DEATH,
INEVITABILITY OF

I’VE GOT bad news for you. Unless Jesus comes back, you are going to die. Your death will not be delayed because the Bible says you die by appointment. You are going to die.

Death today can look fairly nice. The folks down at the funeral home know how to get us looking fairly good when we are dead. The funeral parlors have professional makeup artists who dress you up and make you look good. I’ve seen some people look better dead than they ever looked alive. But they’re still dead.

Dead people used to be put into crude wooden boxes and carried around in horse-drawn carriages. You don’t die like that today. Nowadays when you die, you die in style. We’re talking bronze caskets lined with linen. If you die before you’ve had a chance to put your head on a satin pillow, no worries. Now’s your chance. Always wanted to ride in a limousine? You’ve got it—a fleet, in fact. You will stop traffic that day. People will pull over just because you are riding by. But you’re still dead.

Back in the day, the coffin would be lowered into the ground by ropes tied around the top and the bottom of the casket. Today, there are no ropes; a nickel-plated machine eases you down. They don’t want to wake you up so you get put six feet under in the most comfortable way possible. But you’re still dead.

Whether it’s a coffin or a casket, a limousine, or a horse-drawn carriage, a nickel-plated machine or a rope, you are still dead. A fancy death doesn’t change that reality.

What death should do is promote the idea of not wasting time in life. The older you get, there should be certain things you don’t have time for because you realize that you are losing time every day. You can’t waste it.190

[Time, Perspective on; Life, Management of]

Ps. 90:12; Heb. 9:27

ONE DAY a man came face-to-face with death. He was standing on the corner and death walked by. Death looked a little bit surprised, but he kept on going. Terrified, the man went and asked an old wise man what he should do. “I just saw death a second ago. He looked shocked to see me. What should I do?“

The old man said, “If I were you, I’d run to the next city in a hurry.”

So the man got up and ran as fast as he could to the next city. As soon as he crossed the city line. he ran into death. Confused, he said, “I just ran into you yesterday and left the city to get away from you!”

Death said, “Yeah, I was surprised to see you yesterday too, especially since I’m scheduled to meet you today right here.”

There’s just nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Death has the ability to find you wherever you are.191