RUBY'S
"Preaching and shewing the glad tidings
of the kingdom of God" Luke 8:1.
Good Tidings
By Ruby Shutts
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings!" Isaiah 52:7
Recently a friend of mine passed away after a two year battle with cancer. She was only fifty years old and she faced death with a courage that I hope I have when my time comes. Death is an unknown place to us. We don't know what it's really like and the unknown can be frightening. The Bible speaks often of death. When Jairus' daughter died scripture says that they "all wept and bewailed," but Jesus said to them "Weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth." In his first epistle to the Corinthians Paul said "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Nothing too scary about that. Death is merely the end of our mortal life and anticipation for eternal life. We will all be raised again to either spend eternity with God in His kingdom or to be destroyed in hell.
Yes, death is an enemy, but if we strive to live our lives for Christ then we can know that there is nothing but joy waiting on the other side of death. The hard part is for those of us who are still here. We have the responsibility to continue on living our lives without that friend or family member. That can be so very difficult, but the Bible states in I Thessalonians 4:13 that we should "sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." As Christians we should not sorrow for our
