Club
Like it or not, you're expected
Save for sex, there are more euphemisms about dying than any other subject. Christians like to talk about Tailgating with Jesus, while telephone workers make reference to placing one last call from the horizontal phone booth.
Musicians like to speak of going to see the fat lady sing, while computer programmers like to say that their fallen installed the Kevorkian Plug-n-Play. Corporate minded individuals refer to dying as being Downscythed, while the pro-abortion crowd sugarcoats the murder of the unborn calling it the right to choose. And every writer has to make the final deadline.
However you describe your impending trip to Club Mud, one thing is certain: every tombstone has a start and a stop date, and for good reason. Along with taxes, it is one of the certainties of life. As a corporate motivational speaker once quipped, “No one gets out of here alive.”
Those who die “in Christ” can really be called the grateful dead. In Revelation 1:5, the Lord Jesus is referred to as, “the firstborn from the dead.” How comforting that Jesus could say to the Apostle John, in Revelation 1:18, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, never spoke of dying. He called it “being promoted,” and with good reason. Revelation 14:13 promises, ”Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”
Good news! One day, even death will be ”Downscythed,” reclassified as a former thing. Revelation 21:4, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Death will get a taste of its own sting when, according to Revelation 20:14, “Death and Hades (are) cast into the lake of fire.” 1 Corinthians 15:26 states, “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” The church triumphant shall shout and rejoice, according to 1 Corinthians 15:54, “Death is swallowed up in victory!”
The great hope offered by the Christian Gospel is found in Romans 6:5. “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” The fear of death has held the entire human race in the slavery of the bondage to fear. Hebrews 2:14, says that Jesus, “Through (experiencing) death might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Verse 15 continues promising, “release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
2 Corinthians 5:8, “To be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” At death, those who love Christ go to be with him ready to rule and reign forever.
Each of us has a reservation waiting for our membership in Club Mud. Don’t die without making Jesus as Lord of your life. Remember Psalms 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints.”
Give your life to Christ. Join the undead generation.
Bryan Hupperts © 2009
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