Based on John 14:1-6 (New King James Version)
“‘Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
This is one of the most widely used passages for Christian funerals. We even hear this passage read in the movies when there is a funeral. Unfortunately, it seems like it’s the only moment that it’s taken into consideration. When a person leaves this world, or when we ourselves are close to that step is when we start thinking about the end. When I have tried to share the Gospel with some people, and I start trying to share with them about giving their lives to the Lord, they quickly reply: “I’m not dying!” But also, unfortunately, that may be far from the truth.
The truth is that each person that is born into this world has already started that process. Cells grow and cells die every day. According to an article found in UCSB Scienceline, approximately 300 million cells die every minute in our bodies. Each day that goes by, we are getting closer to that moment when we will leave this place. As the days, hours, and minutes go by, there is a clock somewhere that only God knows about counts down in a similar manner. Everyone is unaware of when their time will come.
The majority of people think that it will happen when they are old, full of years, and when they nothing else left to do. Reality is something else. The information we have in the US through the CDC says that there were 2,744,248 deaths in 2016. Of that amount, 769,634 deaths were related to things that happened suddenly, such as heart disease or accidents. If we see them by age group, 57,616 people died that year between the ages of 25-34; 77,792 died between the ages of 35-44, and 173,516 died between the ages of 45-54. To put it into perspective, during the time the US was involved with the war in Vietnam between 1955 and 1973, 58,318 of their soldiers died. So then, in 2016 (in just one year), nearly the same amount of young people died between the ages of 25-34 than US soldiers during the whole Vietnam war. So, according to statistical facts, a person should not live in the ignorance that everything will turn out just like they think it should be or desire to. By coincidence, my father was one of the 2,744,248 deaths that were registered in the US that year. As such, I know through my own experience what those numbers mean.
The Bible describes the uncertainty that exists in the following manner: “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3. So, this could be fulfilled in one of two ways: Either the Lord comes for His people through what many know as the Rapture, the event where the Lord will physically take to Himself in the clouds both the dead and living in Christ, or when the Lord allows for a person to die individually, because it is God that allows for life to end. Absolutely nothing happens without His involvement, and no one is exempt.
Having said that, how should a person live this life if the reality is that the anything can happen to anyone at any time? Should they get depressed and let everything fall apart because it will all end anyways? Should they do the complete opposite and live party to party, and from one emotion to the other because it could all end in a moment? No, because neither way has any kind of wisdom. The Bible teaches us clearly that there is something much better after all of this (and here is where today’s passage comes in). No matter how much a person may think that this is all that is real, they are deceiving themselves. Even if the here and now is what we are living today, everything in this world is vanity as the Preacher said. So then, everything here is an illusion, and it goes by fast; much faster for some than for others, but everything will pass. So, the way we should live is like there was something greater after all of this, because there is something greater. And this is what a so-called believer should ask themselves, “Am I living with the conviction that there is a God and that there are better things after this? By what we see daily, it does not appear so.
This is not a criticism, but rather, an observation. Today, many believers live in such a way like if the Earth was all that matters. Gospels are preached and followed with this message. They look for the Lord more for the loaves of bread and fish, than for eternal life and eternal rewards. The Lord is only looked for so that He can tend to carnal and selfish petitions than for those things that are really God’s will. For it is written: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:1-4. So then, if you love the world and you only desire the things of the world, even though you might say you are a believer, that’s not what you are living.
Now then, no one says that you should not consider what the here and now because we do have to be responsible (I myself work to pay bills and to survive). Even the Lord Himself paid taxes (which many try to cheat their governments out of). Paul, Peter and the other apostles worked with their hands so they could support themselves and help others in need. So, through these examples, we see that we should do both: take care of earthly things, but with our eyes set on heavenly things, for it is written: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21.
So then, if your focus is only set on earthly things, in the end, that’s all you will have, and you will be excluded from heaven and everything eternal. But, if your focus is Christ, then you will obtain God’s promises. Where is the focus of your life? Lord bless! John