Inevitable

 

That's a screen capture of a template document available free to use in Word for a single person's will. I'm using it as an example to be certain my hand-written will (just as legal) has all the right legal information. I need to do this even though my husband and I have a simple and conjoint will done almost twenty years ago. Things change. But needing a will is inevitable because death is inevitable.

One of my past hobbys was genealogy - a deep look into family history. I've blogged on that several times, and have a link to a website I used for several years, leaving it up in case someone searches. My parents, their siblings, their parents, their siblings, and all generations previous, died. All humans have in the past and continue to do so today. We've lost extended family in our generation, and within my children's. Dear friends have passed, too.

A will simple lays out what I want done with my real and personal property - my name on a deed is real property, my wedding ring is personal. There are specific people I would like to have what I have now.

That goes for knowledge and faith. That's nothing new - Beloved Husband's grandfather mentioned such in his will. The legalese pages were properly written, then he added:

January 21, 1932

To my dear family survivors; the greatest asset I can hand down to you is to commend you to the Lord Jesus Christ whom I have tried to serve from childhood. He is the only rock or foundation you can safely build or rely upon and you should love Him with all your Might.

In writing my will I could have made disposition of various small things but I recall that at various times I have given some of the children things, therefore after I have passed away I desire that whenever any child says I gave them certain things to let that be final. Any other personal things of mine let my beloved ones select time about, but reverse the old order of things, having the youngest select first, and then up the line instead of down the line.

M T Blickensderfer

That first paragraph reminds me of verses that means a great deal to me:

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:1-3 KJV)

All religious beliefs can be taught, from childhood or later, but every individual has the ultimate responsibility to choose which one to accept as willed by a deity. MT made a personal choice to include Jesus Christ as Lord in his own life. He felt sufficiently strong about it to include what he had shown them in life in his last words to them. John knew how MT felt:

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (3 John 1:4 KJV)

John's reference is to brothers and sisters in Christ. Both MT and I felt the same about our children. And others that we know can benefit from the love of God Jesus taught, the Apostles who saw/heard Him wrote about, and the people we know who serve Him in our world today.

I cannot prove to anyone what I accept on faith, but I read Hebrews chapter 11 and I can see faith lived in people who carried it through millennia. A study of historial references confirm a great deal of both the Old and New Testament, but it still comes down to faith:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV)

Christians cannot be truthful in boasting of their works. There is a marvelous combination:

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:17-19 KJV)

Neither fear nor dwell on any inevitable event. Be aware, and understand your obligations - one of which is leaving a will. It will help your family, as anyone whose loved one died without a will can explain.

"One may edify another"

 

Jerusalem Gate, Stephanstor, Zwischen, 1900 (Wiki Commons)

There is good information from Paul as he writes a letter to each church, that is inspired by God for Christians - without time nor geographic limitations. One I've been thinking about for some time is in Romans 5, and a conclusion is reached after an example, and before more:

For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. (Romans 14:18-19 KJV)

Before we get into what these "things wherewith" are, let's clarify what "edify" means. As usual, I go back to the Greek, where Strong's Concordance has been a help to me in comparing what we think a word means, and how it is defined in use. You can get your own look at Strong's Concordance on the internet. I've checked multiple times, and the e-Sword app on my phone offers the same information. Here's the meaning of "edify" as used biblically:

G3629: οἰκοδομή

pronounced: oikodomē ((oy-kod-om-ay'))

Feminine (abstraction) of a compound of G3624 and the base of G1430; architecture, that is, (concretely) a structure; figuratively confirmation: - building, edify (-ication, -ing).

Wait! What G3624 and G1430 mean:

G3624: οἶκος

Pronounced: oikos (oy'-kos)

Of uncertain affinity; a dwelling (more or less extensive, literally or figuratively); by implication a family (more or less related, literally or figuratively): - home, house (-hold), temple.

G1430: δῶμα

Pronounced: dōma (do'-mah)

From δέμο demō (to build); properly an edifice, that is, (specifically) a roof: - housetop.

Sometimes edifying is just lifting up a friend. A note can do that for years. I just ran across one from my dear friend of close to 30 years, though our lives have changed and we may not see each other for five or so. In 1998 Empee gave me a gift she knew I would love, use, and retain:  Forgotten English, Jeffrey Kacirk, "A Merry Guide to Antiquated Words." 

Words are important. They all have meaning. When we use them, we select them based on what we want the person hearing (or reading) to know. In our current era, some people are changing the meaning of words. But Empee's words in the note have deep meaning to me:

"I think of you as a precious thread in my life, everlasting, at that."

We are everlasting friends.  Both of us. While we spent a dozen or so years in the same company, I reached retirement and she found greater opportunities for her skills. We not only live in different cities, but in non-adjacent counties in the same state. That will change one day, for we shall be in the same country:

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16 KJV)

As co-workers - for a while the same title on the same project - we had enough in common to enjoy spending time together. Once we exchanged information on our relationships with Christ, we knew the bond would be unbroken. I so often pray for people I've found to be close to accepting God's plan of salvation simply because I would love to see them (literally) forever.

There are also people I've met that it was obvious there was a need for Christ in their lives. It's not judgmental to see a person living with a soul-rending sadness, or with deep-rooted bitterness, or even with raging hatred, and know the eternal answer for them is accepting the love of God to restore them to what they could be. I'd love to spend eternity with them, too.

It truly is simple, as explained in Romans. You can use the "Roman Road" any time one asks:

Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30b KJV)

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23 KJV)

Before that verse, Paul does a good job explaining why all have sinned by drawing scenes from life. No one escapes from sinfulness except innocent children. Too soon we find ourselves envious, desiring and/or taking what seems right in our own mind. So often, it isn't.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23 KJV)

The same choice faces every one ever born on this planet, choose between death and eternal life.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 KJV)

Jesus said so in John 3:16-18, while He was discussing questions from Nicodemus.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10 KJV)

In fact, Romans 10:8-17 is outstanding!! But this is a good summation of the Road:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13 KJV)

Once done, we have help along that strait and narrow way:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 KJV)

Jeremiah, The Weeping Prophet

 
Jeremiah - by Michelangelo - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), 

distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. (Jeremiah 5:1 KJV)

Five chapters in, out of 52 - not really ten percent, and I can understand from this one verse why Jeremiah was called The Weeping Prophet. He had a message from God to the people of his nation - a previously divided nation that broke into two separate pieces. He knew the truth of God as well as the stubborness of his countrymen. The Lord knew it, too, and mentioned it to Moses:

And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: (Exodus 32:9 KJV)

Eleven uses later in the Bible, we again read "stiffnecked" when Stephen faces those who will not listen:

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. (Acts 7:51 KJV)

May I explain that stiffneckness is not confined to any single segment of humanity? At any given time, that could be applied to me. But Jeremiah wrote God's words, not his own when he used the term:

But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. (Jeremiah 17:23 KJV)

We do not listen, we do not hear, we do not read what prophets have told us. Peter mentioned this:

For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. (Acts 3:22-23 KJV)

Humans are no different today from many of the people who faced Moses, Jeremiah, Stephen, and Peter, not only ignoring their message, but never anticipating consequences. 

This past week I visited with a Pastor I met over two decades ago as a new Youth Minister. This time we both lamented over another young man (Dubgee) who followed a possible path of growth sharing God's message. Then, it was if Paul's experience was repeated:

For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, (2 Timothy 4:10a KJV)

Even while serving congregations, Dubgee loved this present world, and it's attention. In many ways, most of us do, giving in to touches of attention, a bit of envy, a desire for something "different" that we can't find the right words to explain. Leaving his Pastoral obligations, this present world offered positions where people paid attention, gave accolades, and a moneyed future was presented as possible. 

Paul doesn't describe Demas' present world, but leaving God's work does present problems -  and a descent that can be described in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Dubgee ignored what he earlier gave as sermons to a congregation. Today, in his present world, he no longer has steady employment, a home of his own, his wife, nor his children. Consequenses for moving from a relationship with Jesus as savior was described by Peter as:

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. (Acts 8:23 KJV)

Pray for those who, as people did millenia ago and still do today, ignore God's instructions and the consequences for doing so. Listen to the men sent to share God's instructive love that can keep us on the narrow way to the strait gate. The way may seem winding and slow to us, but the consequences of remaining faith filled are God's promises of eternal life in an eternal home. Otherwise, He will not force anyone to keep them from their consequences - eternal separation from Himself and His love.

The choice is available every day of life. As Jeremiah and Jesus did, we weep and lament:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37 KJV)