My Friend Donnie

Last Sunday morning about 3:00 am my friend of 27 years Donnie Jenkins passed from this life into the hands of Jesus. Many thoughts always occur with me at times like these. Donnie had been sick for a long time. When we last spoke he told me he was tired and ready. He knew the Lord Jesus as savior. 

Many verses come to mind, but this one seems to resound:

For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. 1 Thessalonians 4:14

CS Lewis  in the last book  on the last page of the Chronicles of Narnia ends series  with these words

"'The term is over, the holidays have begun. The dream is ended, this is the morning. ' And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever in which every chapter is better than the one before."

And so now it is with Donnie

His mercy endureth for ever

2 Kings 13

Jehoahaz Rules in Israel

1 Jehoahaz son of Jehu began to rule over Israel in the twenty-third year of King Joash’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria seventeen years.
2 But he did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He followed the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat, continuing the sins that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.
3 So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and he allowed King Hazael of Aram and his son Ben-hadad to defeat them repeatedly.
4 Then Jehoahaz prayed for the LORD’s help, and the LORD heard his prayer, for he could see how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel.
5 So the LORD provided someone to rescue the Israelites from the tyranny of the Arameans. Then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days.
6 But they continued to sin, following the evil example of Jeroboam. They also allowed the Asherah pole in Samaria to remain standing.



This is passage is very strange to me

in verse 2 it says Jehoahaz did evil
in verse 3 God is very angry with him
in verse 4 he prays
in verse 5 God answers and helps
in verse 6  they continued to sin

Until I remember Psalm 145:8

"The LORD is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love."

If you continue to read you see that

7 Finally, Jehoahaz’s army was reduced to 50 charioteers, 10 chariots, and 10,000 foot soldiers. The king of Aram had killed the others, trampling them like dust under his feet.

Sin in the end leads where sin always leads (lost and death). But just because the king cries to God then because of Gods mercy things return to normal for a time
"Then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days."

Comfort

Today Patrick Dorinson in an article "A cowboy's guide to aging" wrote "This year along with other boomers who were born in 1952, I will turn 60. I am not quite ready to retire and the way the economy is going it looks like a lot of us including myself will be working longer than we anticipated. And with my youth and middle age in the rearview mirror, the end gets closer every day unless they figure a way to replace all the worn out parts of my body or find a fountain of youth. Even if I make it to the ripe old age of 100, I am way past the halfway mark of my life."

 

As someone who turned 60 last year myself the words of Jesus are becoming more comforting to me each day

 

 

John 14:1-3 NLT

Jesus, the Way to the Father

14 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. ² There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³ When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.“

 

The Last Samuarai

I just finished watching the Last Samuarai, it ends with this (speaking of the main character in the movie)

" As for the American Captain, no one knows what became of him. Some say that he died of his wounds. Others, that he returned to his own country. But I like to think he may have at last found some small measure of peace, that we all seek, and few of us ever find."

The phase that spoke to me was about peace and we all seeking it but few finding it.
Then I thought about what Jesus said:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

A very different thing then what then the American Caption was looking for are maybe it is what He and all of us were looking for we just did not recognize it.

Sad but True

"The emerging church is not an evangelistic strategy. It is the last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder into liberalism or unbelief. Over and over, Rob Bell refers to the “staggering number” of people just like him, people who can’t believe the message they used to believe, people who want nothing to do with traditional Christianity, people who don’t want to leave the faith but can’t liv...e in the faith they once embraced. I have no doubt there are many people like this inside and outside our churches. Some will leave the faith altogether. Others—and they are in the worse position—will opt for liberalism, which has always seen itself as a halfway house between conservative orthodoxy and secular disbelief." Justin Taylor

Love in the Christian Sense

But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people....Our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves. It means that we wish our own good. In the same way Christian Love (or Charity) for our neighbors is quite a different thing from liking or affection. We ‘like’ or are ‘fond of’ some people, and not of others. It is important to understand that this natural liking’ is neither a sin nor a virtue, any more than your likes and dislikes in food are a sin or a virtue. It is just a fact. But, of course, what we do about it is either sinful or virtuous.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity