Good morning,
Last
week has given us a lot to think about when it comes to a very basic
challenge we all face. During the middle of the week we heard that a
teen from a near by community had ended his life in his families garage
without any warning to his friends and family. It seems that whatever
he was facing was so difficult that he had somehow conquered the fear of
death and ended his life himself. On Saturday we were told of a young
woman who had died of a drug overdose and on Sunday we read of a man who
stole a car from a parking lot and drove the wrong way down an
expressway and drove head on into an express bus. Had these and
countless others been set free from the fear of dying? Of course almost
everyone in the world is getting used to men and women who strap on
wearable bombs and go where they can join with groups of people and set
off their bombs to kill and maim as many people as possible. Our Media
outlets are flooding us with the stories of “noble people” who are
willing to give their lives in order to win the battle against their
“unfair enemies.” One old farmer in Gaza was quoted as saying, “ For me I
don't fear death because we are dying every single moment of this war. .
.” Have these people found a secret about death and dying that has set
them free from the fear of death or have they become so controlled by
the power of the devil that they believe the lie that there is nothing
to be afraid of on the other side of death? The enemy of our souls does
his best to keep telling his followers that you can’t trust the God of
the Bible, but his lies can never change the reality of God’s holiness
and his control of all of eternity.
The Lord also gave Marty and
me a wonderful example of a man who lived his life free from the fear of
death and who was used by God to lead many friends and coworkers into a
living relationship with our Savior. We had the privilege of attending
a memorial service for a man that Marty had known for most of her adult
life. This man was a city planner, a Bible study leader, a godly
husband and father, a church leader and a person who was always
available to talk to his friends about the freedom that Jesus had given
him to live life to it’s fullest. The whole service was a celebration
of the freedom and peace that had guided him through life once he came
to the point of trusting Jesus to save his soul. During the last days of
his life he was still concerned for the welfare of those around him,
and assured his friends that he was at peace with God’s plan for leaving
this life for the next. He wasn’t believing a lie. He was living out
the truth that set him free to live and die in peace. May the Lord give
us this genuine truth to share with those around us who are willing to
live and die believing a lie.
Hebrews 2:14 Because
God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also
became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only
by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of
death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their
lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
Roy Wisner
