Thursday, August 09, 2007

And He Died

Genesis 5:5 KJV
And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
And he died.....


It had more than likely been more than nine hundred since God had told Adam and Eve "in the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die." Since Adam and Eve had personally fellowshipped with the Lord I imagine they knew they died that first day, when that fellowship was gone. But I wonder if any of their children began to believe they had won over God. Nine hundred years is a long time!

But they did die.
God had not forgotten
Sin's effects on the body had not softened
The judgment had not crumbled over time

They died.

And so did all of there children
Seth died
Enos died
Cainan died
Mahalaleel died
Jared died


Later
Abraham died
Moses died
David died


Later yet
Matthew died
Mark died
Peter died

Farther down in history
Washington died
Benjamin Franklin died
Lincoln died


More recently
My grandparents died
My Aunt
My cousin died

I have had
Friends die
Church members die
Preacher contemporaries die

One day, all too soon someone will say
You and I died

I find that people deal with the subject of death differently
Some ignore it
They do their best to forget that death is an inevitability. They try not to think about it. They avoid anything that confronts them with it

Some try to cheat itThey either live life as dangerously as they can, thinking that by escaping death through their voluntary escapades, they have somehow reached a sort of immortality. Or else they see if they can keep it away as long as possible through healthy eating and activity.

Some explain it awayThey think of mankind as nothing more than an animal. When we die we just cease to exist and thus, ours is to live the best life we can before we are gone.

Some see it through rose colored glasses
They tend to think that there is a better world out there for everybody and in the afterlife, no matter what our life has been like today, everybody will get to enjoy the bliss of eternal heaven - by whatever name they choose to call it.

The wise prepare for itDeath is the most sure event in any person's life. It is the equalizer of all mankind. No one escapes it.

And the Bible makes it very clear that it is after death that the real judgment is.
Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom
The rich died and, in hell lift up his eyes.

We can prepare for death
By being saved.Romans 10:13
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
By laying up treasures in heaven
Matthew 6:19-21
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

By adding to our faith
2 Peter 1:5-11
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

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