“BEAUTIFUL DEATH”

"Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' When he had said this, he breathed his last” Luke 23:46.

Death? Beautiful? At first glance you may be tempted or even yield to the temptation to ask: “Him lick him head, or what?”  What an insensitive adjective to place beside the word death! There is no denying that death is painful. The one who feels it knows it!! What is beautiful about death? Death is loss. Death is grief and misery. Death is ugly. Or is it? 

While Jesus hung on the cross he shouted (“loud voice”), as if he wanted everyone down through the ages to hear: 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' These words were written by David and are found in Palm 31:5. Jesus would have learnt these words as a young child because they formed part of the evening prayer of every devout Jew. In these words we hear intimacy, trust, confidence and surrender. According to Dr. Luke, these were his final words before breathing his last.

Irrespective of who we are, there comes a moment in the life of every human when we breathe our last. We are confident that there is no certainty when and where this will happen. However, we have some control over the atmosphere surrounding our departure. 

The life of the roving evangelist, revivalist and co-founder of the Methodist Movement, Rev’d John Wesley, was slowly, but surely, ebbing away. For five days he grew weaker and weaker in body but stronger and stronger in faith. On March 2, 1791, 227 years ago, Wesley sang the Isaac Watts hymn: "I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath".

The hymn says:

“I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath,
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler pow’rs;
My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life and thought and being last,
Or immortality endures.”

It is reported that his very last words were "Best of all is, God

is with us." Then he breathed his last. That is truly a good way to breathe one’s last.

Death is painful, but it does not have to be ugly. We can decide whether to have a good ending or a bad ending. It is simple. However we spend our life, that is most likely how we will die.

If we spend our days disobeying God, tormenting creation, destroying lives with the jealousy of our hearts, lying, stealing, gossiping, betraying, being unjust and causing misery to others, we will most probably die an unpleasant and ugly death. On the contrary, if we commit our lives to Jesus and his mission and worship God, do good deeds, tend to the environment and animals, honour our parents, feed the hungry and support the orphan and the widow, it is more likely that we will have a beautiful end.

Thought:      Dressed and Ready for a “Beautiful Death”? 

Prayer Focus: Pray for faith, hope and confidence when it is

                     time to breath our last.

God made them all

“The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” Acts 10:15.

Acts 10 provides an account of the expansion of Christianity into Caesarea, the first city to have Gentile Christians and a non-Jewish church. God had eyes on Cornelius, a centurion in the Italian regiment, and a devoted, God-fearing, extremely generous and praying man. Peter was the point-man to undertake the task of evangelizing and counselling him. However, Peter had deep and abiding prejudices which had to be eradicated in order for him to become appropriately missional. He needed to see others as God saw them. God had to deal with his case.

Peter believed that Gentiles were inferior people who would not receive God’s favour and redemption. He did not believe a Gentile Roman soldier could accept Jesus. Then God gave Peter a vision.

In his vision he saw a wide variety of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air, and was instructed to “kill and eat!” According to Jewish law, certain foods were forbidden to be eaten (see Leviticus 11). Being a strict and faithful Jew with all his traditions, pride and prejudice, Peter was shocked, and promptly declared “No, Lord!…I have never eaten anything impure or unclean” (see Acts 10: 12-14). Can you feel the disdain, disgust and the utter rejection of the act and even the very revolting thought? However, God assured Peter that What God has made clean, you must not call profane.

The creation has ways and means of doing the unusual and unexpected, so we as humans must be careful not to allow our traditions and prejudices to so impair our judgment that we are unable to accept and embrace the unusual. This morning I was reminded of the Peter’s vision when a church member sent me an ackee from her tree. Now normally an ackee has three, and at most, four pods. This one had 13! Interestingly, the member and many of my WhatsApp friends said they would not eat this ackee.

God’s handiwork is all around us and we must never allow our traditions, expectations, pride and prejudices to prevent us from appreciating and enjoying what God is doing or has done, even if it seems strange or abnormal to us. If we are not careful, our traditions and prejudices can frustrate God’s work and condemn some of us to death and destruction.

Cecil F. Alexander wrote:

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.

Do you believe that?

Thought: With all the varieties in the world, there is but one Creator.
Prayer Focus: For deliverance from the negative forces of prejudice

Truly Amazing

You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you (Nehemiah 9:6).

This solemn declaration forms part of the worship experience during which the Israelites confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. The Levites asked that God’s name “be exalted above all blessing and praise” and went on to say, “You alone are the LORD…You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” That was perfectly in order because God is awesome. God’s power and grace are beyond human comprehension. God is truly amazing!

When we use the word ‘amazing’, we refer to that which causes astonishment, great wonder, or surprise.  The longer I serve God and the more I depend on God, the more I realize how amazing God is, and that God “moves in mysterious ways”.

For weeks my phone was a source of frustration because often the battery would not charge. On Sunday, 30th April 2017, it refused to charge. Still hoping it would charge I took it to the office the next day. Guess what? No! It still refused to charge. There was no point in taking it home, so we parted company and slept in different locations. At about 4:30 p.m. the next day, I plugged it in and noticed that it began charging. With the almost endless sound of various messages coming in, I took it home. At home it continued charging. Could someone actually be calling me at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 3rd May? Reluctantly, I arose and answered the phone. “Hello!” The immediately recognized voice said: “I missed my stop in Belgium and I am in Amsterdam.” “Where?” “Amsterdam,” said Heidi. Amsterdam and Belgium are two different places and far from each other. Two days later, the phone again refused to charge and I had to replace it. I still marvel at how events unfolded, and I am further convinced that God is truly amazing.

I asked myself what would have happened if my phone had not reacted positively to the attempt to charge it, and I had left it at the office for a second night. Of course there may be some technological explanation for the positive reaction, but for me there is also a theological explanation. I am reminded that God wants the best for everyone and that God is always moving in ways that we cannot comprehend, and which are often confusing, but are always in our best interests.

Oh! That night we woke up Heidi’s uncle who then called a cousin of hers who lives in England but who was on assignment in Amsterdam. Unknown to us, she was scheduled to return to England on the 3rd, but had postponed it until the 8th. She contacted Heidi and in less than 10 minutes, Heidi was at home. She lived a few minutes from the bus station. Who could it be but God?

Are you convinced that God is amazing? I am, and Deniece Williams is so convinced that she wrote:

God is truly amazing
God is truly amazing
God is truly amazing
My God is truly amazing

He is a friend in need, He is a problem solver
He is the strength that never lets you fall
He is your peace, faith is the key!

Thought: God moves in mysterious ways.
Prayer Focus: For faith to trust God with our affairs

HIS WOUNDS THE PROOF

“When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence” Luke 24:40-43.

Luke tells us that after his resurrection, Jesus visited his disciples and they were “startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost” (Luke 24:37). Jesus asked them why they were so frightened and disturbed. He sought to convince them that it was he standing amongst them. They simply could not believe their eyes, minds and hearts. Jesus then offered them the proof, the hard evidence, that the person standing in front of them was he, Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified. To aid in convincing them, Jesus showed them “my hands and my feet” and invited them to touch him and see that he had “flesh and bones” (v.39). His hands and feet bore the wounds that were the hard evidence.

Those wounds!!! Those were wounds of compassion, grace, sacrifice and self-emptying love. They were the hard evidence of his humanity and God’s everlasting and unconditional love for the world. He showed them his wounds to inspire them, satisfy their curiosity, calm their fears and anxieties, and empower them.

All across the world there are Christians bearing the wounds of their love and loyalty to Jesus. Those who love and serve the Lord will have wounds inflicted on them that can serve as the hard evidence of their love and commitment to Christ. Jesus told his disciples that following him meant being willing to carry a cross. Bearing the cross involves wounds.

That wound might be the victimization one faces in the workplace because of a principled stand, or ostracism because of one’s unwillingness to participate in corruption, or the rejection of family members because of the decision to become a follower of Jesus, or imprisonment for sharing the faith, or being ridiculed for being a Christian or even the choice to answer “yes” to the call to full-time ministry. Some wounds might be physical, psychological or material.

In a real way, our wounds reveal our humanity, our weaknesses, our brokenness and our victory. Jesus’ wounds were signs that the will of God was done on earth as it was in heaven. In the process of experiencing his wounds, he declared: “It is finished!” The work was accomplished and the wounds had been inflicted. Matthew Bridges was correct when he wrote:

Crown him the Lord of love,
behold his hands and side,
those wounds, yet visible above,
in beauty glorified.

When you are tempted to try to hide the wounds or weaknesses which are ultimate proof of our humanity, and also our love for God and commitment to the work of God’s Kingdom, remember Jesus’ willingness to show the hard evidence.

Thought: What are your wounds for your love of Jesus?
Prayer Focus: Pray for those who are being “wounded” for Christ’s Sake.