His coming affects all of us. "The flood came and took them all away." Death is universal. We must learn to talk about death and dying in the church and not outsource end of life issues to healthcare systems. In medicine, death is the ultimate enemy, and we expend much effort to stave it off. This is why we put everyone on life support the moment any organ begins to fail, and why we offer chemotherapy to patients dying of widely metastatic cancer.

Others may question it by asking "why"? We live in a schizophrenic society where in theory the secular citizen is a moral relativist (I decide what is right or wrong for me and you can decide what is right or wrong for you), but in practice and interaction with those we disagree with we are moral absolutists. We believe that our moral values are right and yours are wrong if they disagree with mine. This is why we have increasing polarization in our culture.

That is what a marriage is meant to be, but because of the depth of our sin, we fall far short of that ideal. True marriage requires faithfulness and unselfishness. Where there is mutual joy in the marriage relationship the temptation to adultery has no power.

Last Wednesday we decided to evacuate to Valdosta, Georgia with a view to returning on Saturday. However we could not find accommodation for Friday night in the area. Viewing the slow progress of the storm it became apparent that returning to hold Sunday services was impracticable as most of our congregation had evacuated and we did not know whether the roads would be cleared enough to get to the Chapel. After that decision was made we had to find accommodation for the weekend.