Ensign: He Died As He Lived

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.




AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                                       20 May 2016


Last night I finished a book with this title.


Considering that this morning it shot what I was going to write about to mid-November, I've found when God's still small voice speaks to me it's a good idea to pay attention. Documenting the events leading up to and detailing the final day of the earthly life of George Washington, He Died As He Lived (ISBN 0931917352) in under a hundred pages -- so if you can, pick it up and read it, it's good stuff -- takes him post-Revolutionary War general, post-presider at the Constitutional Convention, post-first President of the United States, owner and operator of Mount Vernon and looks at him ... particularly to an American audience, often as much as is possible, as a man.


We're guilty of making our heroes larger than life.


One of the things He Died As He Lived goes into in detail is Washington's own attitudes toward death and an afterlife. None of us are in the position we can ask him what he specifically believed -- through his letters and diaries and correspondence we see many references to God and heaven and divine providence, yet never a reference to Jesus Christ, as savior or redeemer or teacher or prophet or anything else. Does this mean Washington didn't believe as we inspired by the Rockwell painting of him kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge and raised on the ... let's be polite, the doctrine of "America is a Christian nation" want to believe he did?


I find "Christian nation" makes as much sense as "Christian soil", but it's soil. AND I digress.

"All scripture given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." From 2 Timothy 3:16-17, these verses in Paul's last recorded letter say all of the Bible is divinely inspired, but the fact that every word in the Bible is not God, Lord, or some other form of His Name -- heck, the Old Testament book of Esther has no references to God at all yet it's still there! -- makes it all no less inspired. So if you forgot to say "grace" before lunch today or missed a wake-up or bedtime prayer, you haven't lost your faith or your salvation.


Keep in mind that in the first century, chapters and verses didn't exist. These were letters.


When Paul's giving his last testament in the next chapter (2 Timothy 4) he says he's ready to go. Perhaps not quite with the stoic honor Washington claimed, but "I have fought a good fight, I have finished course, I have kept the faith:" (verse 7, where he says he didn't quit, and we twenty centuries later are still bearing the fruit of his effort) ranks up there with Washington's own recorded last words, "'tis well". But wait, there's more! "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Next verse. So not only can you and I as followers of Jesus Christ, even if we're not using His Name in every other word die as we have lived,

We can also live and never die,


David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch, and I hope it's encouraging too! If it's not or I'm not or you'd just like me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for ALL our needs, even when we don't know what they are. And let us pray too for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.

Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You also for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus Christ.

And I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.