Donna and I just returned from the funeral of a family member in Louisville. It was an elderly aunt Donna has known from childhood.

Of the small group that gathered I was the only non-Catholic included as a pallbearer. As we carried the casket into the church and placed it on the wheeled stand I took a seat next to Donna. It was interesting to sit with her as an adult in one of the same pews she used as a child. It was especially interesting for her to revisit childhood impressions of a funeral service and death.

What made it fascinating was the Catholic priest used the same scriptures we use. Here was a man talking about the return of Christ to the earth. He referred to Jesus as "the first fruit" of the resurrection. He even said the elect will be resurrected when Christ returns to the earth. Yet he also spoke of dear Aunt Dots as being in heaven with the saints. How can an educated man hold two beliefs that are so opposite? The answer is not complicated. The development of beliefs through a politically based religious system is inevitably flawed with incongruity. When politics opposes the Bible a man must choose. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." (Matthew 6:24) And it does no good to point the finger at other churches. The problem is common to all denominations.

He went on to talk of the trials Aunt Dots had endured. Her husband had contracted Sand-Flea Fever while serving in Iran during WWII. He had left the U.S. as a healthy young man committed to the ideals of freedom as our nation struggled against the tyranny of Nazism. He returned with an affliction from which he never recovered. Unable to handle his health crisis he turned to alcohol and died an early death leaving Dots a widow.

The priest talked about the rest she has finally achieved. He was right!

Throughout the Bible God speaks of rest. In fact, the Sabbath is representative of Rest. The real rest occurs when Jesus Christ returns to the earth to establish a millennium of rest symbolized by the 7^th day of the week.

Tomorrow we will express faith in the promise God gives to send His Son to give rest to the inhabitants of this earth. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "For somewhere in the Scriptures this is said about the seventh day: "God rested on the seventh day from all his work." (Hebrews 4:4 GNB)...As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day. For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. (Hebrew 4:9-10 GNB)

Until next time,