That Day Will Come

You can read the inscription, but this tombstone is for Euclid Houston Lamb, born in Bledsoe county, Tennessee in 1855, and died in Jackson county, Oklahoma in 1913. This remembrance stands in the Olustee Cemetery, Olustee, Oklahoma, a long way from his family home in the Tennessee mountains. He was 58 years old when he died.

Right now our country is in panic mode, if you keep up with mainstream media. Covid-19 virus has made the world stand on its head, and for good reason - the death rate is somewhere around an estimated 2%, because we don't have accurate figures on how many people in the world had the disease and survived. Mortality percentages are inaccurate if you can't tell how many survived the disease. Taking the number of known cases divided into the number of deaths is not an accurate knowledge base.

What people have forgotten is that everyone born, dies. We have a tendency to ignore:

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27 KJV)

They absolutely ignore the second half of that verse, many believing there is no God therefore there is no judgment because there is no proof. Let me assure you that the first part of that verse stands absolutely proven - birth leads to death.

We can mitigate some circumstances that lead to death. Euclid Lamb contracted black lung disease. He changed his lifestyle, moving from the mountains of Tennessee to the dry plains of western Oklahoma to be close to his daughter and her family. She was there because her mother-in-law had "consumption", which in her descendants is known as allergies and opens us to colds and flu, so her family moved from Tennessee to Oklahoma. Her son and his wife followed them, to. A small stream of people looking to improve health conditions, and every one of them eventually died.

We will, too. It may be from Covid-19, or maybe not. My son-in-law died in a senseless accident where an inattentive driver turned left in front of him. Had she not done so, he would have died in another way anywhere from a moment to half a century later. In any event, at any time, that day will come.

How do you face that fact? Do you have a will that divides up your earthly property? Have you made a directive that explains what treatments you will and will not accept to keep you alive? Most importantly, have you made the decision to accept God's offer?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18 KJV)

There is much, much more in the Bible, but these few verses sum up the action across time that provides for those who believe God:

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:5-8 KJV)

Jesus' disciples were not holy men who had prayed and waited patiently for God's answer to prayer. They were ordinary people doing ordinary jobs - liked by some, disliked by others. As He prepared to leave them, He knew they would question their faith, wonder what went wrong, and go back to the ordinary, even though He told them:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. (John 14:27-29 KJV)

Well, it came to pass. And they forgot what He said, having to be reminded:

And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, (Luke 24:3-8 KJV)

That day - the one appointed for all men that they will die, came for Jesus. He showed us what comes next. It's up to us to decide whether the Bible is truth or lies. Pascal's wager comes to mind, but is too long to discuss here and now. If you are interested in how to go further when someone considers the wager and says, "No - God doesn't exist," check out this article on Pascal's Wager Rejected. Then consider how prepared we really are for when that day will come for us. If the Bible is true and God not only exists but loves His creation - I'll be eternally grateful.