| Poster | Thread | HeartSong
Member
Joined: 2006/9/13
Posts: 3179
| | Re: | | Revelation 22
1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
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|  2006/10/27 20:26 | Profile | mamaluk
Member
Joined: 2006/6/12
Posts: 524
| | Re: | | Brother Paul,
Thanks for sharing the graphic but NEEDED testimony (for me anyways), as I often think, What is there really for sinners to be proud of? What do we labor day in and day out for? Without Christ, humans live long enough just to become food for maggots!
Thank you Father for our Savior!
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| | 2006/10/27 17:22 | Profile | BradW
Member
Joined: 2006/5/30
Posts: 94
Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | Re: | | Quote:
But this is the wage of sin, one act of disobedience. And, though incomprehensible, we realize that God Himself died and beheld His own Son nailed to a tree, dying, crying out for the Father not to leave Him, the angels standing in breathless awe, stayed by the hand of Father from flying down that instant and wrecking the world in waves of fire. God mourning, turning His face away to weep and groan and scream in pain, tearing the earth up with earthquakes, smashing rocks, putting out the sun with His hand so no man or woman can look upon His dead, cursed Son.
Wow. What a powerful, sobering statement of truth.
Bless you, Paul.
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Brad Wright
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| | 2006/10/27 17:21 | Profile | crsschk
Member
Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA
| | Re: | | Paul, brother ...
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Mike Balog
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| | 2006/10/27 15:59 | Profile | PaulWest
Member
Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas
| | Re: | | Hi Doug,
This sounds more like an evangelism tract than a college writing assignment. I like it! I thought this was supposed to be a research project or something. Guess I didn't read your first post carefully enough, sorry. :-o
Dear Ginny,
I guess the main thing I've gotten from constantly dealing with dead bodies is the shattering aspect of how our God sees sin. We know that sin equates to death according to the Word of God, but many of us are not up close with death everyday. I deal with it every day, and see all the different victims. The infants, the toddlers, the teenagers, the middle-aged, elderly. The devastating and unmerciful physical curse upon each one of us.
Allow me to get a little gross now (you asked for it). You don't realize how utterly [i]abhorent[/i] sin is until you come across a putrefacting body. The odor, the bloating, the maggots, the filth and all the other things associated with decomposition. To see a body like this, and to remember that human beings were originally made in the image of God, that we were the crowning achievement of Jehovah God, the glory of all creation and given dominion over all the animals and insects and fishes and reptiles - and to behold a decomposed baby being eaten by worms, or a young man found dead in a field surrounded by vultures and coyotes (I live in Texas), well, it really puts a perspective on how severe [i]one act[/i] of disobedience is to the Most Holy God of Israel and the King of the Universe.
Now, if the physical curse of death be this terrible, this woeful and sad and noxious and humbling and disgusting, [i] how tragic will the second death be?[/i] That if the Terrible God of Israel Himself came down and [i]suffered His own curse[/i], how much more worse will the [b]second and final[/b] curse be? It terrifies me to think that thousands of souls right now are falling into His hands without Jesus Christ. People who think they understand God and have it all worked out and who do not fear judgment need only to look at the body of a sixteen year-old girl being wheeled away on a stretcher as her mother screams and groans and makes sounds so utterly woeful and inhuman that it is impossible to describe here. Surely, humans were not made to feel such grief, to utter such sounds from the soul. But this is the wage of sin, one act of disobedience. And, though incomprehensible, we realize that God Himself died and beheld His own Son nailed to a tree, dying, crying out for the Father not to leave Him, the angels standing in breathless awe, stayed by the hand of Father from flying down that instant and wrecking the world in waves of fire. God mourning, turning His face away to weep and groan and scream in pain, tearing the earth up with earthquakes, smashing rocks, putting out the sun with His hand so no man or woman can look upon His dead, cursed Son.
I cannot write this anymore. I am sorry, I am weeping. I hope you understand what death has taught me.
Borhter Paul
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Paul Frederick West
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| | 2006/10/27 15:11 | Profile | sonofadam777
Member
Joined: 2006/3/24
Posts: 108
Rochester, New York
| | Re: | | Here is what I wrote so far:
About 16 years ago while attending a Christian College three young men were driving home when they were in a head on collision and two of them died and the driver walked away. Those two men did not realize that day would be their last. All of us have a God given will to live and believe that we will live until we are 70, maybe 80 years old, but many of us never think that we could be snatched from earth unexpectedly. How prepared will you be before you enter eternity? Do you know where you are going after you die? Will you be reincarnated into a bug, the ground, heaven or hell? You will be spending a lot longer on the other side that you will on this side of life and its very important that you are prepared and know for sure. So how can you know?
Recently RWC held the End of Life Conference with many sessions discussing a variety of topics relating to death. All of these topics were excellent and very helpful to preparing for loved ones and especially talking to Children about death. Many people I talk to believe are going to heaven because they believe they are a good person. What they dont realize that being good will not hold up on judgment day. God have us a mirror to look into, the 10 commandments to show us how good we really are. If we are honest with ourselves all of us have lied, stolen, used Gods name in vain and that makes us liars, thiefs and blasphemers at one time in our lives and that is only 3 of the 10 commandments we have not kept. All of us will have to stand before God on judgment day and be found guilty. It is so important that on this side of eternity that we prepare ourselves for that Day so that we will know where we will be after we die. Jesus came to earth, a sinless perfect man, and took the punishment for our sins and paid our fine. We should have been on that cross being punished for our sins, but God chose to give up his son in our place and pay our fine. Isnt that incredible? How grateful are you for what Jesus did for you and I? If you want to spend eternity, repent and turn from your sins and trust Jesus for eternal life. Its not only believe in Jesus, its putting him on like you would a parachute if you were about to jump out of a plane. Eternity is a long time.
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Doug Renz
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| | 2006/10/27 13:33 | Profile | ginnyrose
Member
Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi
| | Re: | | Paul,
I am sure you have a lot of thoughts on this subject. Would you mind sharing the most pressing ones with us on this thread? To me it sounds fascinating.
I am not afraid to discuss death -having a 25 YO DD with the LORD (she died 11 yrs. ago). And just recently buried two uncles of mine - died within nine days of each other.
Having experienced the loss of two relatives recently, evoked a lot of questions for me, so much it has robbed me of sleep. The answer to the questions is that they are in God's hands and he is the final judge. For that I am thankful! I know God has given each one a chance to repent of evil in their hearts and lives. But the question is: did they? They did not leave that testimony...by their fruits ye shall know them, says the Scripture...should not your family be aware of your walk with the LORD? Yes, I know the answer, but the questions nag me still.
Ok, I will quit rambling. What do you have to say, Paul?
ginnyrose
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Sandra Miller
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| | 2006/10/27 13:20 | Profile | PaulWest
Member
Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas
| | Re: Writing article on death at Christian College | | Hi Doug,
I'm a mortician in Texas. I work at a funeral home and have a bit of experience on this subject. Feel free to write me; I am at your service if you ever need help.
Brother Paul
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Paul Frederick West
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| | 2006/10/27 12:58 | Profile | sonofadam777
Member
Joined: 2006/3/24
Posts: 108
Rochester, New York
| | Writing article on death at Christian College | | I am writing an article on death/after life at a Christian College by Monday. Please pray for me and if you have any thoughts or have done this before, please email me. thanks.
Doug
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Doug Renz
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| | 2006/10/27 10:51 | Profile |
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