Death and Drawing Nigh

As I was reading Jeremiah Burroughs’s Gospel Worship this week, I was encouraged by what he had to say, though briefly, on the relationship between our friendship with God and our response to death (45).  I often end up praising God for His hand of protection when I am driving because I am continually amazed by the amount of people who do not die in car accidents each day.  While I am grateful for this life, Jeremiah Burroughs challenges me to evaluate how I think of death and whether I am looking forward with confident hope to communing face to face with God or whether I am neglectful of my God and thus would rather not meet Him just yet.  As Christians, our “drawing nigh” to God should be such a consistent and valued part of our life that death is the more perfect continuation of that and thus not a source of fear but of joy (45).  As he continues to talk about “drawing nigh” to God, Jeremiah Burroughs says, “There must be preparation for the worship of God.” (52) If I have not prepared for corporate worship in the ways instructed in the Word of God, how do I approach corporate worship?