新视域的力量
铁一般的事实！
经文
提摩太后书四1-8
1我在神面前，并在将来审判活人死人的基督耶稣面前，凭着他的显现和他的国度嘱咐你：
2务要传道，无论得时不得时，总要专心；并用百般的忍耐，各样的教训，责备人、警戒人、劝勉人。
3因为时候要到，人必厌烦纯正的道理，耳朵发痒，就随从自己的情欲，增添好些师傅，
4并且掩耳不听真道，偏向荒渺的言语。
5你却要凡事谨慎，忍受苦难，作传道的工夫，尽你的职分。
6我现在被浇奠，我离世的时候到了。
7那美好的仗我已经打过了，当跑的路我已经跑尽了，所信的道我已经守住了。
8从此以后，有公义的冠冕为我存留，就是按着公义审判的主到了那日要赐给我的；不但赐给我，也赐给凡爱慕他显现的人。
信息分享
圣经说不敬虔的人的死亡是可怕的，不过，圣经对义人的描写却十分不同。即使好像巴兰这样的一位坏先知，也看到敬虔人的死是有所不同的。且听听他在民数记二十三章10节所说的话：「我愿如义人之死而死，我愿如义人之终而终。」箴言也表达了同样的一个思想：「但义人的路好像黎明的光，越照越明，直到日午」（四18）。
我听过一位讲员说，他所见过的一位最快乐妇人是一位垂死的妇人，在死亡来到的那一霎那她躺在床上拍手。很多人来看她那临终明亮的表情，她说：「他们说这是死亡，但这不是死亡，这是生命。」结果许多人在她床边决志信主，包括她的儿子在内。
有一位名叫贝尔（W Cosley Bell）的神学家，当他感到自己快要离开世界的时候，把以下的话转达他任教大学的职员，他说：「请告诉那些年轻人，我一生所度过的每一年肯定了我对神更深入的信仰，我从来没有比现在更加确信。为甚么能够这样呢？只因为那是事实，铁一般的事实。我很高兴我没有丝毫的退缩或犹豫；我一生都在传讲和教导这些真理，而我确实很兴奋能够找到我们一直所相信以及所盼望的。」那就是死亡为甚么不可怕。约翰．卫斯理（John Wesley）为早期循道会的人作出最自豪的宣告说：「我们的人死得好。」
「我们的人死得好」
进深研究
提后一1-12；林前十五45-58
1. 保罗的见证是甚么？
2. 为甚么信徒对死亡没有惧怕？
祈祷
天父，耶稣的空坟墓粉碎了我们的恐惧，并把我们的盼望变成真理。那空坟墓的的确确是永恒的出生地。因为耶稣活着，我也会活着。我要永远感谢您。阿们。
The Power of a New Perspective
"It's a dead certainty!"
Bible reading:
2 Timothy 4:1-8
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Message
There can be no doubt that the Bible presents the death of the ungodly as being terrible. How differently, however, does it portray the death of the righteous. Even a hireling prophet like Balaam, bad as he was, recognised that there was something different about the death of the godly. Listen to his words in Numbers 23:10: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his" (NKJ). The book of Proverbs puts the same thought in this way: "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day" (4:18).
I heard one preacher say that the happiest woman he had ever seen was a dying woman. She lay on her bed and clapped her hands at the approach of death. Very many people came to look at her bright countenance. "They tell me this is death," she said. "It's not death at all - it's life." People were converted by her bedside, including her son.
A theologian by the name of W. Cosley Bell, when he sensed that he was about to leave this world, sent these words to the staff of the college where he was employed: "Tell the young men that I've grown surer of God every year of my life, and I've never been so sure as I am right now. Why it's all so! It's a fact - a dead certainty. I'm so glad I haven't the least shadow of shrinking or uncertainty. I've been preaching and teaching these things all my life and I'm so interested to find that all we've been believing and hoping is so." That is the way to die. One of John Wesley's proudest claims for the early Methodists was this: "Our people die well."
"Our people die well' "
Prayer
Father, the empty tomb of Jesus makes all our fears lies, and all our hopes truths. That empty tomb is the birthplace of eternal certainty. Because He lives I shall live also. I am eternally grateful. Amen.
Further study
2 Timothy 1:1-12
1 Corinthians 15:45-58
1. What was Paul's testimony?
2. Why is there no fear in death for the believer?
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