September 2, 2026 - Life & Death
- brooks16055
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
Philippians 1:21-24 NIV
[21] For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. [22] If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! [23] I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; [24] but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
Anyone who really knows me knows that I feel this way. I have a desire to depart this world to be with Christ, but I know that as long as God has work for me to do, I will continue on.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-2 NIV
[1] A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. [2] It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.
I was struck that the reading for Ecclesiastes continues to talk about death. There is no way for anyone to avoid death which should change our perspective on how we live. On what we value. I want to value my good name but not the name I earn but the name that Jesus has given me. Child of God, made in His image. When people walk into the house of morning when I die I only want them to say, "She showed me a picture of Jesus in how she lived."
Ecclesiastes 7:14 NIV
[14] When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.
No matter what we endure on this earth God who is sovereign is in all of it.
Ecclesiastes 8:8 NIV
[8] As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
We have not way of knowing how much time we have left of this earth. We also, have no idea how much time anyone around us has on this earth. This too should influence how we live. That is why we need to show the world Jesus all the time.
Yes and yes and yes!
Love this awareness of blessings!! God is GOOD!
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.”
Psalms 95:1 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.95.1.NIV
this past Saturday, I was at a little gathering for youth leaders and in between the glass doors and the red doors, in the little room my friend Margie came in and she was humming a tune and said it’s stuck in her head and she’s just been singing it. She said, L Ijust want to sing. I said SING! I said what’s the tune? It was one I was familiar with. We tried singing it together, but neither of us could remember the words I looked it up on YouTube and in walks Ed an…