KOPP DISCLOSURE
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
Naked at Death
Death, more than anything else, exposes who we really are and aren't.
Because we deal with it almost daily, I tell my executive assistant who will always be a year older than me and has been uncommonly dutiful on the Corner of Lincoln and Main for over four decades yet has been in church employment about 4-5 fewer years, "While I've been around a lot of churches before landing here almost two decades ago and know every church has its distinctives that are often only coincidental to Jesus by the book, all churches have one thing in common. You can tell where a person is with our Lord by how they face death. If they can't talk about it or won't talk about it or wish I'd stop preaching about it, they really don't believe the best that God has to offer us by grace through faith in Jesus comes the first nanosecond after the last breath. Simply, people that can't talk about death don't really believe in Jesus. Jesus came to erase our fear of death. People that believe in Jesus aren't afraid of death. The bottom line of Christianity is eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus."
A friend just died.
62.
Unlike so many clergywomen/men and other politicians, he didn't agree with the last person that he talked to like a bad sentence ending in a preposition.
You never caught him on Facebook with a "like, like" upokrisis about something/someone that God doesn't like.
He was Godly.
He wanted what God wants.
He wanted babies protected from womb to tomb because that's what God wants.
He wanted Biblical models of sex and marriage because that's what God wants.
He wanted the hungry to be fed and homeless to be housed and other Matthew 25 kinda stuff because that's what God wants.
Catch the drift?
He was fearless because he feared God more than anyone else.
He knew the only judge that matters in the end.
He had his priorities in order.
He knew he will spend a lot longer time with God by grace through faith in Jesus than anybody else; ergo, again, he had his priorities in order.
About two years ago, someone left our church after a failed attempt to persuade me to be a nanny and numbskull concomitant to the CCPC19.
She conspired behind my back with some church officers and members.
She wanted me to cancel worship and lock people out of the church or, at least, mandate behaviors.
Never did and never will.
I don't pay attention to Godless politicians.
It's a Matthew 6:24, Acts 5:29, and first half of the big ten in Exodus 20 thing pour moi.
My 62 year old friend in heaven reinforced that for me.
Anyway, she seemed earnest enough as she also seemed to be pleading more than rationalizing while barely concealing an unseemly idolatry, "I want you to know I'm not afraid but..."
She repeated that several times.
Shakespearean.
Methought she protesteth too much.
So much fear.
I could see it in her eyes...alone...because, uh, I couldn't see the rest of her face.
Hmmmmmmm.
Well, my friend's in heaven.
Awesome for him!
That's what believing in Jesus is all about in the end.
Read John 3 and Revelation 21 for starters for why people that really believe in Jesus miss those that go to heaven before them yet are happy for them and know they'll be together in the end.
RIP.
It's like I tell my executive assistant so often, everybody, churched or not, is the same when it comes to the ultimate common denominator.
Naked at death.
@#$%
@#$%
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