There was once a guest speaker at the collegiate ministry I attend who was reading from Ephesians. While he was quoting the scripture he started getting emotional. He was reading Ephesians 2:1-6 when he started to express this emotion. The beginning of the passage talks about our earthly ways, how we were once a part of them, how we all have lived in a passion of the flesh. Paul goes on to talk about God and His love for us, how He makes us new, and how by grace we have been saved. The speaker explained that this passage made him emotional because his unsaved friends and family haven’t experienced that new life, that grace, and Gods’ great love. At the time this passage didn’t have much meaning, but recently the Lord has been showing me why this man got emotional when he read about the grace and goodness God gives us.
In my life I have had very little experience with knowing someone who has passed away. Death can be scary because it makes us reflect on whether or not we’ve done something with our lives. Whether or not we have fought the good fight or ran the good race like Paul would say. It makes you think about what you should have done or you should do. This hurts my heart because that means that there are so many people out there afraid of death.this should be exciting because when we leave this earth we get to go live with our Eternal Father. This such an awesome blessing.
I recently heard of someone passing away. My heart hurt for their family and I was overcome with sadness, but when I was praying for their family I felt this calming sense and security knowing that this man was saved. He is with our father, he is pain free and he fought the good fight. It is scary though when someone passes away because sometimes you don’t know if they are saved. You don’t know if they have been made alive with Christ like Ephesians says. It is scary to think about the fact some of the people we love the most in the world might not know our God and might not have the opportunity to experience Gods mercy and be with Him for eternity. To me that’s what is scary about death, not the fear of whether or not we have lived right, but the fact that there are people who haven’t been made new, or found that love.That is scary.
There is good in every situation though, so we should desire to prevent that fear. We should run our race, and rely on the Lord and teach as many people as possible about Him, because when someone we know dies we shouldn’t be afraid for them. We should celebrate their lives and the fact that they are now with our father. Death should motivate us to teach people about the transition they can make, the opportunity we have that is expressed in Ephesians.
