THE THREAT OF DEATH

If you are like most people, you have had several encounters with bugs. Flies, bees, wasps, spiders, beetles, ants, and our favorite, ROACHES :O) We have all experienced these uninvited guests at picnics on food, on the dashboard of your car on a sunny day with the windows down, or in the cabinet of your kitchen to tell you how many cans of corn you have left. Those pesky little roaches! Regardless of which bug you remember the most or dread the most, they all have one thing in common as it relates to us as humans: THE FEAR OF DEATH. The first thing that happens immediately when a bug senses danger or the threat of death is RUN! They fly away, scurry under a rock, seek to crawl back in the wall where they came from to get out of sight from the perceived predator. For even a bug has sense enough to preserve themselves. A bug too then, wants to keep on living. And, bugs have no idea as to what is about to take place when they are seen by you and me. We are not interested in the many legs they have, the colors they come in, or the sounds they make. DIE BUG DIE is music to our ears! Thus, a bug’s death comes suddenly upon them and they cease to bug no more. Thank God we are not bugs! The true reality is that humans and bugs not only die but die the same. Death is death. Death stings. The sting of death exists for two reasons. One, we do not know when we are going to die just like the bug. Death comes suddenly upon us. And reason number two, we do not know how we are going to die. Yes, according to the Bible in many passages of scripture the same message concerning our death as humans rings over and over again. Jesus said it like this: Luke 17:34-36 KJV “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” Jesus also said it like this: Revelation 3:3 KJV “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Paul said it like this: 1 Thessalonians 5:2 KJV “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” James said it like this: James 4:13-14 KJV “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Peter said it like this: 2 Peter 3:10 KJV “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” Hebrews says it like this: Hebrews 9:27 KJV “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Solomon said it like this: Ecclesiastes 9:12 KJV “12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.” I think Solomon paints a picture that you and I can relate to today. Death comes suddenly to animals. Death comes suddenly to bugs. Death comes suddenly to humans. The truth about God is that He never leaves us as His most prized creature of all creation in the dark. That’s right folks! God tells you the end beforehand. Before you and I were old enough to read, the word of God was written. The end of our lives has already been predestined before the foundation of the world. Ecclesiastes 12:7 KJV says “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” I have given you 7 blocks of text in the Bible that plainly tell the truth of how death comes. The sting of death is that it happens suddenly and without warning. That’s scary. What’s even scarier is that this “threat” or factual reality of death is not scary enough. The thing about fear is that it has to be near, imminent, or fresh! For example, if you knew you were going to get beat next week for something you did today it would not bother you as much. But if you were waiting in the room to get beat any minute you would be literally trembling and crying! Remember those days? Even though at any moment we can die we do not live that way. We live as if we have time. We live as if we are safe. We live as if we are in control. We live as though the preventative measures we have put in place are sufficient to keep us alive and allow us to anticipate death or even preserve our death. Finally, the threat of death is not really a reality for those who reject Jesus Christ, the only true and living God. Rejecting Jesus does not erase truth. Denying Jesus does not change truth. Including Jesus and mixing Jesus with other beliefs does not change truth either. The truth is hell is as real as heaven is. For example, even though you cannot see my kidneys does not mean they don’t exist. Death is nothing to fear itself, in that we must die in order to return to God. This is where He will judge us and render to each on according to His own deeds. Death is a reality for all humans and, the reality of death is that you do not control when or how you will die. However, while you are alive you do have complete and total control over where you go when you die. You can accept the truth or reject the truth. Accepting the work of salvation through the blood of Jesus gives you eternal life. Eternal life is only in Jesus. The heaven that has been glamorized in pop culture and the world is not a place where everyone goes. It is not a place where anything goes. It is not a place that all beliefs and religions can produce. The gods of these thousands of religions have never shown themselves or proved themselves to this day. Translation? They do not exist. Jesus existed. Jesus proved He was God in the flesh. Jesus lives today to do things in the lives of all those who are biblically living for Him. So to reject Jesus is to reject eternal life is to reject heaven because He is the only Way to heaven because He is the only true and living God that exists and has always existed. Is the threat of death and the uncertainty of when and how you will die motivating enough for you to live the way God created you to? Time is ticking. Every second 1.8 people on planet earth die. You could be next before you know it!