Are we able to deal with our own death today?

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Permalink Reply by Carla on September 23, 2010 at 4:36pm

Hi Ron,

Big question.. :-)

As you know I was faced with my own mortality last year at the young age of 40.. But by God's Grace I am still here. So I've given this some thought...and my true unreadiness to die came to the forefront as I experienced the real possibility of not making it.

Our wills are all in place..etc etc..I've checked off on my drivers license that I would donate body parts...but no one wants my heart I don't think.. ;-)

No one can take care of my kids like I can..and they are still little.

I can die with a clear conscience knowing that I belong to the Lord, I am His and He is mine...but I'm not ready to die. There is still too much for me to do in this life. I have a family to raise, a husband and children to take care of... The Lord obviously has something in mind for me or he would have taken me home last year. So I know...with that in mind, I need to be conscious to be living for HIM with every fiber of my being.. He spared me for a purpose that He will lead me in and through. He has a wonderful plan for each of my boys, so my purpose is to raise them to honor God and Love Him first ..in all things. They belong to God, and I thank God every day for them and I ask HIm how to raise them... Our God is Awesome and faithful.

I am excited to be one day be home with the Lord, but I know He is with me always right now...

So...No. I'm not ready to die, because God has made it clear to me that He still wants me here for a purpose.

This verse comes to mind alot lately:
Jos 24:15 "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Love you brother.. In Him, Carla

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Permalink Reply by Rod Askew on September 23, 2010 at 7:26pm

Hello Ron,

I suppose for someome facing a life threatening illness or old age, the topic has to spring into their head.

I'm 53 years old with a wife and 3 young kids.
Last year I had cancer and praise God, it wasn't severe and treatment was quick and painless.
The thought did enter my mind, what if this thing spreads and gets worse?
I didn't dwell on it and gave it to the Lord in prayer.

More than 5 years ago (before accepting Jesus), I wanted to live forever.
Funny how we get things back to front.
Without Jesus I had no hope of living forever.

At 17 years old I was full of drugs and alcohol and ready to live fast and die young. (Oh the 60's and 70's, wild times)

Today, I want to see my kids grow up as any parent would.
If the Lord called me home tomorrow, I'm not perfect but I'm ready.

Wills drawn up. check
Insurance paid up. check
Burial please. check.
Cost of burial. There's plenty of insurance for that. check.
Donate parts. don't care, I won't need them.
Waking up in the grave. (Gruesome thought Ron, nightmare stuff. I might ask to be buried with my mobile phone..)
Lingering death. Not pleasant but sometimes unavoidable. It wouldn't be my preference.

The big one is my conscience.
Is it clear. I still have regrets and issues.
I am still sinning everyday.
I am still asking forgiveness everyday.
I have gone back over my life with God and asked forgiveness for my past sins.
I pray that I am right with the Father.

I believe that I am not afraid of death. Only time will tell in those final minutes.
The idea that once you are dead it will seem like an instant before we stand before the Lord appeals to me.

Won't that be an incredible moment, waking up and standing before the throne.
Halleluyah. Praise the Lord.

In His love
Rod

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Permalink Reply by Ron Payne on September 24, 2010 at 2:05am

Hi Rod,

I am still trying to stop laughing at your suggestion that we take a mobile phone with us in our coffin.

Regarding sin. In my early start to Christianity, I found myself continually asking God to forgive me. Now while this is absolutely the right thing to do, yet I found myself asking for forgiveness for the same sins over and over again.
(no doubt this was Satan's way of keeping me on his hook by continually reminding me of the previous life I led)
Then came the FULL realisation that I did not really believe that God had forgiven me. Once I had got through this, I started to grow in faith. Hence my past sins have truly been dealt with, the very first time I asked God's forgiveness.
Many Christians fall into this trap of continually confessing old sins. (Devil's continual reminder to keep you down)
Should Christians react, then they are really showing that they still don't believe God's promise of total forgiveness but rather fall for Satan's old trick of: "Did God really say?"
As 25 years your elder, I find that I am starting to look forward to death. I think it may well be God's way of preparing us for what once seemed a frightening thing. Particularly having been shown that sin, once confessed is washed away for ever. What about the Judgment throne some may ask? Well we have the promise of God:
" I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Isa 43:25
If God promises not to remember my sins, then I will not come under any judgment. The Judgment at the throne of God therefore will be for rewards regarding my Christian experience and life.

OK that's me for the moment, I need a bit of time to write an instruction to bury me with my mobile phone.

Love to my Lindy Loo, she is continually held up here in our prayer group.

Blessings for the whole family
Ron

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Permalink Reply by Rod Askew on September 24, 2010 at 2:59am

Hi Ron,

I have accepted His forgiveness and know that I don't have to keep going back over the same things.
It is only when something comes to mind that I may have forgotten about from years ago.
Things that I am not particularly proud of from my early years.
I don't dwell on things though.

I know that he is a forgiving God.
Glory be His name.
Blessings
Rod

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Permalink Reply by Ron Payne on September 24, 2010 at 3:46am

Hi Rod,
Yes I understand. I used to do the same thing when I remembered something I had done wrong. But hey man! There were so many! Also they were things where I found myself lingering on them, "Naughty but nice"
I realised then that I needed to accept God's Grace on every single thing, even the sins I could not remember and ask God to Wipe every sin commited by me since Birth. Now when a past sin pops up, I no longer dwell on it and condemn myself or even enjoy thinking back on it. I end it right there by telling Satan it is under the blood. He has worried me less over time and I have no longer any concerns over past sins. It has become a life of freedom and more joy. Ofcourse I still fall, but put it under the blood immediately.

Blessings
Ron.

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Permalink Reply by RoyW on October 11, 2010 at 4:40pm

Ron,

I've enjoyed reading your insights on the issue of our approaching the end of our time in this present world and looking ahead to the next phase. I so much agree with your attitude toward our present and past sin. I read a devotion today from Charles Spurgeon. I think you will enjoy it.

"Whom He did predestinate, them He also called."
— Romans 8:30

In the second epistle to Timothy, first chapter, and ninth verse, are these words—"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." Now, here is a touchstone by which we may try our calling. It is "an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace." This calling forbids all trust in our own doings, and conducts us to Christ alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges us from dead works to serve the living and true God. As He that hath called you is holy, so must you be holy. If you are living in sin, you are not called, but if you are truly Christ's, you can say, "Nothing pains me so much as sin; I desire to be rid of it; Lord, help me to be holy." Is this the panting of thy heart? Is this the tenor of thy life towards God, and His divine will? Again, in Philippians, , we are told of "The high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high calling? Has it ennobled your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Has it elevated your hopes, your tastes, your desires? Has it upraised the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend it with God and for God? Another test we find in Hebrews 3:1—"Partakers of the heavenly calling." Heavenly calling means a call from heaven. If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? Is it a call to heaven as well as from heaven? Unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven thy home, thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling; for those who have been so called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. Is thy calling thus holy, high, heavenly? Then, beloved, thou hast been called of God, for such is the calling wherewith God doth call His people.

Romans 8:30

Our attitude toward sin is so very important. Here you are at your age still admitting to falling once in a while. Yet, you do not let that get you down. Your years have served you well. The wisdom you have gained is apparent. I was surprised to read of your age in these last couple of posts. You don't look any older than I do. You are still as sharp as a tack. God bless you. I enjoy reading your posts.

Roy

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Permalink Reply by Ron Payne on October 12, 2010 at 12:02am

Hi Roy,
Thank you for your input and quotation from Spurgeon and your comment on my age.
I am certainly older now than when the picture on display was taken. I used to be very keen on photography. Like most - if not all - photographers I spent all my time behind the lens, with the result there are no recent photographs of myself to put on display.
The photograph I have on AAG was taken some 10 - 12 years ago at a friends weddding.

I also enjoy the input you place here on AAG. Obviously you are a man under orders from the Lord himself. It is clear to me that you use your years of Christian background and experience in your replies.

To get back onto the topic - Can you imagine the dissapointment of those who choose to live their lives outside of Christ? Where one day they find that death is not an "eternal sleep", but really a "Wake-up" call to eternity?
Should I stand with them at the throne, I am afraid that there are many who will turn to me and say: "But Ron, you knew and you never said a word or warned us?"

"But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." Eze 33:6.

I fully understand that this applied to the Israelites in the times of walled cities, but I believe that God has also given us a trumpet, a voice - The Holy Spirit - to warn others. This unlike funeral plans etc, is one of the main obligations we have to see to, while still alive and before we die.

The Lord Bless us all.

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Permalink Reply by RoyW on October 12, 2010 at 2:43am

Amen, brother.

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