Death

‘You are gods,’

Valerie Cullers 44 Comments

 

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“I said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High, but you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Psalm 82:6-7

A few weeks ago, a noted sports celebrity died in a helicopter crash. It was Sunday morning and I turned on the computer to look at the news. I read the article and was in shock. I then told my husband and he felt the same way. Afterwards, I began to analyze my feelings about his death. Why was I so shocked by it?

The more I thought about it, this verse came to mind and I realized why I felt the way I did. Those among us, the best and the brightest, those that receive the most notoriety; we place them in a different category than ourselves. Unconsciously, we give them Superhuman status, a god-like status. We start to believe they are different from the the rest of us, that somehow they are immune to the same laws of physics that we are.

When a John Denver dies because his plane crashes without fuel or when a John Lennon dies because he is shot, we are in shock. We wonder, how can this happen to them? Surely, they are better than we are and they will not have to suffer the same fate as we do. When a famous athlete dies in his prime, we cannot believe it at first. Surely, his pilot could have navigated in thick fog without ground mapping radar. But alas, it is not true.

As I said before, we do not do these things consciously. The more media attention a person gets, the better they are in their field, the more gold medals they win; we begin to elevate them to a god-like status. We would do better if we could hold a more realistic view of them.  The Scripture says, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

In the end, they are after all, human just like the rest of us. 

The Check Out Line

Valerie Cullers 48 Comments
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Early last week, my step-brother passed away, he checked out. He was younger than I am, and by rights, he shouldn’t have been the first one to die, but he was. I hadn’t seen him for years so I don’t really know where he stood spiritually.  He did however, let me pray for him a few weeks before he passed. The doctors told him he had a limited amount of time and so he had the opportunity to prepare spiritually for his turn in line. They gave him six months to live but it was only two weeks before his name was called at The Check Out Line. 

You see, we are all waiting our turn at The Check Out Line. The Check Out Line is not linear and it seems random at times. You would think the first people in would be the first to check out but The Check Out Line doesn’t work that way. Sometimes those who have been in a relatively short amount of time are the first to go. Since none of us knows exactly when our name will be called, we must ask ourselves the obvious question, “Am I ready to check out?”

Lots of people think they are ready to check out but they aren’t. Those that don’t believe in God or life after death think they are ready. Those that believe that “if they are a good person” think they’re ready. Those that believe we have lots of chances at The Check Out Line think they are ready also…but they are not. The Bible says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. ” Hebrews 9:27-28. 

We all need to make sure we are ready for The Check Out Line. There IS life after death and we must all face Jesus, the righteous Judge of the universe when we check out. He will of course look at what we have done with the lives he gave us but the most important question will be, “What did you do with the free gift of salvation I offered you?” He DID die on the cross for our sins and He offers us eternal life with Him in heaven. If we want to spend eternity with Him, we must choose Him before it is out time to check out.