Endurance for the Journey, Featured, Hope

Then I thought in my heart,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said in my heart,
“This, too, is meaningless.”
For the wise man, like the fool,
will not be long remembered;
in days to come both will be forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise man too must die!
ECCLESIASTES 2:15-16 (NIV)



Solomon was right when he declared, “Like the fool, the wise man too must die!” But that’s where the similarities end, for life for the righteous doesn’t end at death. Joseph S. Flacks, a devoted Christian of the past generation, understood this well. He prepared a special postcard to be mailed to his friends upon his death. On August 1, 1940, he died and the cards were dated and sent out. Joseph’s message read:

Triumphant through Grace
This is to announce: I moved out of the old mud house (2 Corinthians 5:1).
Arrived in Glory-land instantly, in the charge of an angelic escort (Luke 16:22).
Absent from the body, at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6).
I find as foretold (Psalm 16:11), in His presence fullness of joy … pleasures forevermore!
Will look for you on the way up at the redemption of the body (Romans 8:23). Till then, look up!



For we know that when this early tent we live in
is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body),
we will have a house in heaven,
an eternal body made for us by God himself
and not by human hands.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:1 (NLT)



And we believers also groan,
even though we have the Holy Spirit within us,
as a foretaste of future glory,
For we long for our bodies
to be released from sin and suffering.
We, too, wait with eager hope
for the day when God will give us
our full rights as his adopted children,
including the new bodies
he has promised us.
ROMANS 8:23 (NLT)



On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

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Endurance for the Journey, Featured

All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
ECCLESIASTES 1:8-9 (NIV)



No verses better describe the plight of a person without God in his or her life than Ecclesiastes 1:8-9. Such a person is bored and itching for something more. But earth can never satisfy; it can never keep its promises.


It’s strange how people are bent on mad pursuit, making the same mistakes every day, hoping that life will someday reveal an answer, even though the experiences of most have taught them otherwise. Why do people keep seeking and pushing past the boredom? Because people have to.


Our seeking is a response to the stirring of a fundamental need that simply must be satisfied – our need for God. Every desire, longing, aspiration, hunger and thirst is no less than a desire for God.

JONI EARECKSON TADA



Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water
will soon become thirsty again.
But those who drink the water I give
will never be thirsty again.
It becomes a fresh bubbling spring within them,
giving them eternal life.”
JOHN 4:13-14 (NLT)



On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

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