False Christian teachings, trends….
As autumn falls in the flashing splendor and fading light of a dying season, we are invited, with the inevitability of the seasons, to face an inevitable fact: We, too, must die. No matter how commonplace this truth, it is still brutal in its brevity. How one understands it, however, makes all the difference—and good poetry is a good start for understanding anything. And a haughty, triumphant poem it is, John Donne’s 1633 sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud,” to speak thus to Death:
MacDuff’s words are quite biblical and of the type that people in my age group ought to be contemplating every day in preparation for eternity. He began by stating Hebrews 9:27; and it seemed that his following words came from the latter part of Hebrews. Much is compressed into the 4 minutes of this little, very encouraging video:
Rolfe Barnard’s message is about his time of starting a church in an oil boom town in Texas; therein, after he got a church building…he talked about being the only preacher for 26 months, in a town of 50,000; about conducting at least 3 funerals a day, some days as many as 7; he talked about the horrors of those who were experiencing dying, as the majority of them had lived lives of ill repute. The last 8-10 minutes of his sermon were extremely vivid, as he clarified the meaning of the word ‘cast’ from the phrase, ‘cast into the lake of fire.’ He used a true story to convey much horror. You don’t want to miss that. If you have time for nothing else, listen to that, as we all need to have as clear an understanding as we can about death so that we might spend our lives rightly.
In broad poetic terms, spring symbolizes rebirth and resurrection, summer youth with all its reckless pleasures and joys, and autumn old age and the inevitable journey to death. But what about winter? …Given that this winter, with its pandemic and its political turmoil, may be particularly hard on us, I began to look for some winter poems that give hope and comfort, a glimpse of the season’s often austere beauty, and even some joy.
The following video is instructive in that it is a reality check: even rich and famous people are dying everyday. Christians have a blessed inheritance
Last night, I searched the obituaries of a local newspaper online after someone I knew died. I found 7 other people I knew in those