We continue to think about the subject of eternity in our daily meditations. Erwin Lutzer tells the fable about a Baghdad merchant who sent his servant to the marketplace to run an errand. When the servant had completed his assignment and was about to leave the market, he turned a corner and unexpectedly met Lady Death. The look on her face frightened him so much that he left the marketplace and hurried home. He told his master what had happened and requested his fastest horse to get as far from Lady Death as possible—a horse that would get him to Sumera before nightfall. Later that same afternoon, the merchant also went to the marketplace and met Lady Death. "Why did you startle my servant this morning?" he asked. "I didn't intend to startle your servant—it was I who was startled," replied Lady Death. "I was surprised to see your servant in Baghdad this morning because I have an appointment with him in Sumera tonight."[1]
You and I have an appointment with death. We cannot run from it, and we cannot hide from it. We can only face it. “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Thankfully, there is a God in heaven who has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). We needn’t face death alone. Christ has told us that He will be with us until the end of the age.
When George Bush Senior was Vice President, he represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Communist Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, that Jesus who died on the cross best represented this life, and that this same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.[2]The leader of a Communist country was trying to stamp out all knowledge of Christ and His Word, yet even his wife was a secret believer with the thoughts of eternity in her heart.
Over the last few weeks, we have come a long way as we have explored what God says about our destiny and where we will spend eternity. We are made for more than the way this world is set up! We have an enemy that seeks to keep our minds occupied with things of this world alone. That enemy, Satan, desires to stamp out all thoughts of another life in Christ, a life that is better by far. He does not want us to focus on the eternal but wants us to be mesmerized only by the physical, material world in which we are in to keep us “duped” and ineffective. We are only passing through this present life and being prepared for another. Jesus said that even though a man dies, he shall live (John 11:25). You can deny the thoughts about eternity and tell them to shut up, but you cannot extinguish the inner knowledge that death is not the end. There is a God in heaven Who has not given up on you; He calls to you so that you may find your way to His home. "You shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13). Over the next few days, we will look at who we are and where we are going. Who are we? Jesus calls us His Bride, and He is preparing us for eternity with Him. Keith Thomas
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Taken from the series Insights into Eternity, found in the All Studies box. Click on the study The Wedding of the Lamb.