Sunday Tradition

It is Sunday morning and the tradition in our family, for the last 12 years, was that my parents and mother-in-law would come over after church for coffee and lunch. Her chair is now empty, and I am looking at her picture beside that chair. It is the end of an era for us as a family. Her apartment has been emptied, and her few simple earthly possessions have been divided. How quickly our earthly existence comes to an end, and life flies away to its eternal home.

Everything we own will soon belong to another. We actually never really own anything, but we are allowed to use material things for a little while. It all belongs to God. What is important is how we have used our time, talents, and possessions. Have we tried to serve and glorify God with all that we have, and all that we are? We are accountable to God for what we have done with our lives. At best, we can say that we are "unprofitable servants". Everything that we do is mixed with sin, and needs to be washed in the blood of Christ. Even our prayers and religious duties and devotions need to be cleansed.

Thank God that there is a solution in the gospel for us. By faith in the perfect righteousness of Christ, that cleansing power is available for free, "without money and without price" (Isaiah 55). The perfect works of Christ become ours by faith.

To update you a little on the progress of my disease, I rarely leave the house anymore. It is too difficult with the winter conditions, and I feel most comfortable in my own environment. To get through the nights peacefully, I am taking low doses of morphine. I sleep a little more, and it helps me tolerate the cramping a bit better. The only drawback is that I am more dopey in the mornings.

I am at peace with God's dealings in my life. Although the way is difficult, and I am tired of the journey, I do feel that God is walking with me and sustaining me every day. Please pray that Lena and I would receive the strength and patience to endure to the end.

Jack.