12/13/2021
By Pastor Vinnie Cappetta
"A Fresh Perspective on Dying"
- Eccl. 3:1-2. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted…
- Psalm 116:15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
A hospital is an ironic and interesting place because it is a conduit for bringing life into the world and a conduit for sending people into eternity. It is often a place of great joy when a child is born and a place of great sorrow when someone passes in death.
Some years ago my wife was on the brink of losing her great Aunt. She was thinking about the funeral which will take place over a thousand miles away and wondering whether or not she will be able to attend. She turned to me in bed one night and said, “I just don’t like thinking about death.”
I doubt there are many of us that like to think about death. Most of us would rather think about life. Yet both are an integral part of living here on earth.
Charles Spurgeon pointed out, “There is an essential difference between the decease of the godly and the death of the ungodly. Death comes to the ungodly man as a penal infliction, but to the righteous as a summons to his Father's palace. To the sinner it is an execution, to the saint an undressing from his sins and infirmities. Death to the wicked is the King of terrors. Death to the saint is the end of terrors, the commencement of glory.”
- In Psalm 116:15, what word is used to describe the way God views the death of a believer?
- What do you think God means when he uses that particular word?
- How does this give you a fresh perspective on death?
