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Death and All His Friends

REALITY
I am reminded this week of a certain reality which cannot be escaped: DEATH. I, and I believe many others, seem to function on a day to day basis as if tomorrow is guaranteed. It is somewhat cliché in Christendom nowadays to make such claim because we hear preachers say it all the time, “Do ya know where you’d go if you died today, sinner?!?! Don’t you know that every day is gift from God; today just may be your last, you are not guaranteed another day!!!” Something like this is preached in many pulpits every weekend and while it gets old to hear it over and over, there is a great measure of truth to it.

DEATH
As I am diligently working on a paper for my Hebrew class on Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (“The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring everything into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil”), I receive word that a classmate of mine was killed Tuesday in a motorcycle accident. Death, and all his friends, came over me like a chicken on a June bug.

It hits me every time this happens. Life is commonplace to us, but death is the ultimate reality. We know its coming, for we all have an appointment with Mr. Death. But it smacks me in the face when it happens “close to home.” Sadness, guilt, pity, doubt, wondering . . . these feelings flood over me as a sea billow over a helpless sea shell.

WISDOM FROM A WISE OLD MAN
The wise old man King Solomon had much to say. Hear this, “What does a man gain by all the toil which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.” What wisdom he had!

We are comfortable with life, until trajedy befalls us, and all his friends, enter into our lives. A brother dies, a mother has cancer, a sister is abused, a father is sent to prison, a son is murdered, a daughter is raped, and an unborn child is slaughtered.

Sin has caused a gaping whole in all of our lives. Sin causes death, and all his friends, to emasculate our lives. We can’t always stop it, we can’t always prevent it, rarely can we control it, for it is “’just life.”

In the Wisdom of Solomon, we see these words, “When all has been heard, fear God and keep his commands, for this is mankind’s all. Everything we do will be brought into judgment upon our deaths, every secret thing, and everything good or bad.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

THE GOOD NEWS
While the reality of death is always lurking near, for every last one of us, and even though sin has permeated all of our lives, we have a high priest who has gone before us to make right the things that have gone wrong. 1 John 2:1-2.

CONSIDER THESE WORDS:
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23

“But the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“And if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Romans 10:9-10

“For everyone who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

“We know that everyone who has been born of God (saved in Christ) does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God (saved in Christ) protects him, and Satan does not touch him.” 1 John 5:18

COME ONE AND ALL, receive the Living Water which is ETERNAL LIFE. Fear God, live by his teachings, and escape the sting of death, and all his friends.
SALVATION IS FOR ALL WHO BELIEVE, I beg of the Holy Spirit to work in your life to wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, the Risen Lord. And I pray this happens before death comes.

posted by Bryan Laramore @ 9:13 AM