Death

Here's one of the prayers of Moses. We always read this prayer at funerals and burials. Also at the end when a brother or sister in Christ is near the end of the hard work of dying.

No man can establish the work of his own hands. Only God has that power. This is as true of work raising a family and pastoring a congregation as it is work on the railroad. (This is what your hands look like after a shift as car knocker at Chicago & North Western's Proviso Yards.)

Read and pray this prayer with your family and loved ones tonight.

Psalm 90

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

Wonderful record of Augustine's comments upon his appointment of a successor:

Letter CCXIII. (September 26TH, a.d. 426.)

The record prepared by Augustine of the proceedings on the occasion of his designating Eraclius to succeed him in the episcopal chair.

In the Church of Peace in the district of Hippo Regius.

Bishop Augustine having taken his seat along with his fellow bishops Religianus and Martinianus, there being present Saturninus, Leporius, Barnabas, Fortunatianus, Rusticus, Lazarus, and Eraclius—presbyters—while the clergy and a large congregation of laymen stood by, Bishop Augustine said:

We all are mortal, and the day which shall be the last of life on earth is to every man at all times uncertain; but in infancy there is hope of entering on boyhood, and so our hope goes on, looking forward from boyhood to youth, from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age: whether these hopes may be realized or not is uncertain, but there is in each case something which may be hoped for. But old age has no...

He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. (Matthew 10:41)

This past week, I exchanged several e-mails with a young man who's been reading Joe Sobran and loving it. The e-mails were because this brother is inclined to believe the trash-talk William F. Buckley unleashed against his old friend Sobran, smearing him as a Jew-hater.

I tried to defend Joe against Buckley and all his wealthy friends who lived with him on Israel's Amen Corner, but it was no use. Young men can't help underestimating the cost of discipleship, particularly when a man's apostolate is teaching, preaching, or writing. Do you remember as a young man thinking your cultural sophistication and close study of God's opponents would allow you to get rich being a truth-teller when all other men through the ages got poor and dead doing the same? Hope springs eternal from us human pests, doesn't it?

I'm guessing this was the hope Joe had when as a young man he first started writing. Maybe he could tell the truth and be published by Oxford or HarperCollins? Maybe he could write the truth and get rich doing it? Maybe he could expose Israel's abuse of these United States...

Over on his FB page, Graham Roberts posted this short piece by Dad Bayly, and I repost it here for our readers. There are a couple problems with the view that Christians should squeeze every last bit of faith for healing we can marshal from ourselves until the moment our loved one's heart actually stops beating and he is pronounced dead.

First, God often shows us that in this particular case He is not going to heal our loved one. Are we not to listen to Him and submit to His will? Is it godly to demand otherwise?

Second, if we refuse to stop "believing" or "having faith" for our loved one's healing until he's dead, how do we ever begin to do the work of preparing for death? For that matter, how does he himself do the work of preparing for death when all his loved ones surrounding him are...

Senators John McCain and Ted Cruz both paid their dues to the New World Order by putting a woman on their tickets as Vice President. Then, yesterday, Senator Cruz made a stop in our own Bloomington, Indiana, for a meet-and-greet. Mormon talk show host Glen Beck accompanied him and Indiana University's student paper, the Indiana Daily Student, reported:

Beck showed up to endorse Cruz as a constitutional scholar. He said Cruz doesn’t just believe in the Constitution but fights to enforce it. ...Beck said he expected Cruz to be against suicide and the right to die but was surprised when he got a different response.

“Cruz said the exact opposite: that ‘people have a right to their body,'” Beck said.

So now we have another stellar conservative we Christians are supposed to rally round because he's a true-blue Christian who is committed to principles that are...

Are what?

Well, actually, his principles include the next frontier in our culture of death: the legalization of suicide... 

I thought I wrote The Great Santini because I hated my father, and I realized later that I wrote it because I needed to love him. I needed a father to love.  - Pat Conroy

Yesterday, 70-year-old South Carolina novelist, Pat Conroy, died. Conroy's most famous work was his autobiographical novel, The Great Santini, in which he sustains the spewing of venom against his monstrous father from first page to last. My response to the portrayal of the father by his son was visceral. It was like watching a Praying Mantis mate. There was absolutely no love lost and I don't think I finished the book.

If you haven't read The Great Santini, do yourself a favor. Don't. Just imagine hundreds of pages of abuse of his wife and children by the most wicked Marine Corps officer you could imagine as recorded by a son who has sworn vengeance against his father from the day of his birth. Son Conroy carries his vengeance out with a vitriol you can't imagine even Truman Capote pulling off. You have the picture...

As the years passed, Son Conroy made something of a peace with his father, God be praised. He talks about it here in a Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross...

Terrible news. Justice Scalia has died and President Obama will replace him. Terrible news. May God comfort Justice Scalia's loved ones; also Justice Thomas; also alll those in these United States who believe in the rule of law and thank God for Justice Scalia's work on the Court since President Reagan appointed him and he was confirmed back in 1986.

Speaking truthfully, if The Donald is elected, my hopes wouldn't be much brighter concerning Justice Scalia's replacement.

Just heard Elisabeth Elliot Gren died and now is with the Lord. In my life, I'd had few famous heroes, and even fewer famous heroines. Betty was one of them. From my childhood when she would visit and she and Dad would argue during the meal; through our move to Bloomington when we invited Lars and Betty, along with Betty's brother, Dave Howard, to come and speak to our church; to the first national Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood Conference in Dallas back around 1999 when I invited Betty to speak to the women, to later in her life when letters (from Lar) were infrequent but treasured, Betty remained a heroine to me, as to many others.

In commemoration of her faithful service to the Lord, here is an interview of Betty I posted here back in 2009. May God comfort Betty's loved ones...

This memorial is by Anna Elisabeth's father, Stephen Baarendse, who with his wife Sara allows its publication for the hope and comfort of other fathers and mothers whose little ones crossed the valley of the shadow of death at a similarly tender age. If readers wish to thank Stephen and Sara for their witness, feel free to send them an e-mail.

* * *

Anna Elisabeth Baarendse

Stillborn June 24, 2009 after 6 months (24 weeks) in the womb

On Monday morning, June 22, we entered Lexington Medical Center for an ultrasound because Sara had not felt our baby move in four or five days. The Lord had blessed us with a memorable weekend. First, Sara and I enjoyed a fine date night on Friday, June 19. While Rebecca Becker watched our children, we dined at Ruby Tuesday and caught an early evening showing of Pixar’s new movie Up, with its wonderful theme of the adventure of married life. On Father’s Day, we witnessed Ava Joy Becker baptism and heard a message about God’s sovereign control over all of life from Psalm 33 by Pastor Dave Bindewald. The Psalm ends with these verses:

Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee (Psalm 33:18-22).

Indeed, we’ve sensed God’s steadfast love (his Hesed) upon us, from beginning to end. Sunday evening we drove downtown as a family to hear Sinclair Ferguson preach with great feeling on Romans 6:1-14: “Do I know that I have died to sin and been raised to newness of life?” After the service, by a wonderful providence, I briefly met Iain Murray, who was visiting from Scotland. All of this happened on Father’s Day, while our precious baby was already dead in the womb, but gloriously alive with her Father in heaven.

On Monday we decided to take the whole family to the ultrasound...