If God’s willing, we will have our Thanksgiving Retreat again.  The topic that I have prayerfully prepared is “I am but a pilgrim,” taken from Psalm 119:19. The messages will center on preparation for the day of our departure.  We’re pilgrims, we’re walking home; so, let’s be prepared for the day when Our Lord Jesus will come and take us home.  I will base the messages on the lives of Hezekiah, Stephen, and Jesus Our Lord, and how they faced their deaths.  Pastor Joshua will tie everything up and conclude with the theology of death.

I know death is not a topic we’d like to hear, much less talk about, especially in a retreat.  Perhaps to some of us, death is a depressing topic; we had rather hear about topics that are more uplifting. Well, there is time for everything.  There is time for lighter and uplifting topics but there is also time for weightier topics.  Death is certainly a topic that does not invite laughter; it is a topic that requires us to ponder and be pensive.  It is a terminus we all must face. Hence, we should be prepared to face our own death, not only someone else’s.

Occasionally Santy and I and our children talk about death.  We tell them what we want and don’t want when the time comes for them to decide what is best for us.  Death becomes a topic as easily talked about as going to Indonesia and the preparation we must make. We do not shun them from talking about it, because the more informed they are, the easier and the smoother the decision-making will be.

God has given us a great honor to send off many members of our church to heaven.  We embrace death, but more importantly we embrace the sick.  We include them as a part of our prayers and cares, not as items, but as people. Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord the death of His saints.” If the death of His saints is precious to Him, their sickness must be even more so.

Pastor Paul