Going Home

"What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?"  (Psalm 89:48).
"There is but a step between me and death" (1 Samuel 20:3).
"For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the Judgment"  (Hebrews 9:27).
"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).
"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints" (cf. Psalm 116:15).
EMPHASIS MINE. It has been observed, that if you can direct a man's thoughts toward eternity, you are well on the way to converting him.

"[Prepare] to meet your God, O Israel"  (cf. Amos 4:12).  Avoidance of the issue or being in denial is a cop-out and defense mechanism that doesn't work, because, sooner or later, we will all meet our Maker and have either a judgment day or a coronation day.  We must learn to put eternity in perspective and live in light of eternity--we are only passing through, as it were! Remember, it has wisely been said, "The only thing certain about life is death."  We all have the final appointment with death and no one knows when it is for them--he must always be vigilant.

There is the story of how much of a welcome Teddy Roosevelt got in a ticker-tape parade in Time's Square, and at the same time a missionary was coming home to his family:  He wondered why he didn't receive such a glorious welcome as this "hero" and God told him:  [Don't make yourself too comfortable or make yourself at home!] "You are not home yet!" We must learn to live our lives on this earth as foreigners and see that God just gives us spiritual green cards to prepare us for eternity. See yourself as a citizen of heaven!

Matthew Henry said that it ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our final day. This is highly practical and a matter of applying the Word to our lives. Not wanting to tackle this issue, or to avoid it, is cowardly and escaping reality, so to speak.  If you are not ready for death, you are not really living; for only those ready to die can enjoy life to the max.  If we can affirm with Paul: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith..." (2 Timothy 4:7).

The day of our departure to be with the Lord is meant to be more joyous than our day of birth!  I like Alfred, Lord Tennyson's wording in In Memoriam: "God's finger touched him and he slept."  Life is not a fluke and there is an intricate plan of God for each of us, and when we realize it we are really "Living" with a capital L. Some people are merely existing, they are not living, because the true secret to life eternal in its fullness is to know God ("I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly," says Jesus; starting now, not in eternity).

You can spend your life without accomplishing anything and it may turn out to be empty pursuits done in vain.  I am not against doing good deeds or works, just those done in the flesh!  We will only be rewarded for the fruit of the Spirit that we accomplish through the power of the Spirit (Hosea 14:8; Isaiah 26:12).  Paul said in Romans 15:18, "I will not venture to speak of anything, but what Christ has accomplished through me [as a vessel of honor] "prepared unto good works" per Ephesians 2:10). Note that we are not saved "by works," but "unto [for] works," and we will be recompensed fairly beyond our wildest dreams.

The sad thing is that most people don't know they are wasting their life on worthless goals or even godless pleasures.  A life without God-oriented purpose is petty and trivial and will count for nothing in light of eternity.  Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the poet laureate of the UK, said that he looked forward to meeting his "pilot" when he had "crossed the bar."  "Death, be not proud!" Sir Walter Scott said, "Time and tide wait for no man."  We never know when our hour has come--we must be ready.

Death is a door and not a wall.  It is the final curtain call of this existence.  It is nothing to be afraid of for us believers because Christians don't really die--it is just the separation of the soul from the higher level of dimension in living like color TV is a higher level than black and white, and likewise, H.D. and 3-D to boot!   We never reach perfect sanctification in this life where we can say we have "arrived," (cf. Phil. 3:13) but in glory, we will be without sin and yet totally free--we won't want to sin either.

To some it may seem morbid (it is being oriented to reality and being well-adjusted and victorious over the devil who holds people captive by a fear of death) and to make the final preparations and provide for final expenses, or to dwell on your wishes, even sharing them to intimate friends and family there comes a time when we must face reality that we are getting up there and could go at any time to meet our Lord, and our work is done--we are the ultimate realists.  We don't want to be preoccupied with the subject but examples of what ought to be done as an example--this is our last testimony and chance to say something in our death.  How many believers have made funeral arrangements, or have life insurance, or have gone through the trouble of making a will and appointing an executor?   Having done this, I can reassure you that it is God's will and there is great peace of mind in not leaving the final expenses to family and burdening them to worry about the details in such a trying and lamentable moment as when a dear one passes away.

I have talked to some guys and they simply don't care what happens to them after they die, but this is an unbiblical attitude.  There is such as thing as being irresponsible and making that final impression of how people remember you are important.  In the Bible, God places a premium on giving men a proper burial and I recall the wicked Jezebel that the dogs ate her body and she never was buried. When God curses people often He says they won't receive a proper burial--this is an eternal stigma, and we are to honor all men and give every man in the image of God, no matter his status a proper burial, and to be ready for any contingency.  We are stewards of what God has blessed us with and will be held accountable to the end, even our foresight, like God, said to Hezekiah:  "Get your house in order, you are about to die!"

Try thinking of the departing to be with the Lord as our final promotion and being given our ultimate reward (1 Cor. 2:9 says, "Eye has not heard, not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for [us]").  Be ready!  St. Francis of Assisi was asked what he'd do with one hour left to live: "I'd finish this row [he was gardening that day]."  And in that day, ye shall ask me nothing" (John 16:23):  Our questions are answered.

Our departure is meant to be glorious and a celebration of our life and we will see how God has always been at work in our lives "to do and to will according to His good pleasure"  (Philippians 2:13).  William James, the psychologist, said, "The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it."   The consequences of our personal goals will not last as long as the accomplishment of God's will in our life--the goal should be to find that for your life and be faithful in it.  We are all living on borrowed time, as they say, and sooner or later you will realize that disease like cancer is not terminal--life is! We cannot escape the Grim Reaper and are literally all on Death Row!  The best philosophy and theology is to be ready to expire at any time, and that gives us a brave heart.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Brain, Mind, and Spirit

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7, KJV).
"[The demon-possessed man] was clothed and in his right mind."
"At the same time my reason returned to me..."  (Daniel 4:36a, ESV).
"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he"  (Prov. 23:7).
EMPHASIS IN BOLDFACE MINE!

It has been said that we are what we think about all day and that we are what our thoughts make us are what we are. "We aren't what we think we are; but what we think, we are!"   Nevertheless, some misguided souls need to get their thinking straightened out, that's all!

Did you know that your brain is capable of being diseased and will ultimately decay into dust?  There is such a thing as mental illness, in that the brain can have misfires, "mal-connections," or lapses to do bizarre behavior, and even lose touch with reality and have delusions. Most mental illnesses, such as being bipolar do not mean the person is "crazy" but that he suffers a disability of mood swing that keeps him from functioning normally in society and of adjusting to the culture and his environment. I do not believe in calling people nuts, crazy, wackos, out of their mind, coo-coo, beside oneself, gone off the deep end, off his rocker, mentally disturbed, suffering from mental issues, or especially insane (except in extreme cases which are very rare).  "He's lost his mind! (he may just be confused by the author of confusion)."

Stigmas are uncalled for:  In reality, people with mental disorders are less likely to commit crimes than so-called normal people, and there are many normal criminals out there too. Giving psychiatric help to criminals only produces mentally healthy criminals!  Christians believe mind or thought preceded and is over matter or creation:  "In the beginning was the Word...." Note this:  The brain and mind are connected but involve more than chemical reactions.

Our mind is different from our brain and is dependent upon it in the body we indwell but will be set free and glorified in glory.  Our character and personality, and not necessarily our IQ will remain intact and we will have nothing to complain or fret about.  Personally, I do not believe there will be retarded or even geniuses in heaven, but all will have perfect minds in perfect bodies like Christ. There are many diseases of the mind such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases that can greatly debilitate and do harm to one's living style and comfort zone.  But I do not believe our spirits can be infected by disease!

(Modern science is monistic or believing only in the physical and that which can be demonstrated, repeated, and proved by natural causes.  However, we Christians believe in dualism that we have a mind separate that is not material.  Unbelievers are just as human as Christians, but they are dead spiritually and lack a right relationship with God and man (definition of righteousness). Christians have a special dimension to life that is beyond just being conscious of the material world, but of God and spiritual things and concepts--this can never erode or fade away.)


We are vessels of honor and will never lose our fellowship with God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit, and fellow believers. This is something the devil cannot snatch away nor afflict us with. For example, we may lose short-term memory or ultimately memory of lifetime acquaintances, but we will never lose our knowledge of God or awareness of His divine presence within us.  Others cannot see our relationship with God except through the fruit we produce, but we can never be separated from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:39 declares that even disease can't harm our fellowship and security in Him).  God will never put His children to shame because they are vessels of honor and would rather take them home to be with the Lord than suffer at the hands of the devil like an unbeliever succumbing to his diabolical activity.

Talents can be neglected and deteriorate, but gifts are given and God does not take back what He gives: Philippians 1:6 that says He will finish what He has started in us and will not give up--so we should never surrender though it seems we are capable of temporary setback, failure, and unfaithfulness. No matter what trial we go through God is with us ("When you pass through the waters I will be with you..," says Isaiah 43:2).  Jesus didn't save our brains, but our souls and this includes our intellect because the will is driven by it (the will is that by which the mind chooses or the faculty of choice and referee driven by the intellect and emotions).  If our mind was destroyed we couldn't be "set free" or make choices!

Dr. Karl Popper with Sir John Eccles wrote a must-read and classic entitled The Self and Its Brain in which they distinguish, and separate these two entities of our being (we are a "living being" distinguished from animals and have the breath of life itself endowed by our Creator).  Having a mind makes consciousness possible, and this is subjective and not in the material world--there is something out there besides matter and that, of course, implies a Higher Mind, or God Almighty Himself as Creator. Consciousness and thinking are mental and not material or physical events!  Most psychiatrists believe we are just a bunch of chemical reactions and any disease of the brain can be fixed by some drug therapy and physical treatment---they deny the existence of a soul!

They also deny the personhood consisting of being a living soul and having any spiritual existence--Christians according to Freud and modern psychiatry are suffering from a neurosis or psychosis.  To distinguish the spiritual dimension, a relatively normal person can appear as a spiritual giant because of his "knowing the Lord" with his mind.  Our minds do remain intact as we enter eternity, and can operate independently of our brains, which are just part of our physical bodies and subject to defect and shortcomings.  Soli Deo Gloria!