The Right Way to Die
Mike Stone
Genesis 47:27-48:20
My phone rang early one Sunday morning. I saw the name on the caller ID of my cell phone. It read ''Robert Davis.'' I assumed it was Robert calling with a problem with my PPT slides. Robert had actually joined our support staff a few weeks before that. His ''hire'' was going to be announced in the next week's bulletin. He had only recently attended his first EBC staff meeting.
We had talked a lot Friday about an upcoming video project. Exchanging a few emails late on Saturday, he texted me, ''Do you ever take a day off?'' With that, I replied that I would talk to him Monday morning.
When my phone rang a few hours later I just ''knew'' Robert was calling with a media ministry question for the day. I affectionately called him ''Dr. Robert.'' But it was the voice of his wife telling me that Robert had died during the night apparently of a heart attack.
That scene sticks in my mind now over 3 years later because it was the ''shortest interval'' I'd ever experienced between talking to someone...and their unexpected death.
That scene has been replayed for me several times lately as several church members have experienced SUDDEN and UNEXPECTED deaths in their family.
James 4:14 - ''Life is a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.''
Job - ''My days are passing faster than a weaver's shuttle.''
The proper way to evaluate life is not that we are getting older, but getting closer.
The moment we were born life's countdown began, and we are closer to zero than we have ever been.
In our text Jacob is 147 years old and he finds himself looking the inevitable angel of death in the face and he shows us the best way to die.
READ 47:27-31
Somewhere in America tonight, a man will tell his wife he's not feeling well. He will take a Rolaids' tablet or a Tums. Before the end of the night, he will clutch his chest, the wife will dial 911, the ambulance will come, the nurses ...
Mike Stone
Genesis 47:27-48:20
My phone rang early one Sunday morning. I saw the name on the caller ID of my cell phone. It read ''Robert Davis.'' I assumed it was Robert calling with a problem with my PPT slides. Robert had actually joined our support staff a few weeks before that. His ''hire'' was going to be announced in the next week's bulletin. He had only recently attended his first EBC staff meeting.
We had talked a lot Friday about an upcoming video project. Exchanging a few emails late on Saturday, he texted me, ''Do you ever take a day off?'' With that, I replied that I would talk to him Monday morning.
When my phone rang a few hours later I just ''knew'' Robert was calling with a media ministry question for the day. I affectionately called him ''Dr. Robert.'' But it was the voice of his wife telling me that Robert had died during the night apparently of a heart attack.
That scene sticks in my mind now over 3 years later because it was the ''shortest interval'' I'd ever experienced between talking to someone...and their unexpected death.
That scene has been replayed for me several times lately as several church members have experienced SUDDEN and UNEXPECTED deaths in their family.
James 4:14 - ''Life is a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.''
Job - ''My days are passing faster than a weaver's shuttle.''
The proper way to evaluate life is not that we are getting older, but getting closer.
The moment we were born life's countdown began, and we are closer to zero than we have ever been.
In our text Jacob is 147 years old and he finds himself looking the inevitable angel of death in the face and he shows us the best way to die.
READ 47:27-31
Somewhere in America tonight, a man will tell his wife he's not feeling well. He will take a Rolaids' tablet or a Tums. Before the end of the night, he will clutch his chest, the wife will dial 911, the ambulance will come, the nurses ...
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