Death is not Dying

I appreciate the comment left by Mason Murch in regard to the most recent edition of Theology onThursday.  Mason writes:

“Piper has never been more on point than he is in this clip. The link on my page right below yours is to ‘A Place of Hope Africa.’ Bev and Joey Starling are acquaintances who started and run this orphanage in Nigeria. Of course, their message is: ‘Jesus loves you , let us show you. We will raise that little boy who is crippled, we will care for that baby with aids it is because of Jesus’ love that we do this for you.’ That is Christian love and Christs’ gospel.  Servants must bear their crosses, Christ told us this is so. Joey and Bev probably won’t say much about it on their web page, but Bev has now contracted Malaria. They need our prayers. Please remember them.”

In response to this comment, I would like to ask you to do a few things.  First, please pray for Bev’s health and the work she and her husband are carrying on to show the love of Christ to orphans in Nigeria.  Second, consider the shallowness of the so-called prosperity gospel in the face of death and dying.  We will all face death, the question is how.  Rachel Barkley, a Canadian wife and mother of two, has terminal cancer.  She addressed a group in Vancouver lately regarding life and death in a way which demonstrates the sufficiency of God’s grace (watch it here).  Please pray for Rachel, her husband, Neil, and their children, Quinn and Kate.

These lives demonstrate the reality of the gospel and its hope-giving effects in the face of death, unlike the ego-centric ‘health and wealth’ teaching espoused by TBN televangelists and movies like ‘Facing the Giants‘.  You will die.  Will you die well, clinging to Christ alone?  Will you die clutching on to all the things you ‘named and claimed’?  Will you die bitterly cursing God for being unfair and unloving?  Your belief (or lack thereof) will determine how you leave this world and enter the next.