Theology That Bites Back
Rachel Held Evans died last week as the result of a severe allergic reaction to some medications. She was a very popular blogger, she was on a really unfortunate theological trajectory, and she was only 37 when she died. Where I would like to begin is with a prayer that the family and loved ones …
The theme of every Christian memorial service is this: from dust to glory. But in order to understand this properly,we need to grasp the deep reality of our fall into sin and all that it entailed. God fashioned the first man out of the dust of the ground, and because man is the image and …
The death of any of our little ones is pressing hard. We love our children, but we remember that we are only in a position to love them as we ought to because we love our Father in Heaven more than all. Whoever does not love Christ more than family cannot be a disciple, as …
One of the things that we learn from Scripture is the fact that it is the part of wisdom to be mindful of your own mortality. This is one of the important functions of funerals and memorial services. Not only do we honor the deceased, as has been done here today very ably, but we …
In one of the last conversations I had with Helen, one of the things that came out was her concerns over all her sewing. She couldn’t sew anymore. Would she be able to sew in Heaven? It would be easy to dismiss this kind of concern as a frailty, as the kind of whimsical thing …
We have two basic purposes in our gathering here today. The one purpose is to remember and honor the life of Eileen Lawyer, and second and more fundamental purpose is to glorify the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now a common element in funerals is the presence of flowers. But the flowers we have …
It was just a few months ago that I delivered the homily at the funeral of Fred Kohl, a faithful servant of Jesus Christ for many years. And now, just a matter of weeks later, I am doing the same thing for his beloved wife Mertie. “Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, …
It is always a privilege and honor to declare the Word of God on any occasion, but it is a particular honor to do so at the memorial service for a servant of God like Fred Kohl. As I was mulling over what to say, the passage that came to mind was from the apostle …
The hymn O Worship the King uses a striking phrase to describe the condition of man in this fallen world of ours. It describes us as “frail children of dust, and feeble as frail.” That line contains two elements of biblical truth that I want to emphasize here today. The first is that we are …
In the providence of God, this memorial service is occurring the day before Good Friday. And this, of course, is just a handful of days before our celebration of Easter, the day when our Lord Jesus conquered death on behalf of all His people. He did not do this as an act of raw power, …