Ready?

Have you ever noticed how we deal with death in our society?

First of all, we really don't deal with it very well. We try to avoid the subject or whistle past the graveyard by making jokes about it. The subject lies there in the back of our minds, only brought forth most rudely when it strikes close to home through a terminal diagnosis or by the death of someone close to us. Then, like it or not, we have to confront it. And it rattles our complacency to the very foundations.

I suspect there are many reasons we shove death into the closet of our minds and try to lock the door. For one thing, it means that we have to leave behind all that we know and care for in this life. Such thoughts are unbearable for many. Others are anxious about what lies beyond that dark passage. What's on the other side? The possibilities frighten us. Do we simply cease to exist? Is there a heaven and how do I get there? Is there a hell and how do I avoid it? Is there a judgment and how do I pass it? It's all quite scary. So, we return quickly to the games we play and continue to whistle.

There's a real problem though. The death rate among human beings remains constant. It's still 100%. Yep. The doomsayers are right. We're all going to die, sooner or later, of one thing or another. So, if that's the case, doesn't it make sense to get ready for it? The question then becomes: How? Now if you ask around you can find countless attempts to answer that question, all but one of them wrong. It's imperative, however, to make sure you find the right answer. So, what is the right answer? Actually, the question is: Who is the right answer? But then, you know where I'm going on this.

The right answer is Jesus Christ.

Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life, as he himself said; there is no going to the Father except through him. To Martha, following the death of her brother Lazarus, Christ asserted, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet he will live; and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." Bold words. He did back them up, though, by rising from the dead after suffering for our sins on the cross, offering us forgiveness of all our sins and the free gift of eternal life and all it holds.

Have you ever taken one of those multiple-choice tests where the instructions are to select the answer which is most correct? This is not one of those. Here, there is only one answer. And if you want to be ready for the day (or night) that death knocks at your door and delivers its summons, you need to come to Christ now. Tomorrow, as they say, may be a tad too late - disastrously late.

The Apostle Peter said, "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved."

I implore you - come to Jesus. Do it now.