A good name is better than a good ointment,
And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
It is better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting,
Because that is the end of every man,
And the living takes it to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter,
For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,
While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-4
Today I will enter a house of mourning. Today the physical body of my lifelong friend will be laid to rest. Today my friend, will make her last huge, in your face, call to the words of Christ and the truth of the gospel to her community and to those who claim to love her and her family. Today those who come to this house of mourning will have to face the reality that life is fleeting… that death comes to all men… and death is God’s loud shout to all mankind that sin is real, that flesh is weak, that we are not God, that we cannot stop the destruction that the choice of man put into motion way back in the garden…
But we can escape it in and through Christ!
This house of mourning is meant to cause the wise to sit back and reflect and look at their own life and take the death of this one to heart. It is meant to cause us to examine our own hearts, our own lives (or what we call “lives”) and ask ourselves… whether when we come we already know the Lord or not.
Am I really living?
If I were to step outside of my life and look at it from God’s point of view… are the things that I am investing my time, money, and energy into worth dying for? Will the things that I put effort into worrying about matter one hundred years from now… will they bear any measurement in eternity? If that were me laying there up front in this house of mourning, what would be said about my name, my character, my life.
What happens when we die?
You see something in us knows that this life, this world is not the end. Somewhere deep within the recesses of the places we can’t explain every man knows that there is more. No matter where you go on the globe, no matter the culture, the region, through our myths and legends and religions, and imagination we can see the reality that all mankind has a desire for eternal life… He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart… (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Is the Bible true?
Is the Bible really God’s Word to His creation? Is what is written about creation, about Adam and Eve, about sin, about the flood, about Abraham, about David, about Jesus… about us true? Is it true? Should I believe it? Should I trust this One who says He is the Only Way to heaven? Should I trust this One who claims He died for my sin, was buried, and was raised again in order to provide the way for my forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life? Should I trust the words of this book, even though the world mocks it, other religions condemn it, and I simply don’t understand it? Is the Bible true? Is Jesus the Son of God, Savior of all who will come to Him in faith and believe? Is He?
Am I honoring Christ with this life He has given me?
If my Jesus were to call me home right now, would I stand before Him ashamed? Have I taken His gift of the gospel and hidden it? Am I serving Him or myself? Am I using my life, talent, and spiritual gift, to equip the saints, the church, HIS body? Am I being a good and faithful steward with my money, time, and blessings? Am I sharing them or am I a hoarder of God’s goodness to me? Am I just sucking the life out of the church or am I being used by God to breath life into it? Am I living in obedience to Him and showing the world and my family and my friends by my own actions that I love Him and I believe Him and I trust Him with everything?
Last week I attended a D6 Conference. During the conference every once and a while they would pull someone up to ask them their story. They would ask how had the conference encouraged them… everyone was laughing and having a great time… and I sat there in tears thinking, “you want to know my story?”
I drove here after leaving the bedside of my friend who is dying… and left here on this earth behind her will be her young teenage daughter and elementary age son. They are close to the same age as my own children… and I cannot sit her knowing that, without asking God, If You took me tonight have I impressed Your Word on them enough? Have I taught them to love You with all their heart, all their mind, all their strength, all their soul… and to love others as themselves? Have I taught them to value You and Your Word more than anything in this world, not by my words alone but by how they have seen me live? Have I been purposeful to lay a biblical foundation in their hearts and minds, a foundation on which they will be able to stand in this world that is in open rebellion to Him? Have I impressed the gospel on them? Have I told them about sin and death and the lies of the devil and that Jesus Christ is their hope and their salvation? Do they know my story? Do they know how God called me unto Himself and brought me to the cross of Christ? If I leave this world tonight would they have peace knowing that I am with God?
All these questions flew through my mind as I sat there… and I pray that when you read my questions… you will make them your own.