{"id":6829,"date":"2023-12-12T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T00:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=6829"},"modified":"2023-12-11T07:35:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T14:35:53","slug":"the-last-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=6829","title":{"rendered":"The Last Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wrote yesterday<\/a> about the passing of our friend and former pastor John Stevens. As if I needed another reminder of death, while attending a concert Sunday, I was shocked at the condition of a friend I hadn’t seen in five years. He had aged considerably when I saw him in 2018, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw Sunday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was standing in the lobby talking with his daughter, and she told me, “I’m waiting for my family.” A few minutes later, I looked and saw what at first glance appeared to be a walking cadaver. “Is that your dad?” She replied, “Yes. He’s declining rapidly.” Hunched over, pale, using a hiking stick for support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend and his wife ended up sitting right behind us at the concert, and we had a long talk during intermission. They couldn’t have been nicer. Only later did I realize that their end of the conversation was carried by his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend was a competitive runner and swimmer, a professional counselor, and a Bible teacher. The operative word is “was.” And he’s only six years older than I am…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King David said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am about to go the way of all the earth. (1 Kings 2.2, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15.26, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away…So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90.10, 12, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote yesterday about the passing of our friend and former pastor John Stevens. As if I needed another reminder of death, while attending a concert Sunday, I was shocked at the condition of a friend I hadn’t seen in five years. He had aged considerably when I saw him in 2018, but I wasn’t … Continue reading The Last Enemy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1M9","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6829"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6831,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6829\/revisions\/6831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}