July 11, 2006

Welcome to the late edition of of the church growth, mission, and evangelism blog. I couldn't get on the net today and I had a two hour band rehearsal tonight. So I'm late.

Let's continue with our discussion of death and the life there after.

What ever happened to Hell? As attitudes toward death and dying changed, another significant shift began to take place within the human family. The reality of Satan was increasingly ignored or discarded as myth. Hell, in the eyes of unbelievers and even some believers, was abandoned. As hell was becoming for many no more than a swear word, sin was also an accepted way of life. If people can ignore what the Bible calls sin, then they can quite logically discount what it says about the reality of Hell.

 

Why do members of organized churches have such a low assurance of heaven? Could it be that in our description of heaven that we have failed to mention the horrors of its alternative? Or have we even neglected the whole question of life after death by emphasizing only this life? Just because people don’t believe in hell doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. If there is no Hell, then Jesus lied.

 

If the Bible is true, we know that there is abundant life after death for the followers of Christ. Those who have accepted His grace and been saved will be with Him in heaven.

Jesus said to fear him who after the killing of your body has the power to throw you into Hell. It refers to God because Satan cannot throw you into Hell. Sin is eternal separation from God and can only be pardoned by the death of Christ on the cross.

 

The king of terrors. Age and circumstances often dictate the degree of fear a person may feel when facing death. Sometimes the fear of death grows significantly with age. Fear is universal in all times and places. It is a normal human response to the unknown. And the experience of death is an unknown.

 

Eighty percent of people die in hospitals or convalescent centers. Dying has become a lonely business. Most hospitals do their best to conceal the fact that a patient might be dying and when the end draws near, they isolate him or her from family and friends.

 

Some believe that telling the truth to a person who is dying is destructive to his morale. This deception is practiced by the medical community thinking that they are being kind. The conspiracy of silence is based on the assumption that people don’t want to talk about death, especially their own.

 

The truth is that all of us are going to die and the conspiracy of silence cannot change that fact. Most of us have a desire to hang on to physical life as long as possible. Many stories abound about a person’s desire to hang on for a certain event. Terminally ill people tend to hang on to life until they reach some date that is important to them-a wedding anniversary, a birthday, or religious holiday.

 

There are many who die prematurely, having reached a point in their lives when they feel that they have no more goals left. Idle retired people reportedly have a shorter life span than those who continue with purposeful activity. More than likely it is the process of dying that frightens people and not death itself. Death may be like that. Its power to terrorize fades as we near the actual moment of passing.

 

One of the most common attitudes toward death is denial. Another approach to death is to laugh. Humor becomes the protective mechanism that allows us to laugh at ourselves and defy the specter of death. Then there is irrational fear. Christ, through His death on the cross, broke the power of the devil to hold us in the fear of death.

 

Fear is a very painful emotion, one which may immobilize us or cause more pain than a physical blow. The greatest fear comes when God is a stranger. When we fear God, we don’t cringe before Him like a prisoner. Our fear is a love which causes us to treat Him with respect. Like a little child putting his little hand in the bigger hand of his father, it is the sort of fear that fosters trust. Likewise God asks us to put our trust in Him.

Again thanks for visiting. Please stop by www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org . Look for our podcast tomorrow. It will be a good one. Thanks and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery