Tag Archives: death

Color Your World: Radical Red

Posted on by under Photography, Uncategorized

As the afternoon creeps up on us I am posting about the color RADICAL RED.

I am posting this one ahead of time as I have a funeral to sing later this morning and will be away from phone and computer for probably quite a while.

I am glad for the color red. It reminds me of the blood of Christ which our congregant, David, rested his hope of eternity on. That blood has never lost its power. This is a fitting week to celebrate the power of the blood and the hope we have in Christ. Our hope never becomes more poignant than in the face of death.

 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man,so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly man.

50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[h]

55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”[i]

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 15:35-56

Now that is the power of the blood of Christ. Here is the power of RADICAL RED

Enjoying a cool down
On of the most famous letter groupings in the world

This is definitely radical for a photography post, but then I guess this is why they call me a Christian artist. Check out other radical links by clicking the underlined words above.

 

Ready, Set, Done

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/ready-set-done-7/

The daily post has given us this instruction today…

As it’s been a while since our last free-write… set a timer for ten minutes. Write without pause (and no edits!) until you’re out of time. Then, publish what you have (it’s your call whether or not to give the post a once-over).

To see how others have spent their ten minutes click on the link above.

Here is what I have been thinking today.

Christ Came To Us So That We Might Go To Him

As it is the Christmas season I am preparing, per usual, a funeral service. It seems that every year about this time I find myself doing at least one or two of these funeral events. I suppose it is all part and parcel of being a pastor, and I suppose some would find that really sad. I don’t. Well let me qualify that I don’t find it sad if the funeral I am doing is like the one I am putting together right now. The man who has gone on before us was a Christian man, Not a perfect man, not a man who had it all figured out but a Christian man. He was one of the men who understood that he had nothing to offer God in himself but that God had everything to offer him. And this man chose to take God up on His offer.

I suppose some might think Christmas is a terrible time to do a funeral (like it would be less terrible at some other time of the year…trust me for those left behind there is no good time for death to happen). I think there is another way to look at death at this particular holiday season, though. You see, one way to understand the incarnation of Christ is to see it as God paving the road from Heaven to Earth through the first advent, Christ’s birth. Death at this season then can be seen as a man or  a woman taking the very same road in the opposite direction. Before Christ there was no road into the presence of the Father. The way was shut and those who died had no direct access to the kingdom of Heaven. Today because of Christmas or because of Christ’s coming the way is open and this man this imperfect man who didn’t have it all together but who knew and trusted Jesus has now taken the long road Home! Today  that man is singing “Joy To The World” in a different place and while that is sad for those of us who miss him, I find it hard to begrudge him the Christmas gift he has waited for all these many years.

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Lament For A Dying World

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

crying eye      In my mind’s eye I am standing once again in my grandfather’s kitchen delivering him the news about my grandmother’s terminal cancer. His watery blue eyes fill with tears but he sets his jaw with that grim New England resolution I have grown up with.

He lifts his chin proudly refusing to let the tears escape, “Well we have had 61 wonderful years together.”

Despite his assertions of thankfulness I know something in my grandfather dies that day. That is the point he loses the will to live. That is the moment where life becomes a rash clinging to his mortal skin, a plague to be cured so he can rejoin my grandmother on the other side.

In this world one out of one dies.  Death is ever-present in the midst of life. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 it is the final enemy, man’s nemesis. Because of this plague on the world we all know lament and raise it up from one end of the globe to another on a daily basis. Somewhere right now someone is weeping over some soul cast forth from the Earth into eternity on this day we call Good Friday.

I can see a hill with three crosses. Two criminals hang beside him, one  to his right and one to his left and there on the middle cross, struggling for every breath, hangs the Darling of Heaven, God with skin on, Jesus.

He gasps one last time and cries out “Into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”

Immortality meets finality. The whole world laments. The clouds weep darkness and the earth trembles in terror as God dies. But in this world it is a rule as certain as death, God changes everything He touches. And when He touches death it is changed from enemy to entryway for those who believe on the Lord Jesus to be rescued.   

     For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

     For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:17

    But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: John 1:12     

In my memory I am sitting at my grandmother’s side as she prepares to breathe her last. I sing her to Heaven with her favorite hymns, “In the Garden” and “How Great Thou Art”. It is 4:30 A.M. and the hospital smells of antiseptic as death creeps in to take her. But because of the cross death can do no more than release her from cancer’s shackles. Because of the cross 61 years of happy marriage are not forever marred because of death’s pall. Because of the cross my grandfather can hope in a better future even as his own life wanes alongside hers.

We can raise a lament for this dying world. It is sad. Today is a day to recognize the awful power of this enemy called death. But it is also a day to recognize that long ago on a hill called Golgotha God and death had a showdown and there in that time and space God’s touch forever made a slave of this thing that enslaved us. Jesus died on Friday but hang on church Sunday’s on the way!

Pray with me today:

     Jesus I thank you for Your cross. I thank you that You met death and won! I thank You that Your power has turned death from an enemy into an entryway. I believe in You Jesus and receive Your death on the cross as my access into Heaven. I know I could never do enough good works to enter Heaven on my own but You have made a way by dying for me by taking the punishment for my sin. I love You Lord and dedicate my life to You this day. Amen.