain it to you.
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