To Live is Christ and To Die is Gain: Our Future Hope

The following is what Matt Waymeyer preached at the memorial service of a dear friend and brother, Jeff Dolan....

Beloved, death is difficult for a number of reasons. Death is final. Death comes suddenly. Death means saying goodbye to someone we love, someone we care about, someone we will dearly miss. And yet in the midst of the intensity of our grief and the suddenness of our loss, there is the underlying comfort of knowing that even though this is a time of great sorrow for us, it is a time of exceedingly great joy for our dear friend and brother, Jeff Dolan. And for this reason, as Charles Spurgeon once said: “Our tears are [plentiful], but they glisten in the light of faith and hope.”

In Philippians 1, the apostle Paul said that for the child of God dying means departing to be with Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul said to be absent from the body—that is, to die and have your soul depart from your physical body—is “to be at home with the Lord.” And in Luke 23, Jesus said to the man on the cross next to Him: “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Beloved, even now as we gather to mourn the loss of Jeff, we do so with the joy of knowing that he has departed to be with Christ, that he is now at home with the Lord Jesus in a place called Paradise. That’s why Psalm 116:15 says: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.” Today is precious in the sight of God because Jeff has been taken to glory, and therefore we do not grieve as those without hope.

The Plight of Israel: An Historical, Biblical, Theological Study

1930's Antisemitism in Italy

Looking forward to our Wednesday PM series on "the Plight of Israel: An Historical, Biblical, Theological Study." This not only relates to our series on Revelation 20 and the Kingdom of God but to many contemporary events.

Here's a preview from this study:  In the 1930's fascist leaders in Italy began to target Jews for their religious beliefs. Censorship was also common. Today the LGBT and secular/liberal political machine is targeting anyone who doesn't embrace the sexual revolution and/or pledge allegiance to the rainbow flag (note recent firing of CrossFit executive and the businessmen who publicly apologized for eating at Chic-fil-a during Pride month). One of the tragic lessons in history is that when this began to take place in the 1930's and 40's is that the Roman Catholic leadership did not speak out clearly or boldly (think Reichskonkordat). Will evangelical pastors and leaders in America make this same mistake today? Will we fear man more than God? Will we modify our biblical convictions when our beliefs cost us something?

"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."  Join us this Wed. at 6:30pm at Lake Country Bible Church.

Live in Light of Eternity

photo credit: hvchurch.com

And Jesus was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself.  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:23-26)

"The sands of time are sinking" and "the dawn of heaven breaks." 

Therefore, "I have born scorn and hatred, I have born wrong and shame,
Earth's proud ones have reproach'd me, for Christ's thrice-blessed name.
Dark, dark dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land." (Anne Ross Cousin, 1857).

 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them,  and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.  And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." (Rev. 21:3-5)