The somberness of this week, (remembering the sudden death of my sister)
stirs a sacred consideration/consciousness of The Inevitable;
Eccles.12:7
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
No argument of man can thwart what God has decreed,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Between Now and the moment When
our final breath transports us into the presence of God
we have the opportunity to Remember our Creator;
to repent from our sins and believe in Him!
Between now and when our final, fatal breath is drawn
When the heart yields its bower bent with hope and heartache's spawn
As earthly order ceases in the twinkle of an eye
And time's temporal lease is sealed with one eternal sigh
Between now and when we will slip from life, through death's sheer veil
When every former fellowship we knew is bound to fail
When the dark glass through which we peer dissolves in one felled breath
And the soul sheds its dust veneer unfazed by mortal death
Between now and when we will face the Crucial Certainty
Of stepping from Time's transient grace/place into eternity
How will we use each gifted chime, pouring from Favour's Fount
To pages sealed until non-Time, when we will give account
Between now and when What Will Be, WILL BE forevermore
We have fresh opportunity to prepare for the Shore
From which no bark returns to tell the world that it IS true
There is a Heaven or a hell when life on earth is through
Between now and when we will see God, who loves you and me
We ought to consider where we will spend eternity
And pay more earnest heed to truth's decreed and undeterred
From God, who grants us all we need through the Light/Life of His Word
Janet Martin
Eccles.12
Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the [a]difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,
“I have no pleasure in them”:
2While the sun and the light,
The moon and the stars,
Are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain;
3In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
And the strong men bow down;
When the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look through the windows grow dim;
4When the doors are shut in the streets,
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all the daughters of music are brought low.
5Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;
When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets.
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
7Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
8“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“All is vanity.”
9And moreover, because the Preacher was wise,
he still taught the people knowledge; yes,
he pondered and sought out and set[c] in order many proverbs.
and what was written was upright—words of truth.
11The words of the wise are like goads,
and the words of [e]scholars are like well-driven nails,
given by one Shepherd.
12And further, my son, be admonished by these.
Of making many books there is no end,
and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
14For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.
