One of the dearest ladies I know, my precious Mother, at 97
years young became suddenly ill a few weeks ago and was told that medically
there was nothing more that could be done for her. This is a vital lady who was tutoring the
week before. My Mother's life has been
an example to me of what a woman of God should be like: she is gracious, loving, industrious and so
many more things. She lives today, but
does not know what tomorrow will bring.
She would love to continue longer on this earth doing the things she enjoys,
but is accepting of whatever God chooses for her.
With my
Mother's poor prognosis and my living with cancer we have had many good
conversations in the past few weeks, as well as done a great deal of reading on
the subject of dying and death. I asked
Mother to tell me what she would say about how to prepare for death and this
wise woman shared her thoughts with me.
She asked me to share with her friends and mine what we discussed.
She makes a point first of saying that dying
is not like birth, a one-time event, but requires life-long preparation. A Christian's life should be spent living as
though they could be called to die at any time.
Well before a person dies they need to ask, "Am I prepared to
die?" You need to think on the
mistakes made through life, she says, the sins committed against God and the
life not lived for Him and you need to repent.
Constantly evaluate your life in view of Scripture and ask if you are
living Christ-like or living for yourself.
Then you need to repent to God Almighty and take great hope in the fact
that it is not your faith, your life, your determination that will attain
Heaven for you, but it is only the blood of Jesus Christ shed for the sins of
His people. Several friends have told Mother
recently that they didn't doubt she was headed to Heaven because she was such a
saint. She is quick to respond that when
one is dead in sins, one can't be saintly enough to be alive in Christ! You can rest in that great hope only if you
are His child, knowing that God loves to save His people and then nothing can
shake you out of the palm of His hand.
You must
be willing, she says, to accept death because God calls us to die as much as He
calls us to live. Even in dying we do it
for Him. Remember that though the
process of death may be difficult the end result is an eternity singing God's
praises in a place where there are no more tears, no more sorrow and no more
pain (Revelation 21: 4). She says that
she knows Christ will escort her soul to be with Him when He is ready and that
she has nothing to fear.
When
death comes close, don't be frightened she says. Remember the Shepherd who walks through the
"valley of the shadow of death" with His people (Psalm 23) but she is
quick to point out that you must not forget that this assurance only applies if
He is your shepherd. Take great comfort
that He will not take you one moment before your work for Him on earth is
done. Pray. Take your fears, your pain, your weakness and
your sins to the One who loves you with a love that "neither death nor
life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from." (Romans 8: 38) Read His word and find comfort. Read what those who have gone on before have
had to say (she highly recommends a book we have been reading, O Love That Will Not Let me Go; Facing Death with Courageous Confidence in
God edited by Nancy Guthrie). Call
on brothers and sisters in Christ to walk the path with you and to fervently
pray for you.
A friend of my Mother's, a 102 year old pastor, sent her an e-mail the other day
that I hope he doesn't mind my sharing.
The subject line was "God speaking," and the body of the
e-mail said, "'I will never leave you, nor forsake you' Hebrews
13:5" What an apt message when a
Christian faces death. It can be said no
better! Thank you for your gracious, loving prayers for Mother and Myself! They
are, as Andrew Murray says, the empty hands of faith which reach up to our
loving heavenly Father to receive His blessings to bring down to earth--your
prayers have obtained many, many blessings for us! May God richly bless you
all!
Below is a quote by Richard Baxter from Directions for a Peaceful Death.
Mother was enriched by his message and encourages you to read more
of it in the book noted above or on-line at http://www.puritansermons.com/baxter/baxter17.htm.
Remember whose messenger sickness is, and who
it is that calls you to die. It is he, that is the Lord of all the world, and
gave us the lives which he takes from us; and it is he, that must dispose of
angels and men, of princes and kingdoms, of heaven and earth; and therefore
there is no reason that such worms as we should desire to be excepted. You
cannot deny him to be the disposer of all things, without denying him to be
God: it is he that loves us, and never meant us any harm in any thing that he
has done to us; that gave the life of his Son to redeem us; and therefore
thinks not life too good for us. Our sickness and death are sent by the same
love that sent us a Saviour, and sent us the powerful preachers of his word,
and sent us his Spirit, and secretly and sweetly changed our hearts, and knit
them to himself in love; which gave us a life of precious mercies for our souls
and bodies, and has promised to give us life eternal; and shall we think, that
he now intends us any harm? Cannot he turn this also to our good, as he has
done many an affliction which we have complained about?
Look by faith to your
dying, buried, risen, ascended, glorified Lord. Nothing will more powerfully
overcome both the poison and the fears of death, than the believing thoughts of
him that has triumphed over it. Is it terrible as it separates the soul from
the body? So it did by our Lord, who yet overcame it. Is it terrible as it lays
the body in the grave? So it did by our Saviour; though he saw not corruption,
but quickly rose by the power of his Godhead. He died to teach us believingly
and boldly to submit to death. He was buried, to teach us not overmuch to fear
a grave. He rose a again to conquer death for us, and to assure those who rise to
newness of life, that they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory; and
being made partakers of the first resurrection, the second death shall have no
power over them. He lives as our head, that we might live by him; and that he
might assure all those that are here risen with him, and seek first the things
that are above, that though in themselves they are dead, "yet their life
is hid with Christ in God; and when Christ who is our life shall appear, then
shall we also appear with him in glory," Col. 3:1,2,4,5. What a
comfortable word is that, John 14:19, "Because I live, you shall live
also." Death could not hold the Lord of life; nor can it hold us against
his will, who has the "keys of death and hell," Rev. 1:18. He loves
every one of his sanctified ones much better than you love an eye, or a hand,
or any other member of your body, which you are not willing to lose if you are
able to save it. When he ascended, he left us that message full of comfort for
his followers, John 20:17, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend
unto my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God." Which, with
these two following, I would have written before me on my sick bed. "If
any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my
servant be," John 12:26. And, "Verily, I say unto you, to-day shall
you be with me in paradise," Luke 23:43. Oh what a joyful thought should
it be to a believer, to think when he is dying, that he is going to his
Saviour, and that our Lord is risen and gone before us, to prepare a place for
us, and take us in season to himself, John 14:2-4. "As you believe in God,
believe thus in Christ; and then your hearts will be less troubled," ver.
1. It is not a stranger that we talk of to you; but your Head and Saviour, that
loves you better than you love yourselves, whose office it is there to appear
continually for you before God, and at last to receive your departing souls;
and into his hand it is, that you must then commend them, as Stephen did, Acts
7:59.
