To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, the only things you can be certain of are life, death and taxes. If that’s the case, this week proved to me he was right. Last Saturday, I led the funeral service for my mother, who went home to be with the Lord in March. It was a wonderful time, shared with family and more friends than we expected. Mum had longed to be with the Lord and with my Dad, and at 98 she had indeed the run the race and done it faithfully. Right after this came a brief window of opportunity while back in Canada to do my taxes before leaving for England, and they turned out to require the assistance of my brother Colin, who providentially is a professor of tax law. One aspect still requires direction from our tax authorities, which I await. And then, while we were in Ottawa visiting three of our children, we received a message from our son Michael that our daughter-in-law Samantha had suddenly gone into labour. We were awake half the night until we received news that, after a 2 am Ceasarean section, we have a new grandson, Ethan Alexander, born healthy but premature. We rushed back from Ottawa to the hospital in Toronto to see how everyone was doing. So there you go, life, death and taxes all in one dose. There is a saying, usually used when someone dies, that “life goes on.” And obviously it does for everyone else until they in turn die. So the saying offers only a temporary reprieve for those still “on the right side of the grass,” as a funeral director friend used to say. But then there is Easter. That’s when God broke into the human history that he created and still presides over, and he did so with the goal of overturning the cycle of life and death once and for all. Last week I related an amazing story about someone who was raised from the dead; if you missed it, go back and read it. And for those who did, I can add that John Babu saw five other people raised from the dead during the course of his ministry.
For those who know Jesus, the promise is that death has been defeated and one day we will be raised to live forever. And in the meantime, we will be safe in the presence of the Lord. A man I knew once made this remark while speaking at a conference: “If you hear that I’ve died, don’t believe it. I’ve only changed my place of residence.” He did in fact suddenly and unexpectedly pass into God’s presence not long after that, and his words came back to me. So life now goes on forever. But this life in the presence of the Lord requires an admission pass. Fortunately, it was paid for us by the blood of Jesus. Yet we have to reach out and take it, or life will not go on, at least not life in the sense we would ever want it. We were blessed as a family to have had my mum with us as long as we did, and now we are blessed with a new grandson. Whether the taxes turn out to be a blessing remains to be seen. But the course of human history is dominated by one big fact: death has died, and life truly goes on.
He has risen. Thanks be to God!
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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