THE TOMB IS NOT THE END

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.”  (1 Thessalonians 4:13 NLT)

For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose and in verse -- history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode, and song. I have tried it all. But I feel I have not said the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to the grave I can say, like many others, "I have finished my day's work!" But I cannot say, "I have finished my life." My day's work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight, it opens on the dawn. 
 
-- Victor Hugo

#5765

THE SHADOW OF DEATH

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  (Psalm 23:4 NKJV)

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse [long-time pastor of Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church] told of the occasion of his first wife’s death. He and his [young] children were driving from the burial, overcome with grief. He searched for a word of comfort to offer but could think of nothing. Just then, a large moving van drove by. As it passed, the shadow of the truck swept over the car. An inspiration came to Dr. Barnhouse. He turned to his family and asked, “Children, would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow?”

The children said, “Well, of course, Dad, we’d rather be run over by the shadow. That can’t hurt us at all.”

Dr. Barnhouse explained, “Did you know that two thousand years ago the truck of death ran over the Lord Jesus… in order that only its shadow might run over us?”

We face death, but thanks to Jesus, we only face its shadow.

-- Max Lucado in “Traveling Light”


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A NEW ADVENTURE IN EXISTENCE

NOTE: Today, March 29, 2016, is the 17^th anniversary of our SOUND BITES Ministry™.  It was begun in 1999 in memory of our son, Dustin, who had died on March 29, 1998. Today's quote is an Easter reminder that death is not the end, but A NEW ADVENTURE IN EXISTENCE. It speaks to what I believe SOUND BITES is all about.

On this 17^th anniversary, as I have done each year, I invite you to share how SOUND BITES has ministered to you and/or how you have used SOUND BITES to minister to others. Since SOUND BITES is now available via e-mail, blog, Facebook, and Twitter, you are welcome to respond through any of those means.

Blessings…

Rev. Dave Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry™

A NEW ADVENTURE IN EXISTENCE

Jesus grants courage for the final passage. He did for Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. When the pilot discovered that he had terminal cancer, he and his wife went to spend their final days at his Hawaiian home. He engaged a minister to conduct the last rites and wrote out these words to be read at his burial service:

"We commit the body of Charles A. Lindbergh to its final resting place; but his spirit we commit to Almighty God, knowing that death is but a new adventure in existence and remembering how Jesus said upon the cross, "Father, into Thy hands I comment My Spirit."

Death -- "a new adventure in existence." No need to dread it or ignore it. Because of Christ , you can face it.

-- Max Lucado in Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

#3853

A FULL AND SURE HOPE

(NOTE: Dr. J. Ellsworth Kalas, longtime pastor, author, and teacher, passed away yesterday. He was an inspiration to many. He lived and died with A FULL AND SURE HOPE of eternal life through Christ Jesus.)

Here's the good news about Easter.  The tomb was now full.  And it has been full ever since.

[Full of] victory, for instance.  One of Charles Wesley's great hymns challenges the domain of the tomb by a series of questions: "Where, O death, is now thy sting?... Where's thy victory, boasting grave?"  ("Christ the Lord Is Risen Today?")  Tombs have for so long declared themselves the ultimate winners; after all, no mortal escapes them!  But no longer.  We do indeed die, but with a sublime confidence that we will rise again.  We will win!  Our Lord has taken conquest of the grave, turning its emptiness into a habitation of victory.  The game we humans have been losing since Adam and Eve is now turned into victory.

And hope too.  The tomb is now full of hope.  During my nearly forty years as a parish pastor, I stood many hundreds of times at the open grave, speaking the words of committal, and knowing that as soon as our gathering left the cemetery, workers would lower the vault into the ground and would begin to throw dirt upon it.  But I conducted such "final rites" with hope.  As a fellow human being, I wanted often to weep with the mourners, and sometimes I did; I felt for their loss, particularly in those instances where death seemed to have come earlier than was its right.  But my tears were of sympathy, not of despair.  The tomb is now full of hope.  I remember my father pausing for the last time at the casket of my mother and saying quietly, "I'll see you in the morning, Mother," and I knew he was right.  Such is our hope.  Simple, yes; but full and sure.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in New Testament Stories from the Back Side

#3766

LIFE WITHOUT END

At the end of his great book Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev describes a village graveyard in one of the remote corners of Russia.


Among the many neglected graves was one untouched by man, untrampled by beast.  Only the birds rested upon it and sang at daybreak.  Often from the nearby village two feeble old people, husband and wife, moving with heavy steps and supporting one another, came to visit this grave.


Kneeling down at the railing and gazing intently at the stone under which their son was lying, they yearned and wept.  After a brief word they wiped the dust away from the stone, set straight a branch of a fir tree, and then began to pray.  In this spot they seemed to be nearer their son and their memories of him.  And then Turgenev asks, "Can it be that their prayers, their tears, are fruitless?  Can it be that love, sacred, devoted love, is not all powerful?  Oh no, however passionate, sinning and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenely at us with their innocent eyes.   They tell us not of eternal peace alone, of that great peace of indifferent nature; they tell us, too, of eternal reconciliation and of life without end."


-- Billy Graham in Unto the Hills




#3759

THE MESSAGE OF EASTER

I have heard that possums are smart animals. You wouldn’t think so because you hardly ever see one except when it’s dead on the road. There’s a joke that goes, “why did the chicken cross the road? To prove to the possum that it could be done!” But possums, it turns out, are smart. They won’t enter a hole if there’s just one set of tracks going into it. They know there’s something in there. But if there are two sets of tracks. The possum will enter and not be afraid.

The message of Easter is that we can enter the grave - we don’t have to fear death because there are tracks leading out of the tomb. Paul preached the proclamation of Easter - "'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the message that we need to hear at Easter! Jesus is risen!

-- Author Unknown


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