Pastor Hurst

WHAT THE CRUNCH OF CRISPY LEAVES SAYS

It is one of the most recognizable sounds in the repertoire of one’s audio memory; at least for those who live in climates with distinctly marked seasonal change. What? The sound of fallen autumn leaves crunching under one’s feet. On my daily walk this past week the leaves were as crisp as the air. Earbuds in, podcast blaring, I was walking briskly through our plat. Up ahead I could see the accumulation of fallen leaves across the sidewalk and the lawn through which it passed creating a retroactive, multi-colored shadow of the tree. When I began walking on those leaves, even above the sound from earbuds, I could hear that distinct cadenced sound of crunching leaves underfoot. Immediately, with no search for it, I was inundated with a memory from fifty years past. I was a ten-year-old walking home from elementary school. Ironically, though my school was ten blocks away, each way my two siblings and I walked past a closed school but one block from our house. It was walking past that shutdown school that the sound of crunching leaves impressed that indelible memory within me. Parallel to the sidewalk along the schoolyard was a rock retainer wall. The leaves from the trees lining our street, once fallen, piled thickly against it. That day, wading through those leaves, hearing them crunch underfoot caused a feeling of elevation, a sort of thrill, to well up in me. Why? At the time I probably would have only answered, “Because it’s Fall!” And left it there. But on reflection, beyond autumn being my favorite time of year, I think that the crunching leaves signaled welcomed change: The brutal heat of an Oklahoma summer was over. Rabbit hunting season—going with my grandfather and father was my favorite thing—was opening. Thanksgiving and Christmas were on the horizon. Snow, another thing I loved, was coming. Yes, the sound of crisp, crunching, colorful leaves underfoot heralded anticipated coming change. Younger folks usually with open arms welcome change. Change can mean diversion, fresh starts, new adventures, escape, etc. However, stereotypically, as we age, we grow to dislike change. I have. I do. Why do older folks resist and feel aversion to change? I think it is because comfort is paramount for us older folk and change is a threat to comfort. Sameness is comfortable. Change rocks the boat. Change is disturbing—literally and psychologically. We have things just the way we like them. Also, we’ve learned, change is often painful. So many changes, arising from crises, separations, losses, betrayals, etc., are negative. Yet, despite my increasing displeasure of change, I still look forward to the change that autumn brings, a change of which crunching leaves under step are a harbinger. I do not think I could tolerate living in a clime without distinct seasonal changes. Time would travel along in bland, slow monotony. Yes, I believe I have reached the bell curve of one in life first welcoming change and then coming to disdain change and beginning once again to welcome it. My walk through crunching leaves this week caused me again to yearn for change. There is no escaping the things that bring the negative change—those crises, catastrophes, betrayals, abandonments, etc. We dread those, praying they’ll never come. But there are some positive changes to anticipate as well. Ever since humanity messed up this world with sin, there has been a longing for it to be changed back to the perfection to which God created it. Paul says the whole creation groans for this change including we born-again mortals who desire this coming change even for our bodies. (Romans 8:21-23). Here’s our Christian hope. That change is coming! Ironically, an unchanging God gives us hope of anticipated change. The OT Job expresses the hope of a coming change: “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” (Job 14:14). The NT Apostle Paul gives voice to a promised coming change: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1Co 15:51-52). Are you beleaguered? Embattled? Weary? Bored? Discouraged? Hurting? Take a walk. Step on crispy leaves. Listen to the cadence of crunching leaves. For every four steps you take you will hear, “Change is com-ing. Change is com-ing! Change is com-ing!” --Pastor Clifford Hurst

However Incrementally, However Slowly

Recently, our nations’ founders, the documents they authored, and the nation they established have been demeaningly labeled as racist. Many who so malign the USA point to indisputable truths such as the majority, around three quarters, of the writers of the Declaration of Independence and around one half of the writers of the Constitution being slave owners. This is enough for many today to condemn the founders of our country and accuse them as a racist lot. Some time back I listened to a historian ponder something I too had mulled: The thing more astonishing than many of America’s founders espousing and writing documents declaring freedom yet owning slaves is that many of these slave-owner founders made great sacrifices, some even giving their lives, fighting for the liberty of all. They owned slaves but fought for freedom for all folks. In defense of the founders, it is not enough simply to state the obvious: They were a product of their times. No, the anomaly of promulgaters of liberty being slave owners cries out for explanation. To me, there are two general explanations: Hypocrisy or Development. The founders were either bold hypocrites to espouse liberty for all and yet own slaves, or the founders (along with the nation they founded) were experiencing, instigating, and involved in development towards liberty for all. Development is a process that happens by degrees. Some were indisputably hypocrites whether they recognized or ever acknowledged it. But, overall, the founders and the nation they founded were developing. However incrementally. However slowly. It is a lie our nation was founded in racism and, thus, by nature is racist. Though some of the founders and future citizens were racist, our nation was founded on principles that ensured that over time it would grow and develop into a place where there was liberty for all. Freedom for all was inherent, boldly woven into the fabric of the documents and the nation they founded—and the founders were the weavers. Many of the writers were aware that, though concessions were made to encourage slave-holding states to join the union, they were writing documents that would over time, as the nation developed and grew, result in liberty for all its citizens. But before I get too far into that, let me return to this proposition: What the founders did as a group or as individuals was either hypocrisy or development. The same charge of “hypocrisy” is often made when Christians do not live up to the Truth and standards they espouse. Make no mistake. Some Christians are hypocrites. They say they believe the Truth as set forth in the Word, they say they believe in the Gospel, but their lives are completely out of kilter with that Truth. Other Christians truly do believe and seek to measure up to those things set down by Scripture, yet, their lives fall short, many times drastically so. They are not hypocrites. They are developing. They are undergoing a process of transformation. They are being, as we used to say, and Scripture still labels it, being sanctified. However incrementally. However slowly. Thus, whether nation or church or individual Christian the standard used to judge should not be perfection but direction. Something, not perfect but headed in the right direction is developing. The founding of our nation was not perfect. The founders themselves were not. Yet, the direction they plotted and routed in their founding documents, the direction of their desire and intent was the direction of freedom for all. And, that is the direction our nation has progressively gone, despite set-backs, and pitfalls. Though still not perfect, our nation enjoys more freedom for more people of any nation in the world today or in history. Whatever the racism of some at its founding, whatever problems it has since had, it was founded on principles that assured its development into freedom for all. However incrementally. However slowly. Many have the same problem with what they read in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. Cynical skeptics point out that God’s people whose lives are chronicled in Scripture owned slaves (actually servants), practiced polygamy, oppressed women, etc. Some of the charges are not true. But some are: Abraham married a half-sister. Jacob was a polygamist. Jonah was a blatant racist. Etc. Theirs was not a perfect world. They were not perfect people. Yet, they had responded to God’s call. God began with them wherever He found them and whatever shape they were in and moved them in the right direction. They followed. He called them out of their native corrupt culture and began a process of making and developing them into what He would have them be as individuals and as a people. However incrementally. However slowly. This truth has solidified into a word of encouragement that I have often given to folks who believe they have messed up too badly, are too far entangled and embedded in a godless lifestyle, and have strayed too far. I say to them, “God does not start with us where we SHOULD be or COULD be. God starts with us where we are right here, right now—if we only turn repentantly to Him.” I also follow with, “And, He can take us from right here, right now, to where we should and could be.” He moves us in the right direction. He develops us. However incrementally. However slowly. This truth of not being perfect, not living up to the ideal but of being headed in the right direction, being in the process of development, helps both encourage and warn us. Personally, I believe that our nation has made a U-turn in its progression in the direction of liberty. It has turned in the direction of socialism, the suppression of individual liberties, and the animosity towards the free practice of religion. Those who espouse this direction ARE hypocrites to speak of liberty. Their tirades, machinations, philosophies are NOT continuing the development to a “more perfect union” with liberty and just for all. They have turned our nation in a direction of the declension of liberty and the destruction of our nation—and not incrementally, not slowly! One may not be perfect but he can be headed the right direction. One may not be perfect but his life need not be one of hypocrisy but development: And, wherever you are at right here, right now, God can take you from right here, right now, to where you should and could be. However, incrementally. However, slowly. --Pastor Clifford Hurst

OVER-THE-HORIZON

As crises do, the debacle of the U.S.’s botched pull-out of Afghanistan has introduced a new metaphor into common parlance: Over-the-horizon. Seeking to ameliorate and quieten the growing criticism of and alarm over our no longer having personnel, boots-on-the-ground, to deal with terrorism or to ensure the safety of stranded Americans and our allies, our president attempted to assure us that America would deal with emerging terrorist threats with “over-the-horizon” capabilities (drones, missiles, airstrikes, etc.). Before momentarily getting a bit tedious with this, indulge me to remind you that what I’m really after, intending, is to make an encouraging spiritual point. There is both an offensive and defensive need for boots-on-the-ground: If terrorists are using a location in Afghanistan as a base to plan, train for, and launch a terrorist attack, only boots-on-the-ground can provide the necessary reconnaissance, obtain the accurate coordinates, etc., needed to take the terrorists out and abort their malevolent designs. Boots-on-the-ground is also needed to locate, protect, and guide to safety those Americans and allies who have been stranded. Yet, since occupation in perpetuity is untenable, “over-the-horizon” capabilities are essential to combat terrorism and protect our allies. However, the very reason over-the-horizon capabilities are essential is also a reason that with Afghanistan they by themselves are effectually insufficient: Afghanistan is landlocked and surrounded by nations either openly hostile or none too friendly with Americans. Over-the-horizon capabilities are great--if they are not too far over-the-horizon. With no seaports nearby, ships cannot get very close to the Taliban-held country. With no cooperating parameter countries, no airbase allows planes to be just over-the-horizon. In reality, America has very anemic over-the-horizon capabilities to deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The best scenario both to obliterate a growing threat of an attack and to facilitate the protection of our compatriots and allies is to have both boots-on-the-ground (however small a contingency that may be, i.e., special forces) and over-the-horizon capabilities. Spiritually, we believers live in a hostile world. We have enemies both seen and unseen that would attack us. We have enemies that would seek to prevent our getting out of this world and to our true country of origin—heaven. We are “landlocked,” surrounded by all that is inimical to our faith and existence. Yet, we must realize we have both over-the-horizon and boots-on-the-ground help and protection. Heaven may seem distant, but it is a more than adequate base from which we receive over-the-horizon assistance. We may seem grossly outnumbered, but God always has His boots-on-the-ground special forces to show up to help us. One of the detriments of over-the-horizon help is inaccurate or changing information of the coordinates of the enemy’s or friend’s location. That was the reason for the recent tragic loss of lives during a drone attack in Afghanistan. But heaven always has accurate coordinates on where a believer is. Another detriment is the over-the-horizon base’s being too far distant to get help in time to a friend or to stop an enemy. Help sent from heaven travels faster than the fastest jet, drone, or missile; faster than the speed of light. A distress signal/message is sent to and received at the over-the-horizon base. The base responds. When we pray, we send out a distress signal to our over-the-horizon help—heaven. Heaven immediately picks it up. Heaven responds. Sometimes heaven activates and deploys forces stationed there. Sometimes heaven activates boots-on-the-ground. Say a Christian is distressed with depression. He prays. God can send help over the horizon from heaven. He can send a specific word straight to the person’s heart, special healing, etc. But He may speak to a friend’s, family member’s, or minister’s, heart and send them with a word. The warehouses and barracks of heaven are full of forces and resources that God can deploy from over-the-horizon. But God can also deploy special forces on the ground. Either way, God has both unseen and seen, heaven originated or earth originated, angelic or human, agents and help to deploy. I know some people get freakily carried away with angels. But they are real. Scripture has said that the angels in heaven keep vigilant eyes on the individuals they are assigned to watch. Scripture declares God has given those who behold His face in heaven, angels, charge over we believers. That is the over-the-horizon help. They see from heaven a believer’s dilemma and heaven responds from over-the-horizon. But there are also times God deploys these angels and sends them in, boots-on-the-ground. He sends them to minister to His people. Even human help may come from “over-the-horizon” or from boots-on-the-ground. A distressed missionary eight time zones away may awaken to an encouraging email from a believer he has never met but upon whose heart God has impressed that the missionary needs prayer for encouragement. Or, God may send a national that lives two shanties down to that missionary with a word of encouragement. Yes, God has angels in heaven watching and on earth assisting; however, most usually, God uses people to help people. He has people everywhere, boots-on-the-ground close by, ready, to help someone in distress. When COVID has barred loved ones from visiting, God has a caring nurse who, with great kindness, not only ministers to the physical needs of an ailing, aged resident in the nursing home but also encourages that one’s soul with gentle words. When the pastor can’t get into the hospital to pray for a parishioner, God has a doctor that asks if he can pray with his patient, before the frightening procedure. He has a co-worker who notices. He has an elder at church who will cross the sanctuary. He has a Sunday School teacher, a day school teacher, a relative, a neighbor, a pastor. His special forces are embedded everywhere among us. Forces nearby He can activate. He also has over-the horizon capabilities. A family is struggling to pay a medical bill. An anonymous letter from the other side of the nation arrives with a money order of the amount it needs. A distant friend not seen in years texts out of nowhere the very word one needs to hear. A family member five states away phones. Sadly and tragically, neither boots-on-the-ground nor over-the-horizon help is working in Afghanistan. But, when we are in need or under attack, God knows our coordinates. God can send help from over-the-horizon or activate boots-on-the-ground. Or both. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel so stranded or landlocked or outnumbered after all. --Pastor Clifford Hurst

WHY CHRISTIANS MUST BE CREDIBLE

Almost, it happened to me. I have often been consternated, perplexed, and exasperated that so many Christians seemingly have an attraction to and proclivity for conspiracy theories. Then, I recently read a book purporting a conspiracy theory of JFK’s assassination. This author gave list after list of enumerated “facts” that proved it. His lists were, on their face, overwhelming evidence. I found myself saying, “I’m convinced.” But, as factual as the items of the lists seemed, something kept bothering me. It was only minutes ago, while responding to a post promulgating a false doctrine, that I realized what it was. The post-er of the false doctrine began by declaring what he believed and then giving a long list of apparent facts of Scripture that proved his point. Reading through the list, I realized what both the author of the JFK conspiracy theory and the aspiring theologian were doing. I can best explain it with an analogy. Note the fallacy of what I am doing in the following scenario: I post, “All mammals are white.” I then give my list of “facts.” 1. “Here is an un-doctored photo of a white mouse”—which I post. 2. “and a photo of a white elephant.” 3. “ and a photo of a white squirrel.” I enumerate and post twenty-five photos of white mammals. I have overwhelmingly proved my point. Or, have I? What bothered me about the JFK conspiracy theorist*, wasn’t that I doubted his “facts” but that he presented them as if they were uncontested and as if there were no answering, rebuttal evidence. The would-be theologian listed Bible “facts” but out of context, without essential qualifications, admittance of other valid interpretations, etc. My photos of the white mouse, elephant, squirrel, etc., could all be genuine. But the truth is white mammals, for the most part, are anomalies. For every photo of a white squirrel, there are thousands of grey, red, and black ones. I advise neither taking or not taking the COVID vaccine. But here is what I have heard from many Christians: “I will not take the COVID vaccine because the data is not all in and it has not been proved in studies that it is safe long term.” Then, without question, based on anecdotal evidence they take Ivermectin without the data being all in or studies proving it is safe in the long run. Ivermectin may work. That would be great. That’s not the point. The point is the inconsistency of reasoning. I won’t take medicine X because it has not been proved by studies, yet, I will take medicine Y which has not been proved by studies. Of course, you can give me stories, “evidence” of how John Buck and Jane Doe were healed of COVID by Ivermectin. But, until unbiased studies by aggregate data have verified Ivermectin works, you are just showing photos of a white squirrel and saying all mammals are white. Theories must be proved. Distrust of government-funded “science,” I get. I understand the alarm of government intrusion into our privacy. I concur with the alarm at the government dictating what should or shouldn’t be done with and to my body. I am offended by the President’s scolding and incriminating me for not having had the vaccine. But strong reactionary feelings are unreliable in ascertaining what is true or not true. Those going by strong reactionary emotions most often gravitate to and utilize anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal evidence is unreliable. What is anecdotal evidence? It is my showing photos of white mammals as proof all mammals are white. Just because the mouse in the photo was white doesn’t mean most mice are white. Just because a self-prescribed treatment seemed to work and to be safe for Jane Doe doesn’t mean it will work and be safe for others. For decades my mother-in-law was a fervent believer in ingesting barley green as a panacea and preventer of all illnesses of the body. Barley green would keep her healthy. Every morning she would pour a glass of orange juice and mix in her barley green. I loved to tease her. “You swear by the barley green that it makes you healthy. But you always take it in your orange juice. How do you know it’s not the orange juice that makes you healthy?” Only a controlled study with a sufficient number of participants, some drinking just orange juice, some taking only barley green, and some drinking only water could ascertain if barley green, orange juice, a combination of the two, or neither makes one healthy. When I hear a conspiracy theory, I almost always find myself asking its promoter: “How? Just how did they pull that off? How did they get by with that? How? One of the early theories I heard circulating to discourage taking the vaccine was that every shot introduced a computer chip into the recipient--a computer chip the government was going to use to track and monitor folks, and the Antichrist would use as his mark. A doctor chatting with me said, “How do they do that? Every vial of vaccine contains five doses for five different people. How do they sort, introduce, and specify those chips to five different people?” Arguing with conspiracists, you can’t win. If you offer a debunking item of evidence, then that item itself becomes a conspiracy. For example, using my analogy, if you disagree that all mammals are white and say, “Here, look! Here are photos of a grey mouse, a grey squirrel, a grey elephant, the conspiracist will say, “Of course! Those photos were taken by the government.” Or, “Those rascally government workers took the white mice and painted them grey.” “But, oh,” you parry, “studies show that the grey comes from a specific genetic marker.” Then, the response is “That’s because they altered the genes of the white mouse. The grey color is not natural. It’s artificial.” “They. They. They.” It is always an anonymous “they.” But, I don’t have space to chase that rabbit—white one, or not. I am neither promoting the vaccine or disavowing Ivermectin. I am highly suspicious of a government-funded, government-controlled “science.” I believe there is a deep state and other entities that are engaged in Machiavellian machinations. I believe our world is rushing towards a global government that will one day be ruled by the Antichrist. I believe there will be a “mark of the Beast.” I believe there IS a conspiracy going on—Satan is pulling strings, pushing buttons, and powering his pawns. But I also believe that Christians should be all about Truth. When we champion the unproved, the unsubstantiated, the unreasonable, the irrational, we deeply damage our credibility with a world that needs to hear the Gospel. Why should the unconverted believe the Gospel we share after it has seen our posts, read our tirades, the bulk of which are, at their worst demonstratively not true and, at their best, unsubstantiated. God says, “Come now, let us reason together.” And, we believe He is being reasonable because of His track record of speaking the truth. May it be the same with us believers. May we have a track record of posting, sharing, promulgating things that are true in everyday life, so, when we, as Paul, “reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come” people will believe we are telling the truth; so, when we share the Truth of the Gospel, those who need it most will find us credible. --Pastor Clifford Hurst *I’m reserving the right to change my mind on the JFK conspiracy.

EMPTY?

Lately, a fragment of an old hymn has been stuck in my thoughts looping in my head: "Bring your empty earthen vessels…come you needy one and all." EMPTY! Have you ever just felt empty? Drained. Nothing in the tank to run on. Nothing in the account to draw from? Nothing in the jug to pour out. Have you ever honestly admitted, "I feel so empty"? It's not a good feeling. When one is empty, he does not feel he can take on one more task much less do what is already required of him. When one is empty, he cannot enjoy what he should enjoy. When one is empty, he cannot engage others in a meaningful way. Strangely, when one is empty, he pours out on others anger, frustration, and venom. He is so full of his emptiness that it spills over in all he says and does. The oxymoron is intended--full of emptiness. I marvel at how one can feel so empty and yet be so full of hurt, bitterness, disappointment, depression. There are things that can turn your life and heart upside down and drain you of your dreams, delights, desires, and even your determinations. An empty heart is like an empty wallet. You have a bill to pay, someone's need you want to meet, and offering you want to give, but the wallet's empty. There is nothing there to pay the bill, meet a need, give an offering. You have the desire. You want to do right. You want to be helpful. You're just empty. That's one kind of emptiness. The kind where you still have the want to, the desire to, you just have nothing to. A worse kind of emptiness is an ennui emptiness. (Ennui is the word the Church Fathers used to describe a spiritual condition.) This is an emptiness so empty there is no want to, no desire to, remaining. You've lost all enthusiasm and even interest. The pond is not only empty of water, the mud of its bed is all dried up and cracked too. The tank was empty, you’ve been running on fumes and, now, even the fumes are all gone. Emptiness inescapably feels like worthlessness. Your life has served no purpose. You've made no difference. Emptiness also feels like one is on the back slope of his life's zenith, sliding downwards. Emptiness feels like one has come to the end of his usefulness, his influence. his life—even if he is young. All that said, perhaps, being empty isn't all bad. You cannot fill something already full. If you are empty, you are, for example, in better shape than the one full of himself, full of his own ways. As I customarily do—a practice that, I’m sure, can be faulted--I have gone to great lengths to describe a problem for which I will in short length offer a solution. Yet, think of this justifying analogy: You or your doctor can enumerate a long list of symptoms of what ails you. The answer to all those symptoms can be expressed with one word--the name of the remedying medication to be prescribed. To all our emptiness there is one answer. Jesus. He is the only One who can fill that emptiness. At the start of His ministry when Jesus attended a wedding, He said of the vessels whose emptiness was causing quite the upset and perplexity, "Fill them…". So, despite the danger of oversimplifying, to those who know, feel, and are living the emptiness I described above, let me just quote a little more of the fragment of the earworm song stuck in my head: HE WILL FILL your heart today to overflowing, As the Lord commandeth you, “Bring your vessels, not a few.” HE WILL fill your heart today to overflowing With the Holy Ghost and pow’r. And, now, let me just conclude with this wish/prayer of Paul's as recorded in Scripture. Now the God of hope FILL you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Rom 15:13) That is a prayer we can take as a promise. Empty? The God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing so you will no longer be empty but overflow with hope as you burst with the fullness of the Holy Spirit's empowerment. Maybe being empty is not so bad after all. It allows you to be filled. ---Pastor Clifford Hurst

I FELT VICTORY ENTER THE ROOM

Death is beautiful, the literary genius Oscar Wilde would have us believe. It’s not. Death is ugly. Death is uglier than its harbingers such as disease, catastrophes, war, violent crime, injuries. Death is hideously foul. Some have said death is a friend when it comes and takes the suffering, terminally ill. Not so. I understand the sentiment: The arrival of death sometimes ends the horrific suffering that every added minute of living would only prolong. But, no one calls cancer that precipitated that death “a friend.” Death is a member of the malevolent gang of Cancer and his associate symptoms that have attacked and ravaged the terminally ill. Death is just the last one of that gang to deliver his finishing blow. No, Death is no friend--ever. Death is a thief. Death is a heartless evictor. Death is a thug. Death is, well, a murderer. In the words of scripture, Death is an enemy. When Death comes, he comes with the airs of an invading conqueror assured by the rate of his success—he always has his way, overcomes his victim, and succeeds in his deed. Death is victorious—but, only apparently so. Over decades of pastoring, I’ve often been in the room when Death arrived. I’ve seen his ugliness, sensed his blackness, felt his evil, witnessed the destruction that follows his assault. Each time he’s come and finished his foray, he’s succeeded. He’s left his victim ravaged, inert, and vanquished; and loved ones crushed, devasted, hurting, grieving. Yes, I’ve been there when the enemy Death has come. But, there’s something else. See, Death isn’t the only one I’ve experienced enter the room. In the early years of my pastorate, I had been called to Hospice. The wife of one of our elderly members, stricken with cancer, was imminently about to pass. Even in the dim lights, the awful ravages of the disease upon its sufferer were evident. The family and I encircled the bed and prayed, quoted Psalm 23, and maybe sang. Moments later, I felt the entrance of a cold shadow darker than those cast by the room’s lusterless light. I knew that Death, the enemy, had come. He paused momentarily in a distant corner of the room close to the ceiling, but the darkness there could not hide his ugliness, his meanness, his blackness. Then he swopped down upon the sufferer struggling to breathe. Death delivered his blow with relish, stealing, killing, and destroying. Yet, inexplicably, at that moment, into the gloomy dimness of the room, heavy with the awful evidence of the disease, the sadness of the weeping of the family, the silence from the conspicuous absence of the departed’s breathing, I felt something else arrive more prevalently than Death. I cannot explain how—not in that atmosphere, not in those circumstances, not with such hurt and loss. But I did. I felt what only one word can possibly describe--Victory. I felt Victory enter the room. Death had come. Nothing or none could arrest his coming. Defeat was the inevitable outcome of any effort to resist his marauding, murderous attack. Yet, I suddenly felt Victory. How? Why? I said above it was unexplainable. That’s not really accurate. See, the one who’d just passed was a believer in Jesus Christ. That’s why Victory came into the room. Jesus had Himself previously met up with Death. And it wasn’t Death that was left standing. It was Jesus. Jesus defeated Death. And Grave while He was at it. When in that hospice room I experienced Death enter only to have Victory follow him, that wasn’t the first time Victory followed Death. Death came to Jesus on the cross. Death accompanied Jesus to the tomb and set about securing Him there. But Victory followed Death into the sepulcher. And only one came out. Victory. Jesus rose from the dead. He who is the Resurrection resurrected and defeated Death. Resurrection is the Victory over Death. If Jesus defeated Death, why does Death keep showing up? Why does Death apparently win? The Apostle Paul said the last enemy to be destroyed is death. This does not mean Jesus has not already defeated death. His empty tomb testifies He has. It means that we have not yet realized, experienced this victory and will not until we too are resurrected. Until that time, Paul says, Jesus is reigning and will do so until the Death He’s defeated, will be put under Him. Paul goes on to explain this will happen at the resurrection of those who have died trusting Christ. Yesterday at the graveside service of one of our departed saints, I read a portion of the chapter (1 Cor 15) in which Paul elucidates the above. I read his declarative announcement of Death’s defeat, “Death is swallowed up in Victory.” I read on as Paul proceeds to taunt defeated Death, “O Death, where is your sting, O, Grave, where is your victory.” I read on as Paul gives thanks for that coming Victory and identifies from where it comes: “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Death may barge into the room. If so, Victory will follow. Victory’s coming. And Victory, not Death, is a beautiful thing. --Pastor Clifford Hurst