Death: Google It

Apparently, the keyword, "death," has been showing up in Google searches a lot recently. It's no wonder. Death has been pretty much in our faces over the last three months.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

When things are going well for us we tend to live in the moment, and living in the present is a good thing to do--as long as living in the present moment doesn't interfere with our making plans for a good future.

It's funny that we are keen to plan for a happy retirement, but it doesn't occur to us to plan for a happy afterlife.  Death comes after retirement. And sometimes it takes us by surprise: for some of us, death will come before retirement. In any case, death is inevitable for all of us, and so it's worth doing some serious thinking about.

It's good to enjoy the present, but it's also good to plan for the future, not just the near future, but also for our ultimate future.

We probably avoid thinking about death, and what might come after, because we feel there's really nothing we can do about it. It's all a big mystery and we assume that means we should just ignore it.

Death is mysterious, for sure, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't explore that mystery. You might have noticed that Christians are more serene in the midst of the COVID 19 turmoil around us. They are less perturbed about the thought of death than others. There's a reason for that. Christians believe that God has given us information about death and the afterlife, and has urged us to prepare for it. 

In fact, God has provided the opportunity for a good afterlife for all of us. He's made a happy afterlife a free gift. All we have to do is choose to receive it.

Christians believe that, because God loves us, He has provided for us, through Jesus' life and death, the ultimate afterlife insurance policy.  Christians are less worried about death because they believe God's promise that if we put our faith in Jesus we will live "happily ever after."

This sounds simplistic.  But what if the simple answer is the true one? What if the answer to a happy afterlife is so simple a child can grasp it? Maybe the answer is worth pursuing?

Today's suggested Bible reading explains why Christians are able to relax into the present difficult situation, as well as into their future destination. It explains the process by which God has made eternal happiness available to us all.

Click on this hyperlink to read the explanation:  Our Eternal Hope

Should We Fear The End of The World As We Know It?

Some years ago, Jerry Jenkins and Tim LeHaye released a series of books called Left Behind.  The movie eventually followed, and it scared the hell out of some people.  The movie portrays a world thrown into chaos by the instant disappearance of a large part of its population.

The story works because it's intriguing to imagine the chaos that would occur if that many people, all over the world, instantly ceased to exist.  It's only a story, of course.  A preposterous one.  We shake our heads at the gullibility of movie-goers, but people who saw the movie were shaking in their boots.

There have always been naysayers--those who question the-end-of-the-world-as we-know-it.  They say, "Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 

II Peter 3:4

So far the questioners have been right.  The world has not ended.  Yes, there have been frightening events.  But every time a catastrophe happens the world hiccups, rights itself, and goes on as before.  So why should we fear the end of the whole world?

Christians say we should fear the end of the world because God says it will end. The end is not yet, but it's still predicted, and, according to the Bible, it will literally be earth-shattering when it does come:

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare."

II Peter 3:10

A Warning to be Heeded?

It's beginning to look like this warning should not be taken lightly.  Yes, the world has survived, for millennia, but there's no natural law that says it will go on forever. In fact there are serious indications that it might not.  

For the first time in recorded history, we have the technological capability to destroy the whole global community. We are no longer dealing with hiccups. Disasters that used to spread out in gentle ripples now hit us more like tidal waves that wash up on the shores of our own beachfront properties.  The bad things that happen in our world happen to us, individually and collectively as a human race, and those bad things continue to happen. 

Any one of them could be the last of the world as we know it.

So should we fear the end of the world as we know it?  It's a question the questioners question.  But maybe it's time we started questioning the questioners.

Thankfully, there is one good reason why we don't have to worry about the end of the world as we know it.  God's amazing grace gives us a warning.  There are reasons to fear, of course.  That's why John Newton says, in his famous hymn: "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear." It's God's grace that causes our hearts to fear, because that fear, if we confront the reality of it, can lead us to the only One who has the power and authority to relieve those fears.

For God loved the world so much that He gave us His Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

The story of Amazing Grace