Famous people die, too
June 30, 2009 (Tuesday)
Several well-known people have died recently. Two of them – Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson – died on the same day. Others were Ed McMahon and Gale Storm. Billy Mays, television pitch man for various well-known products, also died. Huey Long, one of the Ink Spots singers, died in June at 105 years of age. Farrah Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi and her parents moved to Houston when she went away to UT. She produced a television movie that chronicled her bout with cancer. Gale Storm went to San Jacinto High School, my old school, too, in Houston. Huey Long sold mementos from his entertainment days on weekends in the Heights on 20th Street, until relatively recently. Michael Jackson’s death has received the same type of publicity that was given to Elvis Pressley. All these people are now dead.
The rich and famous die. So do the poor and unknown. We all die.
Every time I repeat that little phrase, “we all die,” I cannot help but think of Paul’s word to the Thessalonians, “we shall not all die.” What did he mean? He meant that the Second Coming of Christ will be a miraculous event for those living when it happens. The phraseology he uses describes the new body given to each Christian as an “overcoat.” The new body simply swallows up the present body. Those alive when Christ returns will not die. When Christ comes, the dead shall be raised with new bodies, and those alive will also be given new bodies, and both shall be caught up into the heavens to meet the Lord there.
Except for those transformed at the Second Coming of Christ, everyone else shall die.
We are urged to make preparation for this final certainty. And many conscientious people do prepare. They buy insurance, the make pre-arrangements with the funeral home, they try to make sure their estate is in good order so that their loved ones shall have all they need, they prepare wills, and they do many other things as well, in light of the inevitability of death.
Many people go farther in their preparations for death, and prepare to meet God. There is only one way to be totally prepared to meet God, and that is to meet him in Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). When we are in Christ through faith, we are fully prepared for death. Life beyond the grave is a mystery, because it’s something we have yet to experience, but if we are the children of God, we have nothing to fear. Jesus, who rose from the dead, says to us, “Because I live, you shall live also” (John 14:19).