365 Reflections

Have you ever thought of death as a sweet mercy of God? The world is fallen. It is broken and seemingly spinning out of control in new ways every day. Sin torments our bodies, our minds, our relationships. It causes our brains to hold on to the past and dread the future. Despair fills our cities and natural disasters strike in unexpected places in unexpected ways in a multiplicity of moments.  Biblical scholars know it cannot continue like this. We know the world must be judged. There will be a reckoning. In Isaiah's day, there was a moment of reckoning coming upon the nation. The people had exhausted the patience of God. The Babylonians would come and devour all the good things God had given to this ungrateful, rebellious people.  Before all of this, righteous men would die. You'd think that was a bad thing. But if judgment is coming, death is an escape for the righteous. For theirs are the unspeakable glories of heaven in the presence of God.  So Isaiah writes: Isaiah 5...

Ecclesiastes 7:1 (ESV) A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. When we come to Ecclesiastes 7 we meet a few proverbs concerning the inevitable reality of death. What seems odd to say back to back - a good name + the day of death - really tie together in this particular sense: Your name (reputation) is finalized on the day of your death. How you start in life does not necessarily determine how you finish. And if you keep your end in mind, rather than your past, you'll live wisely.  In simpler terms - CONSIDER the END of your LIFE and what you want people to say about you. Thus the next two proverbs: Ecclesiastes 7:2 (ESV) It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. And then verse 4: Ecclesiastes 7:4 (ESV) The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. We are told by cultur...

2 Samuel 6 contains a challenging passage for the casual Bible observer. 2 Samuel 6:2–3 (ESV) And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, What looks to be the most honorable gesture in David's early reign - to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel - turns out to be deadly and confusing. Moments into the transport of this holy vessel this happens: 2 Samuel 6:5–7 (ESV) And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, fo...

Just after Moses gives the people God's law, God then tells him to go up on a mountain and die. It's quite interesting the order of events and the abruptness of the transition. Deuteronomy 32:46–51 (ESV) he (Moses) said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” 48 That very day the LORD spoke to Moses, 49 “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. 50 And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of ...

Numbers 5:1-4 (ESV) The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. 3 You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”  4 And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did. God is constantly teaching His people in the book of Numbers about their condition and His holiness. He is also teaching us about the truest nature of ourselves in light of who He is and how much we need Him to intervene in our condition. These verses seem cold and unloving on the part of God. But they are meant to instruct and point us to Jesus. The Bible is about Jesus. The purpose of the Old Testament was to reveal our need for Him, what we need from Him and what He will do to supply our needs in Himse...

Christianity is about life. That's one thing the scriptures make patently clear. God brings life, God raise to life, Christ defeats death, Christ is the light of life. Christ has come that we may have abundant life. "Let the dead bury their dead" Jesus says. Our mission is a mission of life. It is in this perspective that we turn to Leviticus 21. This can be a confusing chapter. God gives words of instructions through Moses to His priests. Here's what He says: Leviticus 21:1–4 (ESV) And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, 2 except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 3 or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). 4 He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. There will be no going to funerals ...

There are those who investigate God simply to find new ways to deny Him. This is the case of Pharaoh's hardened heart in Exodus 9. We are 5 plagues in to the Exodus and Pharaoh's own advisors have spoken against his willful arrogance. He has seen the evidence now for two of the five plagues that God is distinguishing between Egypt and Israel. The plague on the cattle is the second plague in a row in which all of Egypt suffers while Israel lives peacefully. The signs cannot get much clearer for this rebellious man. Pharaoh does something interesting concerning the fifth plague too. It reads: Exodus 9:7 (NLT) Pharaoh sent his officials to investigate, and they discovered that the Israelites had not lost a single animal! But even so, Pharaoh’s heart remained stubborn, and he still refused to let the people go. What did Pharaoh do after the plague? He went to investigate if indeed it happened just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. It had. And all Pharaoh did from this m...

Genesis 50:24–26 (ESV) And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. I think the best part about a Christian's life is how they die. If they die believing God for greater things, if they die believing God is able, if they die still trusting the sovereign nature of our God and His promises - to me, that is a great testimony for the world. A Christian is not one who throws their hands in the air in frustration at the future. No! Our God is able! A Christian is able to face death not seeking to escape the cataclysm of the world but a Christian is able to face death know God's Spirit and power will work mightily through those comi...

It is clear Jacob knew where he wanted to be after his life on Earth had ended. He blesses his sons in Genesis 50 and then very descriptively tells them where his bones are to be buried. Genesis 49:29–33 (ESV)   Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah— 32 the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Notice how his view is to be gathered to those who had gone before him. He wanted to be in the only piece...

We grow up thinking we are going to live forever. We are fools. Eventually life starts coming to a clearer and clearer realization that no one gets out of this life alive. We are winding down. This is the Psalmist's realization in Psalm 102. Psalm 102:23–24 (ESV) He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days. 24 “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!” I have to confess, I feel like this Psalm is speaking straight to me. I'm experiencing more physical ailments than I ever have. My body is showing signs of wear and tear. I haven't exercised cardio in a long time as my knee heals from something I cannot explain. My strength is broken. It starts to hit you - life is short. Your body reminds you that eventually you have to slow down and eventually you will stop.  Though this Psalmist realizes his life will end, he has great perspective" Psalm 102:12 (ESV)...

John 12:15  (ESV)   “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” It is referred to as "The Triumphal Entry" in most Bibles, though not actual scripture, but in subheadings. And most Christians call it by the same name. Yet it was truly anything BUT triumphant. Jesus was not the conquering General of thousands returning from war to the city that would praise Him as hero. There was no ticker-tape parade. There was no glorious stirring of the influential and notable. It was a Jewish 'Rabbi'-carpenter from Galilee riding a donkey followed by masses of messy people, the sinners, the cast aways, the drop outs, and the have-nots. From Luke's account of this moment, the Lord is weeping over the city knowing the soon destruction that will come upon her for putting to death the Lord of Glory. Where's the triumph in that? If it seems now like nothing you may have imagined you're on the right track. Perhaps thi...

Your body has promise.  A promise to be made new.  A total transformation, Jesus style.  But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3:20, 21 ESV) Make no mistake. The aim of our lives with faith in Christ is heaven.  We are made for it.  We are called to it.  We are destined for it in Christ.  Jesus is coming back for the church.  This is something the New Testament tells us again and again. I don't know about you but I hate my body.  It's like my house.  As soon as I get one thing taken care of, another thing falls apart.  It's a never ending cycle of disappointment.   And I'm very healthy!!! There is a problem with our bodies.  They are decomposing and showing signs of the end, every day.  You don't realize how good you had it t...