450 Sermon Illustrations on Death

On Jan. 10, 1860, the Pemberton mill, a large cotton factory at

Lawrence, Mass., suddenly fell into ruins, burning the operatives in

the debris. Some were rescued alive; others would have been, but a

broken lantern set the ruins on fire and the rescuers were driven from

their work. As they turned away, they distinctly heard some imprisoned

girls who had been brought up in the Sunday school singing the

precious hymn of William Hunter's:

"My heavenly home is bright and fair."

And up from the flaming jaws of death there came the brave chorus:

"I'm going home to die no more."

Christians need to remember (2 Corinthians 5:8) “That to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

Victor Hugo once wrote: When I go down to the grave I can say, like so many others: I have finished my work, but I cannot say I have finished my life. My day's work will begin the next morning. My tomb is not a blind alley. It is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to open in the dawn.

In AD 125, a man named Aristides sent a letter to an acquaintance

to give this explanation for the rapid spread of Christianity: "If

any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they

rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body with songs

and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another

nearby."

Years ago, when there was not a foot of railroad in Minnesota, I

went as a missionary to that State. I labored very hard; often riding

long distances on Sunday, besides my week's work, preaching three

times and attending two or three Sabbaths schools. Month after month I

worked on for the frontier settlers. I loved their souls, and had the

warmest sympathy with them in their trials and troubles. I came home

one night about one o'clock and took my bed, utterly exhausted. The

next morning I said to my dear wife, "I am going to rest today;" and

that was a good deal for me to say.

Toward night I stepped out of the door to attend to some little

home cares and dropped. I managed to get back to my bed, and there

long, long weeks the fever burned my brow. By and by , after my wife

had gone through an anxious period of watching over me, besides

nursing and caring for her dear little children, about sunset one

evening my deacons came in and said, "Dear pastor, you will probably

never preach to us again. The doctors have had a council and think you

can not live till morning." What a moment was that! What a message was

that! I tell you, friends, there was heaven in that house. I had a

chance then to test the doctrines I have preached to you.

About midnight, I remember, my faith's perceptions were quickened,

and I seemed to look across the river and beheld the teeming

multitudes coming up; and I said in my heart, (I remember it as if it

were an hour ago) "Jesus, if I should survive I will be a better

minister, and lead more sinners to Thee." The morning dawned. Just a

little after sunrise, I turned my head upon my pillow, and there sat

my dear wife, bending over a chair. I said in my heart in a instant,

"My dear wife is sick."

Very soon a lady of the church came in and said: "Mrs graves, you

are not well; you had better take you bed." She took her bed, and in

five days crossed the dark river. Twice I was taken from my bed,

bolstered up with stimulants, to look in her sweet face, and hold her

hand in mine. The last time, as I sat about twenty minutes at her

bedside, it seemed as if I was reading the very record of holy

loveliness in the sight of God and heaven; while her spirit was just

gathering up the strength of holy wings to pass away to the better

land.

Many people say they do not fear death, but the process of dying. It's not the destination, but the trip that they dread.

John Newton, a one-time slave trader, was converted and became a great preacher and hymn writer in the Church of England. Two years before his death, in 1807, he was so weak that he could hardly stand in his pulpit; someone had to support him as he preached. Shortly before he died, when he was confined to his room and unable to move, he told a friend, “I am like a person going on a journey in a stagecoach, who expects its arrival every hour and is frequently looking out of the window for it -- I am packed and sealed, and ready for the post.”

You may have heard of Newton; he wrote some words which are sung around the world: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.”

Donald Cargill was a bright star in history of Scottish

persecutions. He was condemned by the government and sentenced

to the gallows. When he came to the scaffold, Cargill said these

moving words, although it was said that the drums were beaten in an

attempt to drown out his voice: Now I am near to getting to my crown,

which shall be sure; for I bless the Lord, and desire all of you to

bless Him that He hath brought me here, and makes me triumph over

devils, and men, and sin -- they shall wound me no more. I forgive

all men the wrongs they have done to me, and pray the Lord may forgive

all the wrongs that any of the elect have done against Him. I pray

that sufferers may be kept from sin, and helped to know their duty --

farewell reading and preaching, praying and believing, wanderings,

reproaches, and sufferings. Welcome joy unspeakable and full of

glory.

One of our old ministers, two hundred years ago, lay dying. At his

bedside, were several of his beloved brethren watching his departure.

Opening his eyes, he spoke to them these singular words: "Fellow

passengers to glory, how far am I from the New Jerusalem?" "Not very

far," was the loving answer; and the good man departed to be with

Christ.

"I'm dying," said one of a different stamp, "and I don't know where

I'm going." "I'm dying," said another, "and its all dark." "I feel,"

said another, "as if I were going down, down, down!" "A great and a

terrible God," said another, three times over; "I dare not meet Him!"

"Stop that clock!" cried another, whose eye rested intently on a clock

which hung opposite his bed. He knew he was dying, and he was unready.

He had the impression that he was to die at midnight. He heard the

ticking of the clock and it was agony in his ear. He saw the hands,

minute by minute, approaching the dreaded hour, and he had no hope. In

his blind terror, he cried out: "Stop that clock!"

Alas! What would the stopping of the clock do for him? Time would

move on all the same. Eternity would approach all the same. The

stopping of the clock would not prepare him to meet his God.

--Dictionary Of Illustrations

"The damps of death are coming fast,

My father, o'er my brow;

The past with all its scenes are fled,

And I must turn me now

To that dim future which in vain

My eyes seek to descry;

Tell me, my father, in this hour,

In whose belief to die.

My father, shall I look above,

Amid the gathering gloom,

To Him whose promises of love

Extend beyond the tomb,

Or curse the Being who has blessed

This checkered life of mine?

Must I embrace my mothers faith,

Or die, my sire, in thine?

The frown upon that warrior's brow

Passed like a cloud away,

And tears coursed down the rugged cheeks

That flowed not till that day.

"Not, not in mine," with choking voice,

The skeptic made reply,

"But in thy mother's holy faith,

My daughter, mayest thou die."

A soldier who had served his country for a time in the army, by

deception had his name returned on the roll as dead. He was so

reported from his company to his regiment, and from his regimental

headquarters to the General Government. In the great records of the

nation, against his name "Dead" was written. After the war was over,

and peace restored, the Government began to dispense its bounties and

pensions to those who had fought its battles and borne its burdens.

This runaway soldier, that had deserted from the service and caused a

false report to be returned, appeared for a reward at the hands of the

Government. The books were examined, the name was found, but "Dead"

was written against it. The Government settles by its official

records, and in the knowledge of the Government he is a dead man, and

not a living claimant.

In the Christian warfare there is a like danger. Christ has

enlisted a great many soldiers that have not answered to the roll call

for years. They deserted in time of danger, and the angel scribe has

written against their name, "Dead." The books of the Last Day will

show erasure, as well as entries, and almost the last words of the

Bible warn us of the blotting out of names from the Book of Life.

--Topical Illustrations

A young lady was engaged to a sailor lad in England who sailed away

to an ocean grave. She would not believe it. Her mind became

unbalanced, and she was sent to the asylum. There, until she was

seventy, she waited. In her state of mind, time did not exist. She yet

believed that she was but twenty, and the delusion was so pathetic

that, even Father Time had not the courage to chisel age upon her

features. At seventy, her face looked like the maiden of twenty.

--Topical Illustrations

Refusal to face facts and to believe the truth may have various

effects upon the mind and body, but such refusal will never change the

truth. The fact is that it is appointed unto man once to die, and this

will hold true until the Last Trump. No amount of human mind

conditioning and belief of errors like those of Christian Science can

bring eternal life in this world. Eternal life is the gift of God

alone, and its bodily realization will come only to those who are in

Christ's kingdom, and only after death is destroyed at Christ's

return. --Duane V. Maxey

Army Spc. James Kiehl did not know death was around the corner. No one did. No one ever does.

But on that day in the Kuwaiti desert, with his unit preparing for battle, Kiehl responded to God's call and accepted Christ into his heart. He was saved. His baptism was captured by a television crew, providing joy for friends and family members back home.

Kiehl's walk as a Christian, though, lasted not years, but mere days. In late March, in the heart of Iraq, he was killed, leaving behind a wife who was expecting their first child.

Fittingly, Kiehl was buried April 14, 2003, the day after Palm Sunday and six days before Easter, providing a reminder to the overflow crowd at Comfort (Texas) Baptist Church of the glorious simplicities of the Christian faith. God saves sinners -- not through works of their own -- but through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Man is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It is simple yet complex, and it is the core of Christianity.

From the youngest to the oldest, God's grace and mercy are displayed whenever someone repents and believes. As Kiehl's testimony demonstrates, it is never too late.

Before he went off to battle, Kiehl asked Dallas television reporter Robert Riggs to pass a message along to his friends and family members: Tell them I've accepted Jesus as my Savior.

Kiehl's newfound faith provided hope for those at his funeral.

“It was solemn, but there was Christian joy throughout because of the decision for Christ that he had made,” said Comfort Baptist Church pastor Jim Holt, who preached the funeral message.

Kiehl's faith, along with that of other believers, hinges on what the Christian church celebrates this Easter weekend -- the death, burial and bodily resurrection of Christ. Baptism is a picture of this.

The Christian faith stands or falls on Christ's bodily resurrection, the Apostle Paul argued nearly 2,000 years ago. Responding to those who said the dead cannot be raised, he wrote:

“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without foundation, and so is your faith,” he wrote to the church at Corinth. “In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ -- whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised” (1 Corinthians 15:13-15, HCSB).

If Christ was not raised from the dead, Paul continued, then “your faith is worthless” and “you are still in your sins.”

But Paul concluded, “Christ has been raised from the dead.... O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Christ's death, burial and bodily resurrection are the crux of the Christian faith. Without them, Paul says, a Christian's faith is “worthless.”

This weekend, Christians in the small town of Comfort, Texas, are rejoicing, knowing that one of their own brave ones, James Kiehl, accepted Christ shortly before his death.

They have the joy that the angel at Jesus' tomb expressed to the women in Matthew 28: “Don't be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here! For He has been resurrected, just as He said.”

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #10866]

submitted by: Kevin Burden

WONDROUS LOVE AND OTHER GOSPEL ADDRESSES

by Dwight L. Moody

Then you say, “If it is not by working in earnest, how am I to be saved?” I will tell you; Scripture will tell you — that is better. Take the illustration Christ used to Nicodemus; you could not have a better. He took him to the remedy:

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14, John 3:15).

Now there is the remedy. How am I to be saved? By looking to Christ; just by looking. It’s very cheap, isn’t it? Very simple, isn’t it? Just look away to the Lamb of God now and be saved. What says the great wilderness preacher? “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” You might say the whole plan of salvation is in two words — Giving; Receiving. God gives; I receive.

I remember, after one of the terrible battles in the American Civil War — I was in the army, tending soldiers — and I had just laid down one night, past midnight, to get a little rest, when a man came and told me that a wounded soldier wanted to see me. I went to the dying man. He said, “I wish you to help me to die.” I said, “I would help you to die if I could. I would take you on my shoulders and carry you into the kingdom of God if I could; but I cannot. I can tell you of One who can.”

And I told him of Christ being willing to save him; and how Christ left heaven and came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. I just quoted promise after promise, but all was dark, and it almost seemed as if the shades of eternal death were gathering around his soul. I could not leave him, and at last I thought of this third chapter of John, and I said to him, “Look here, I am going to read to you now a conversation that Christ had with a man that went to Him when he was in your state of mind, and inquired what he was to do to be saved.” I just read that conversation to the dying man, and he lay there with his eyes riveted upon me, and every word seemed to be going home to his heart, which was open to receive the truth.

When I came to the verse where it says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” — the dying man cried, “Stop, sir. Is that there?”

“Yes, it is all here.”

Then he said, “Won’t you please read it to me again?”

I read it the second time. The dying man brought his hands together, and he said, “Bless God for that. Won’t you please read it to me again?”

I read through the whole chapter, but long before the end of it he had closed his eyes. He seemed to lose all interest in the rest of the chapter, and when I got through it his arms were folded on his breast, he had a sweet smile on his face; remorse and despair had fled away. His lips were quivering, and I leant over him, and heard him faintly whisper from his dying lips, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He opened his eyes, and fixed his calm, deathly look on me, and he said, “Oh, that is enough; that is all I want”; and in a few hours he pillowed his dying head upon the truth of those two verses, and rode away on one of the Savior’s chariots, and took his seat in the kingdom of God.

Oh, sinner, you can be saved now if you will! Look and live. May God help every lost one here to look on the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

In Virgil, there is an account of an ancient king, who was so unnaturally cruel in his punishments that he used to chain a dead man to a living one. It was impossible for the poor wretch to separate himself from his disgusting burden. The carcass was bound fast to his body--its hands to his hands; its face to his face; its lips to his lips. It lay down and rose up whenever he did; it moved about with him whithersoever he went, till the moment when death came to his relief. Many suppose that it was in reference to this that Paul cried out: "O wretched man that I am!" Whether this be so or not, sin is a body of death which all who are not sanctified wholly carry about with them.

--McCartney

It was early morning, Iraqi time. Crouched in a modified tank, NBC News correspondent David Bloom picked up his phone and played back his messages. One was from Jim Lane, a New York financier and Wilberforce Forum advisory board member. The two were sharing a daily, long-distance devotional time using Oswald Chambers's classic, MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. Lane read the message for April 5, based on Matthew 25: “Because of what the Son of Man went through, every human being can now get through into the very presence of God.”

Moments later, Bloom climbed out of the tank, took a few steps, and collapsed. Soon after, he was ushered into the presence of God.

David's death from a pulmonary embolism devastated his family, friends, colleagues, and millions of TV viewers. At age thirty-nine, David was a rising star at NBC. Viewers looked forward to watching Bloom file his reports while bouncing across the desert on his “Bloom-mobile,” his face streaked with dirt, his hair snapping in the wind. He loved his job, and everyone knew it.

But what most viewers did not know was that David was a committed Christian. David had grown up in a Methodist home. And while he had a strong understanding of the Gospel growing up, it wasn't until two years ago, according to Lane, that Bloom “effectively came to a saving knowledge of Jesus and started a real faith journey.”

Bloom joined the New Canaan Society, a weekly men's fellowship group founded by Lane and my former colleague Eric Metaxas. I met Bloom several times as a guest of that fellowship, and we became friends. I was struck by the sincerity of his Christian faith. He was hungry for knowledge of God and how his faith ought to play out in his life.

On the day he died, Lane says, “David was in a very good place, at peace with himself, his faith, and his family.” That peace was reflected in the last message he would ever send to his wife, Melanie -- one that reveals that, in the middle of a desert battlefield, his own mortality was very much on his mind. Bloom wrote: “When the moment comes in my life when you are talking about my last day, I am determined that you and others will say, 'He was devoted to his wife and children; he was admired; he gave every ounce of his being for those whom he cared most about -- not himself, but God and his family.'“

Yesterday Lane spoke at a memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Speaking before America's most powerful media figures, Lane told a simple story about a man who loved and served Jesus Christ. It was a side of their colleague that many of them had never really known -- a side scarcely mentioned in the voluminous media coverage of his death.

At the end of his April 5 devotional reading, Oswald Chambers writes: “The cross of Christ was a ... sign that our Lord had triumphed ... to save the human race.” I thank God for that triumph in the short life of this ebullient, gifted man, and I pray that his posthumous witness will inspire others to seek out the God he served.

C. S. Lewis once said that Christians never have to say good-bye. So, to my dear brother David, I say simply, au revoir.

FURTHER READING & INFORMATION

“Remembering David Bloom,” MSNBC, 6 April 2003. http://www.msnbc.com/news/896439.asp

“David Bloom, 39, of New York,” MSNBC, 9 April 2003. http://www.msnbc.com/news/896984.asp

Jonathan Alter, “Consummate Pro with a Human Touch,” NEWSWEEK, 6 April 2003. http://www.msnbc.com/news/896739.asp

“NBC Correspondent David Bloom Dies in Iraq,” WASHINGTON POST, 6 April 2003. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41184-2003Apr6.html

NOTE: Referral to websites not produced by Prison Fellowship Ministries, the Wilberforce Forum, and BreakPoint is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.

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Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #14959]

By ROBERT WELLER Associated Press Writer edited by Shelton Cole

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - John Robert Tomlin was remembered today as a shy teen who liked his Chevy truck, the Green Bay Packers and Jesus.

His was the first of many services for victims of the Columbine High School shooting that will be held in Colorado through the weekend.

A friend recalled his devotion to religion - he was a member of the non-denominational Christian church where the service was held, and a member of a Baptist youth group.

After the service, John's mother, Doreen Tomlin told reporters: ``He was such a good kid. But he was shy.'' Last summer the teen-ager worked as volunteer building homes for poor people in Juarez, Mexico.

``What got John to heaven was his faith not his hard work,'' Youngblood said. ``John, I'm on my way. You just beat me there.''

Tomlin's father, John, told reporters: ``First I'd like to say to the families of the children who did this we'll be praying with them and we feel no hatred toward them.''

The father also didn't want to blame school administrators for failing to recognize that some members of the Trenchcoat group were a danger.

``The only system that failed is that God is left out of everything,'' he said.

Christa McAuliffe, the grin fling go-for-it "teacher-naut" from Concord, New Hampshire, said she was "reaching for the stars." Instead, she and the six other crew members of the space shuttle Challenger died when their craft exploded in flames only 73 seconds after lifting off from Cape Canaveral last January 28. She never realized her dream of teaching earth bound students from a classroom in space.

Yet, the tragedy that cost these seven courageous persons their lives can teach us profound lessons that challenge us to change forever how we live. Here are seven such lessons that have influenced me to live differently from the way I did before.

1. LIFE IS UNCERTAIN.

"Someone they admired and loved has been taken away," said Concord High School principal Charles Foley of the horrified students who had gathered in the school auditorium that morning to cheer the televised launch of their celebrated social studies teacher. "They have learned that nothing in this life is certain." Red-eyed students slouched wordlessly past as Foley shook his head and stared at the floor. He had just ordered the school closed to let faculty and students alike deal privately with their sorrow and shock.

Before the disaster, almost every one felt that launching the space shuttle was as routine as watching the sun rise over Florida. Twenty-four times before, NASA had successfully launched space shuttle missions with no loss of life. In most people’s minds, riding a shuttle into space had become scarcely more dangerous than boarding a 747 for London.

Christa McAuliffe must have felt the same way. On the morning of the fatal launch, a technician handed the teacher a shiny red apple. With a jaunty toss of her helmeted head, Christa winked at the technician and flashed her famous grin. "Save it for me, and I’ll eat it when I get back."

Crew member, Michael Smith, a decorated former navy jet fighter pilot in Vietnam, projected the same confident bravado, at least publicly. Six months before the launch, a friend told him, "Mike, you’ve lost your mind!"

"Don’t worry; it’s as safe as getting in any other airplane and flying," countered Smith, who as a high school quarterback used to infuriate his coach when he interrupted practice to watch Marine Corps jets take off nearby.

Privately, though, the easygoing North Carolinian reminded his relatives when he first joined NASA that flying in space was risky, not at all as safe as it might seem.

As his son and two daughters stood in the viewing stand at the Kennedy Space Center, shivering in the freezing temperature of a crystal-clear morning, shading their eyes and craning their necks with other relatives and friends of the astronauts, they saw the space shuttle their dad was piloting suddenly burst into a strange mushroom cloud that formed a twisted Y.

Fear and wonder ricocheted through their minds for 40 seconds of terrible suspense-filled silence. And then they heard the NASA announcer’s voice say with the somber tone of an undertaker, "We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded."

"Daddy!" shrieked Smith’s eight-year-old daughter, Erin, her voice breaking in muffled sobs. "I want you, Daddy. You always promised that nothing would happen."

Much as he wanted to, Michael Smith couldn’t keep that promise, and neither could we. The apostle James wrote these words nearly 2,000 years ago, but they seem especially appropriate for 1987: "Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or to morrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James 4:13,14.

Ron McNair, the brilliant black physicist from Lake City, South Carolina, the karate expert who had chopped and kicked his way to a fifth-degree black belt, the musician who played his saxophone flawlessly, the devoted father and husband, the deacon of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, understood that rocketing spaceward in the 2,250-ton shuttle with its in credibly complex systems required a faith in something greater than science.

In 1984 McNair told the congregation of the Baptist church in Los Angeles where he once worshiped, "I would not climb on top of that big piece of smoking hardware, strap myself down in that seat, sit down, and wait for the count to zero... and sail out of this world unless I knew that Jesus got in first."

Ron McNair believed that the only certain thing in our uncertain lives is the Lord of life, Jesus Christ, who the Bible declares is "the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8. He knew that not even death in a space shuttle explosion could separate him from "the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:39.

2. GRIEVE BUT DON’T GIVE UP.

Only when we share Ron McNair’s perspective of life can we truly live each moment to its fullest or cope with tragedy.

Not since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy had Americans grieved so deeply and collectively over a national tragedy. Since the Challenger seven came from all parts of the United States and represented all races and religions, it was almost as if the explosion of the space shuttle struck symbolically at America itself.

Ron McNair believed that the only certain thing in our uncertain lives is the Lord of life, Jesus Christ.

President Reagan ordered the flag to be flown at half-staff for nearly a week. As I drove through my town that week, every flag I saw tightened my throat and stung my eyes with tears. I thought of the astronauts who had given their lives for the space program and of their grieving families. But I noticed something else too. Although the flags I saw rested at half-staff, they were not drooping in despair but snapping proud and free in the breeze, as sharp as a soldier’s salute.

There is a time to mourn, and this was such a time. But we should never give up hope. Sometimes we must lower the flag to half-staff, but if we let the wind of hope keep it flying, we can raise it again to the top when the time of mourning is over and get on with life.

On Saturday, June 14, 1986, some 300 Concord High School seniors marched onto the football field for the graduation ceremony which Christa McAuliffe would have addressed had she returned from the mission that took her life. Class president Carina Joy Dolcino told the seniors and their families, "January 28, 1986 - the date will never be erased from our minds. Our students and the nation were bound together in grief. Together we learned to cope. Despite the hard times and tears, the good times outweigh the bad."

Carina’s comforting words sound like those the apostle Paul wrote to encourage the Corinthian Christians: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." "Therefore we do not lose heart.... For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Corinthians 4:8,9,16,17.

3. IT’S VITAL TO HEED WARNINGS.

Faith that good will ultimately triumph doesn’t mean, of course, that we should take unnecessary risks and recklessly bring hard times on our selves and our families. We need to take all the precautions we can in each situation. We shouldn’t presume that everything’s going to be all right just because it has been in the past.

NASA officials could have prevented the space shuttle explosion if they had listened to the concerns of the engineers who designed the solid fuel booster rockets. The presidential commission to investigate the shuttle disaster discovered that Morton Thiokol engineers protested the launch because they feared the O-rings designed to keep hot gas from escaping through the booster rocket joints might fail in subzero temperatures. And, indeed, one did, triggering the explosion.

Marshall Space Flight Center officials, as well as Morton Thiokol managers, ignored the engineers’ warnings, and seven astronauts paid the price.

From Genesis to Revelation the Bible urges us to live our lives according to God’s principles of love and warns of the consequences if we refuse. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat fruit from every tree in the Garden of Eden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they ate fruit from the forbidden tree, they would die.

Adam and Eve disregarded the divine warning, and today our world is a vast cemetery filled with the bodies of their descendants killed by disease, war, famine, and old age. In Revelation God gives a warning to all of us through the apostle John. After showing John the beauty of a new earth with no more death or pain, God told him: "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Revelation 21:7, 8.

4. PEOPLE ARE INFINITELY VALUABLE.

Immediately after the shuttle exploded. Vice President George Bush and White House communication director Patrick Buchanan burst into the Oval Office to inform President Reagan. Startled by the interruption, the President looked up from the State of the Union address he was working on.

"There has been a serious incident with the shuttle," Bush said, out of breath.

Buchanan was more blunt. "Sir," he said, "the shuttle has exploded."

The President’s eyes widened. "Is that the one the teacher was on?" he asked.

A few days later at the memorial service in Houston, the President spoke words which touched the hearts of all Americans: "Dick, Mike, Judy, El, Ron, Greg, and Christa, your families and your country mourn your passing. We bid you goodbye, but we will never forget you.:

When we heard about the space shuttle explosion, we thought only about the seven men and women who died and of their families because one human life is worth infinitely more than billions of dollars of hardware.

I’m thankful to live in a country that values human life above everything else. I’m also thankful that the Bible tells us that God created us in His image. See Genesis 1:27. We didn’t evolve from some mindless blob of primeval protoplasm any more than the space shuttle emerged from a pile of scrap metal! God created us to love and serve others. And even when we disobeyed Him, He considered us to be so valuable that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us that we might have eternal life. See John 3:16.

Judith Resnik, the 36-year-old Jewish mission specialist and second American woman to fly in space, once wrote a poem for her Hebrew class. Although she probably didn’t realize it, her two-line poem perfectly describes the mission of the Messiah: "BLESSED IS THE MATCH THAT IS CONSUMED IN KINDLING A FLAME. BLESSED IS THE FLAME THAT BURNS THE SECRET FASTNESS OF THE HEART."

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus tell us one thing if they tell us anything at all: Only people make life worth living; only people make death worth dying.

5. TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS IN VOLVES GREAT RISK.

Pioneers in every age, from the crew of Christopher Columbus to the Challenger seven, have left their homes and risked their lives in the quest for a better world. Christa McAuliffe had planned to keep a daily journal of her experience in space because she considered the diaries of nineteenth century women pioneers to be among the richest history of America’s westward expansion.

Christa required her students in a class on the history of American women to read from the diaries about the risks the pioneers took and the hardships they encountered as they lurched and bumped across the prairies in covered wagons pulled by oxen.

One woman, pregnant with her eighth child on her way to Oregon, wrote about fording swollen streams, getting stuck in the mud, and suffering severe headaches. Another woman described the graves of other pioneers she saw along the way and the empathy she felt for them being buried alone in a wild land.

As a modern space pioneer, Christa McAuliffe experienced loneliness during her five-month training period in Houston while her husband, Steve, and their two small children, Scott and Caroline, remained in Concord. She wrote to a former teacher, "It’s hard being away from home, but we realized it was a tradeoff for a chance in a lifetime."

Perhaps she began to perceive the risk she was taking when her life insurance premium rose so dramatically that she canceled the policy. Later, she did accept a gift of one million dollars in life insurance coverage from a Washington, D.C., company. But really, no one, least of all Christa McAuliffe, expected that she, like many pioneers of the Old West, would give her life for the dream she loved.

Jesus Christ left everything and risked everything - position, power, and fellowship with His Father - in order to save us. He "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:6-8.

What risks are we willing to take for Him? Do our jobs, our possessions, our families mean more to us than He does?

6. WE CAN NEVER REACH THE STARS WITHOUT DIVINE HELP.

Lorna Onizuka, widow of Ellison S. Onizuka, thinks the 39-year-old engineer and air force test pilot from Hawaii may have had a premonition of his death aboard the Challenger.

Before he went into space on his first mission aboard the shuttle Discovery, Onizuka prepared a book for his family that included insurance papers, family business instructions, and letters to his two teenage daughters. During that flight, the book remained sealed in a safe in the crew’s quarters at Cape Canaveral.

"Lorna," Onizuka asked his wife several times before the mission, "do you remember where the book is in case something should happen to me?"

"I was very uncomfortable with that, and he knew it," Lorna told a reporter later.

For his second flight, Onizuka didn’t mention the book but did something that Lorna now thinks is strange. As before, he called his family prior to boarding the space shuttle, but this time he told his daughters what he had written to them in the sealed letters.

The girls laughed and cried, then handed the phone back to their mother. Ellison and Lorna talked together softly He apologized for being gone so much, and she for nagging him. After the disaster, Lorna discovered that he had brought the book home instead of sealing it in the safe.

Before the launch, Onizuka told the press, "I’ll be looking at Halley’s Comet. They tell me I’ll have one of the best views around." Still, he realized that his own mortality and the limitations of human technology might prevent him from viewing the famous comet on its twice-a-century visit from the depths of outer space.

And he prepared himself and his family for that possibility.

America landed men on the moon in 1969, but in the euphoria of that feat we forgot how far away the stars really are. The moon lies only 250,000 miles from earth, but the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, shimmers 25 trillion miles away like a microscopic mirage in the vast desert of space. Traveling 25,000 miles an hour in a space vehicle would take astronauts 115,000 years to reach it or 1,150 lifetimes!

Our mortality locks us in the prison of time. Only Jesus Christ holds the keys to unlock the door of death. See Revelation 1:18. Only. He can travel free from the laws of physics. See Acts 1:9. The Bible promises us that Jesus will come soon and take us home with Him to the stars: "The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.

7. THE CHURCH NEEDS EVERYONE BE CAUSE HEAVEN IS FOR EVERYONE.

After 20 years as an elite domain of white male military officers, NASA announced in 1977 that it was looking for men and women of different races to diversify its astronaut corps; 8,079 men and women applied. NASA selected 11 and gradually began sending them into space.

But not before Challenger’s last flight in 1986 had such a cosmopolitan crew trained together for a space shuttle mission: Commander Francis R. Scobee, 46, an aerospace engineer and Vietnam combat pilot; Judith A. Resnik, 36, America’s second woman in space, holder of a doctorate in electrical engineering; Ellison S. Onizuka, 39, an air force test pilot with a Japanese Buddhist heritage; Michael J. Smith, 40, a much-decorated navy flier who won his pilot’s license before he knew how to drive a car; Gregory B. Jarvins, 41, a satellite designer for Hughes Aircraft Company who had been bumped from two previous shuttle flights; Ronald B. McNair, 36, an MIT physicist and the second black American in space; and, of course, Christa McAuliffe, 37, the first teacher in space, who captured the hearts and imaginations of all Americans.

They were America’s best and brightest-uncommonly intelligent, highly professional, and fiercely motivated.

Diverse in background, different in gender, divided by religion, the shuttle crew could not afford to let these things separate them. They knew they had to work together to accomplish their mission successfully. When they walked in single file toward the launching pad dressed alike in their blue NASA jumpsuits, they were one crew with one mission.

Like the Challenger seven, members of the Christian faith are one. "All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:27, 28. Our Commander has given us a mission. "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19.

Christ’s church needs all of its members working together in harmony, contributing their talents and spiritual gifts to accomplish the mission of preparing earth’s last generation for the greatest space journey of all time - the flight with Jesus and angels to the kingdom of the redeemed.

• James Fly is communication director, Mid-America Union of Seventh-day Adventists, Lincoln, Nebraska. © 1987 by James L. Fly.

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They were almost home. Then suddenly the white plume trail of the Shuttle Columbia fragmented into an unthinkable personal and national tragedy. And in a moment, six of America's best and brightest - along with an acclaimed Israeli hero - were gone. Once again, President George Bush had to address a nation stunned by another violent tragedy. What he said was all about “going home.”

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Shuttled Home.”

Our word for today from the Word of God is actually the Scripture the President used so powerfully that awful day that the Columbia and its crew were lost. It seemed as if the words had been written for that very day. They're in Isaiah 40:26. “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens; Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” And then, with his eyes glistening, the President then said, “The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the Shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth but we can pray they are safely home.”

The newspaper in the hometown of Rick Husband, the Shuttle Commander said, “Amarillo Hero Called Home.” You know, that's a call that every one of us will receive, maybe as unexpectedly as the shuttle crew did that day. Just to look at today's obituary page is a reminder that, for any of us, the journey can end at any time. It's important to know that when our flight is over, we'll be 'safely Home” - with the God who made us.

When Jesus described the heaven He was preparing, His disciples asked, “How can we know the way” to get to heaven? (John 14:4) Jesus' answer? “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) According to Jesus, the way to get Home isn't a religion or a list of qualifying good works. He said the “way” is a person - and the person is Jesus. The Bible explains that although most of us want to - even expect to - end up in heaven when we die, not all of us will make it Home. It's the perfect Home of a perfect God. And we can't get in as long as we're carrying the sin-baggage of a lifetime.

But in 1 Peter 3:18, the Bible says, “Christ died for our sins ... the righteous (that's Him) for the unrighteous (that's us), to bring you to God.” The way Home passes by an old wooden cross - where Jesus paid the price to get us Home. There is no greater peace in all the world than knowing you're ready for eternity, whenever and however it comes. That you now belong to the One who “brings out the starry host one by one and calls them by name.”

He might be calling your name today, quietly tugging on your heart to turn from your sin and put your life in the hands of Jesus. Tell Him, “Jesus, You died for me - I'm Yours from this moment on.”

None of us knows how much longer our personal flight will last. We can know that whenever and however it ends, we're ready. We're forgiven. Which means that when you've had your last moment on earth, it will simply mean that you're Home. Safely Home.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16393]

On a KLM flight to Amsterdam two weeks ago, I had a conversation with a member of the crew that chilled me to the bone. It illustrates what happens when the church fails to teach the hard truths of our faith.

KLM is the Dutch airline. The flight crew was gracious, but one middle-aged woman called Marget was exceptionally friendly. As she cleared away the breakfast dishes, Marget asked what we were planning to do in Amsterdam. I told her I was speaking at the Billy Graham Conference on Evangelism. I also mentioned that I work in the prisons.

In response, Marget told me she was a practicing Catholic and that she sang in a choir that performed in prisons.

Since I was talking to a Christian, I thought I'd find out what Marget thought about euthanasia, which, of course, is legal in Holland. I assumed she would find it abhorrent, but to my astonishment, she gave an impassioned defense of it. She said she had seen her grandmother waste away in agony. The family wanted to help her die, but before they could arrange it, she died naturally.

I explained to Marget that suffering could be managed without taking life. She replied that she had seen everything tried with her grandmother. I asked if other Dutch Christians shared her views. Yes, she replied -- everybody thinks euthanasia is wonderfully humane because it enables us to help eliminate suffering.

I challenged her with every argument I could think of. I told her that God puts our souls in our bodies when life begins and that humans cannot make the decision to take it. Marget, always smiling warmly, stood her ground. She insisted that euthanasia is a kind thing -- that it's consistent with the views of good people.

Well, I didn't change her; needless to say she did not change me.

This woman was sincere about her faith and she really believed she was doing the right, kind, loving, and gentle thing -- yes, in her eyes, a Christian thing.

She brought to mind C. S. Lewis's description of how the greatest evil is done not in sordid dens of crime, or even in concentration camps. "In those we see its final result," Lewis notes. "But it is conceived and ordered ... in clean ... warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars ... who do not need to raise their voices."

I confess, I got off that plane shaken. I realized that so often in a culture war, we're not up against evil people who enjoy killing. Instead, we're up against good, decent people who genuinely think it's humane and right to kill.

Good Christians, like Marget.

Marget's attitude signals a profound failure of the church. Everywhere we look, our culture is promoting euthanasia, abortion, and infanticide as loving, humane solutions. We even hear abortion of poor children talked about the same way.

The challenge of the church is to confront this dangerous philosophy head on. Voluntary euthanasia leads directly to involuntary euthanasia, as is happening in Marget's Holland.

You and I must teach the good people around us that euthanasia doesn't raise the curtain on a more "humane" society. Instead, it's the final curtain call on a culture of death.

___________________

Copyright (c) 2000 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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It will be worth it all

When we see Jesus,

Life’s trials will seem so small

When we see Christ;

One glimpse of His dear face

All sorrow will erase,

So bravely run the race

Till we see Christ.

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An attempt to honor a dead man's beloved baseball team went badly awry on Friday when the stadium where the Seattle Mariners play was evacuated after a plane dropped his cremated ashes into Safeco Field, officials said.

A bag containing the man's ashes failed to open properly and crashed into the stadium, spewing white powder and prompting officials to dispatch a hazardous materials team.

An eyewitness saw the bag fall from a Cessna 182 airplane and called emergency officials, mindful of the Sept. 11 attacks in which airliners were crashed into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

"In light of 9-11 and the fact that this involved an aircraft, we were very concerned that this might be some kind of attack," Seattle Fire Department spokesman Harold Webb said.

Federal flight rules prohibit dropping any object from an airplane, and the release of cremated ashes over an urban area is very rare, said Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.

"This was a quite reputable local company [Wings Aloft] that does this a couple of times a year, but honestly, I've never heard of a location such as this," Kenitzer said. "I guess the deceased was a big Seattle Mariners fan."

The Mariners pack about 45,000 people into the stadium each game and have a series scheduled at Safeco Field through the weekend.

A spokesman for the team said it was considering several options, including seeking charges against the airplane operator.

"We did not know this was happening and we're quite upset about it," said Mariners spokesman Tim Hevly. "This could have been a very serious situation."

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Even normal death has a way of upsetting us, especially in a culture that hides death. The Bible calls death an "enemy" and assures us that Jesus has defeated it.

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My wife was driving one night recently when she saw a sad sight by the side of a busy interstate. She first noticed a dog standing dangerously close to the edge of the highway. Then Karen realized that the dog was actually standing over another animal that was lying in front of him. The dog was sniffing his companion, and nuzzling his companion, and apparently pushing it trying to get some response. Karen said the dog would look up at passing motorists with an expression that seemed to say, "Can anybody do something?" Well, no one could.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Powerless Moment of All."

That sad moment was a reminder to me of that moment that leaves all of us feeling so totally powerless - any moment when we are facing the inescapable reality of death. The death of someone we love - or the prospect of our own. I got to the hospital only moments after my father had died. And there was nothing I could do. I've stood by the casket, the graveside of many people I love - and again, I was powerless. And one day, inevitably, it will be your funeral or mine that folks will be coming to.

It doesn't matter how much financial power you have ... how much political or religious power - there's nothing you can do when death comes calling. It is the ultimate reminder that God is in charge and we are not. Even in the happiest moments of our life. God is God and we are not. A funeral is, or should be, life's ultimate wakeup call. When we are staring death in the face, our heart is crying, "Can somebody do something?" And no one can - except the One who gave us our life in the first place.

You and I are one heartbeat from eternity. Which is why our word for today from the Word of God is such incredible good news. Hebrews 2:14 reveals what decisive power Jesus Christ has over this monster that we can do nothing about. It says of Jesus, "He shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

What a prospect - freedom from the fear of death, from the power of death. Because Jesus died Himself - on the cross - to cancel the sin that has sentenced all of us to a spiritual death penalty. Because your sins have already been paid for by Jesus, they can be forgiven by Jesus -and only Jesus. Which means you have nothing to fear when you breathe your last breath and you stand before the One who's made you. The sins that would otherwise make it impossible for you to enter heaven are gone!

Consequently, the most dangerous choice anyone can make is to reject or put off Jesus. Like a rescuer coming to you in a deadly situation, you have to grab Jesus in total trust to rescue you. If you've never really done that, please don't risk another day without Him. Tell Him you're giving yourself to Him this very day. If that's what you want, I hope you'll let me send you the booklet "Yours For Life" that I wrote about beginning this relationship. Just let me know you want it.

Little children pray this night-night prayer that says, "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." You can go to bed this very night, knowing that you belong to Jesus Christ ... and having the indescribable peace of knowing that "if you should die before you wake," you will be in heaven!

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

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For the past 20 years I have spoken to all kinds of audiences in the character of Benjamin Franklin. Even though the majority of my engagements are before corporate and convention audiences, I still like to talk to school groups. When I work for corporate clients outside the Philadelphia area, I ask them to sponsor appearances in two schools as a service to their community.

I find that even very young children relate well to the message I present through the character of Benjamin Franklin. I always encourage them to ask any questions they wish, so I usually get some interesting ones. The character of Benjamin Franklin often becomes so real to these students that they willingly suspend disbelief and are caught up in a dialogue with me as if I am really Ben Franklin.

On one particular day after an assembly for an elementary school, I was visiting a fifth-grade classroom to answer questions for students who were studying American history. One student raised his hand and said, “I thought you died.” This was not an unusual question and I answered it by saying, “Well, I did die on April 17, 1790, when I was 84 years old, but I didn't like it and I'm never going to do it again.”

I immediately asked for any other questions and called on a boy at the back of the room who raised his hand. He asked, “When you were in Heaven, did you see my mother there?”

My heart stopped. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. My only thought was, “Don't blow this!” I realized for an 11-year-old boy to ask that question in front of all of his classmates it had to either be a very recent occurrence or of utmost concern. I also knew I had to say something.

Then I heard my voice say: “I'm not sure if she is the one I think she was, but if she is, she was the prettiest angel there.”

The smile on his face told me that it was the right answer. I'm not sure where it came from, but I think I just may have had a little help from the prettiest angel there.

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Ralph Archbold c 1994 from A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. All rights reserved.

Sermon in Questions People Ask series. 2 Corinthians 12:1-4

WHAT'S A HEAVEN FOR?

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I. God's preparation for this sermon.

II. Our current vision of Heaven.

A. Each culture has its own details.

B. Common theme: Heaven is what you want it to be.

C. We treat Heaven too lightly.

III. Bible's description of Heaven.

A. Varied images.

B. God is there.

C. Heaven is a beautiful place.

D. We will be surrounded by wonderful, caring people.

E. We will have a fresh start.

F. We will experience lasting contentment without fear.

IV. Why Heaven matters now.

A. It can keep us from making a terrible mistake with our life.

B. It encourages us that our daily lives have meaning.

C. It teaches us the virtue of having faith while we wait.

D. It can comfort us when times are hard.

V. Who goes to Heaven?

In a 1994 interview Marlo Thomas talked about the death of her dad, Danny Thomas. She said, "When I got on a plane to go to my father's funeral, I was alone. Phil stayed behind to do a memorial program on my father on The Donahue Show. It was a mistake for me to be alone. I cried the whole way.

"Phil and I were both raised Catholic, but we're not so much involved with the church anymore. He is kind of a devil's advocate. But I called him from that plane that day. I was as fragile as an egg. I said, 'Answer me truthfully. Is there a heaven?'

"And my darling husband, I'm not sure what he believes anymore said, 'Yes, yes, there is a heaven.' The need to hear that there is a heaven, and that the person you love is there, is very strong."

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LifeGem Memorials of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, announced in August that, using available technology, it can turn a loved one's cremated ashes into a diamond by pressing and heating the ashes to 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. A chemistry professor cited by The New York Times agreed that the plan was sound: carbon from the ashes converts to graphite, which can be pressurized into a diamond. LifeGem prices start at $4,000 for a quarter-carat.

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