Treasure In Clay Jars

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many… (Hebrews 9:27-28 NIV) My wife and I were talking about a celebrity who we learned had died recently. One of my first thoughts (as is customary) was “were they saved”? Did that person accept that Jesus died for their sins so that they could live forever in Heaven? Though neither my wife nor I could know the real answer to that question, if we went by the “evidence” of how that person lived their public life, then it appeared highly unlikely that a salvation conversion would have occurred in their life. If so, then their death was indeed a tragedy. Acceptance of Jesus is indeed the difference between life and death (for eternity). Look at this diagram below (taken from a previous publication by author Bruce Wilkinson). The size of the circle denotes the average life span of our present life on earth. The length of the line denotes the first .000...

One of the most searched for pages on this blog is a post titled "Funeral for Unbelievers" . I think it is obvious why this post is on search engines daily. People die everyday and unfortunately for most, they die as unbelievers in Jesus Christ as the savior for their sins. The Bible seems clear on the unfortunate fact that most who pass away die as unbelievers in salvation through Christ alone: Matthew 7:13-14 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. (NLT- italics mine).  I implore those who may be reading this post not to be among the larger group of the many mentioned in the above scripture; don't be one of the ones for whom someone will do a web search for your funeral for an unbeliever. Accept Christ's free gift of salvation. No matter how bad of a life you may...

It was with sadness that I read about the death of famed atheist Christopher Hitchens who died after a battle with cancer on Thursday December 15 th . As a Christian and a very flawed one at that, my “natural” instinct was to muse about how Mr. Hitchens is now face to face with the test of his theory of atheism. However I find myself praying for him and what he actually did with his waning days than anything else. Not many people are given an opportunity by God to basically know for some time that they are about to die before the actual moment of death. For most, death comes unexpectedly i.e. accidents, violence etc. rather than via protracted illness the latter stages of which are spent in Hospice care. According to the Bible, for those who die with minimal or little warning, a life lived apart from accepting salvation through Christ is followed in rapid fashion by death and then judgment from God on that life: …as man is destined to die once, and after that to face...

The passengers on the miracle crash landing of US Airways Flight# 1549 that landed in New York’s Hudson River recently evidently experienced a phenomenon that I’m sure many Christian air travelers have thought about once or twice. The high likelihood that when faced with imminent death, many people will involuntarily lose their veneer of independence from God, and call on His name for…salvation, mercy, miracles, repentance or all of the above. To be certain, many of the people who were on this US Airways flight recalled the praying that took place on that brief flight prior to impact with the river. This was captured by a passenger in this CNN.com news story below: After he (the pilot) told us prepare for impact, it was pretty evident we were not going to make the runway." At first, it felt like the plane was gliding, Berretta said, as if no engines were working."People started praying, and there was a lot of silence, and the realization that we were going in was really hard ...