Welcome to my 200th podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today. I have an unpopular topic on my mind today, but I hope it is fruitful. I think it is a good topic, and I think it shouldn't be so unpopular among Christian people, but it is complicated.

I'm sure you have a list of people you're praying for daily who are in very difficult situations due to sickness, disease, or a condition or complication that is life-threatening.

I can readily fill up both my hands counting off friends of mine who are suffering these ways.

In most of our prayers for these Saints, the main theme is suffering these

Saints the main theme is healing. We want them to be well and this is good of course. But as Christians

we also want them to be spiritually prepared, and we want to be

spiritually prepared if God intends for this illness or this condition to be the

means of their death. And that is the unpopular topic not to be mentioned. I've been reading

a book with some friends that I would like to recommend to you all on this topic, no matter your

age. Sure, my friends are all in their 60s or 70s, but a lot of the people I know who are suffering are young moms. Some of the sufferers are old, but you know age doesn't really matter.

This is a topic that is important for all Christians of all ages. We know of Saints who died suddenly without any warning. We also know

intellectually anyway that each of us has an appointment. It is

appointed for men to die once, Hebrews 927.

So, just like it was appointed for us to be born, God has our death on our calendars.

So even though we don't like to talk about death, that doesn't mean it isn't

ever on our minds. So the book I am going to promote and encourage you to read is called Oh Love that Will Not Let Me Go,

which is a great title for a book but the subtitle is

facing death with courageous confidence in God.

It's a very encouraging book on a topic that few want to discuss.

The editor is Nancy Guthrie, and the book is a collection of adapted sermon and book excerpts by well-known contemporary and historical figures, mostly pastors and theologians. to name just a few, J. I. Packer, John Piper, Martin

Lloyd Jones, Abraham Kuiper, R.C. Sproll, and a heavy presence of Puritan preachers,

including John Owen, Richard Baxter, Richard Sibbs, and more.

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