Do you fear death?

Sep

24

2018

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Sep

24

2018

September 24 2018 – Click here to listen

My father lived to the ripe old age of 92. He never exercised or ate what is perceived today to be healthy food. One day I was encouraging him to get some exercise and offered to buy him a stationary bike. He scoffed at the idea and snorted that he got his exercise being a pallbearer at jogger’s funerals. He made his decision to follow Christ as a young child only to drift away from it for many years, and then he nearly died in a car crash and it was his “come to Jesus moment” and he returned to his faith, and when he did, he was ALL IN.

He and my mother went on to found four churches; my mother taught Sunday school for 15 years until her death at 52 and my father taught Sunday school for forty years and did not stop until about 6 months prior to his death. He only stopped then because his hands shook so much from Parkinson’s disease he could not write out his lessons any longer.

Shortly before he died he looked at me and smiled and quoted 2 TIM. 4:7 – I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. He confided to me that he was ready to meet the Lord and was refusing any more treatment for anything. He was not crying or regretful in any way. He was indeed ready to meet God almighty and reunite with Jesus and all those who had gone on before him. He did so just a week or so later dying peacefully in his sleep from congestive heart failure. Today he is in perfect health and has no pain, disease, sorrow, loneliness, just peace, joy, and love in heaven.

I have personal Christian friends right now who are nearing the end of their journey here. Like dad they seem to be more at peace with it than the families and friends who want them to stay around. No one can say with certainty what they would do if their own demise was imminent and they were faced with a terminal disease or being ravaged and worn out by old age. I feel with near certainty that if faced with a similar prognosis I would follow the example set by my father and happily go on to glory.

One phenomenon of living a long life is witnessing the passing of so many friends and family. My experience has been that Spirit filled Christians seem to take it with mixed emotions. Most feel they still had more that they wanted to do but are genuinely looking forward to being pain free and joining Jesus in heaven.

Intellectual C.S. Lewis wrote a beautiful piece on this in a letter to a friend and I have included it below:

TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE:
On how to rehearse for death and how to diminish fear.

17 June 1963

Pain is terrible, but surely you need not have fear as well? Can you not see death as the friend and deliverer? It means stripping off that body which is tormenting you: like taking off a hair- shirt, *** (a garment of coarse haircloth, worn next to the skin as a penance by ascetics and penitents) *** or getting out of a dungeon. What is there to be afraid of? You have long attempted (and none of us does more) a Christian life. Your sins are confessed and absolved. Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

Remember, though we struggle against things because we are afraid of them, it is often the other way round – we get afraid because we struggle. Are you struggling, resisting? Don’t you think Our Lord says to you ‘Peace, child, peace. Relax. Let go. Underneath are the everlasting arms. Let go, I will catch you. Do you trust me so little?’

Of course, this may not be the end. Then make it a good rehearsal.

Yours (and like you a tired traveler near the journey’s end) Jack

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis.
Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Jesus assured us in His Bible in Psalm 23 that He will be there to lead us through the valley of the shadow of death. I think King David’s choice of calling death a “shadow” should tip us off that there is nothing to fear. A shadow is harmless, and it disappears when exposed to light. There can be no shadows in the presence of Jesus and none will exist in heaven which will be brilliantly illuminated solely by God’s presence. Selah . . .

John 8:12

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

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