Death

So i've been thinking about the topic of death lately, and the trains have led me to some intruiging concepts. Firstly, i was inspired to see what a perfect object lesson God made in sending His son to die with His arms stretched wide on the cross. The picture is of God the Father holding one of his Son's hands, and all of sinful mankind holding Jesus's other hand. Christ spanned the divide between God and man, something no man can do for another and surely not any man do for himself. Christ is the Man for which Job longed: "Neither is there a mediator between us, that might lay his hand upon us both" (9:33). And this is the Man whom God gave: "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). God is our Creator, Lord and righteousness, and through Christ is God's righteousness made available to us.
Amazing are the ways of God!
On a side note, Hebrews 7:25 is a great verse to get into your heart because when you doubt that you're 'worth it' you can remember that Christ is at God's right hand interceding for you, always. You are God's righteousness, and just as God's righteousness shall never be abolished (Isaiah 51:6) so His work in you shall not be abolished, either. You are worthy, dear child: What greater statement of your value can be given that would exceed the statement of the death of God's own son for you?
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While watching the movie King Arthur tonight, I heard a line that stirred me to ponder something i read from Titus last week that also relates to death.
Pelagius told me once that there is no worse death than the end of hope.
The end of hope is the worst death. Not the end of the body, not the end of worldly achievements. Pelagius (a real guy; Aristotle mentioned him) might have borrowed from Paul here: "For if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 3:17). The essence of the Christian is his hope for eternal life. Strip him of possessions, acquiantances, skin and blood, til he have one thing left in this life, and that will be his hope of being an heir of eternal life through grace (Titus 3:7).
Yet I pay this blessing so little attention. Dear God, instill in me a myriad of praises for the sure hope of salvation. For i shall take one thing with me from this world when i die: my hope -my assurance-of salvation.
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I did the earlybird thing this morning--up at 4:30 AM, drive to Peru and launch off on another wonderful day of pipeline patrolling. A coyote was in the middle of the runway directly in front of me as I lined up for takeoff, but he soon moved off. I handled most of the radio today, including talking to Midway control tower. The adrenaline charged up my wits as I asserted my request amongst the frenzy of communications by the Big Boys. "Chicago Midway tower, Diamond Star 289 Delta-Sierra 10 to the southwest on pipeline patrol" came out smoothly and rapidly with no slurs or smothering of the words. It felt good to be competently communicating with one of the busiest airports in the States. Anchorage and now Chicago are in my pocket. Who's next?
I flew a short day today--only eight hours because some weather moved in and the temp at altitude fell to 2 degrees above freezing. I did all our landings today by myself, and well. The trick with this airplane is that it's really low to the ground, the flare attitude is just a few degrees nose-up, and you don't stall-and-fall it on the runway; you slide it in. It's like landing a large pancake.
We hope to get another west trip done this week, the one thru Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. WPPW.
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A dear old friend and I talked tonight for a half hour, and that added to the many happy things that came my way today. I hope she'll find time from her homework to read this and leave a comment to tell me she was here!