I had a funeral to officiate this past week. Funerals are one of the toughest services for a pastor to do, especially if the service is for someone who did not know Christ, which was not the case in this situation this lovely lady had been a Christian for many years.
As I was preparing for the service I thought about two things: how quickly our lives pass by (the Bible describes our years on earth as a vapor, and how quickly it vanishes (cf. James 4:14 NKJV), and as a blade of grass, which so quickly fades away, “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away” (1 Peter 1:24 NKJV). And secondly, I thought about life after death. Even in my most rebellious years, I knew that life on earth was not the end of the life journey.
Even for someone who does not know the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, their souls will live on after their body becomes a fading vapor or a withering blade of grass. Where you spend eternity is completely up to you, no one can make that decision for you. But as Christians, we are called to share the resurrection truth of Jesus to others. As the Apostle Paul explained to the Corinthian church, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20 NKJV).
We are called, as ambassadors for Christ, to plead with those who do not know Him and implore them to accept the free gift of salvation: An invitation to join Him in heaven for all-eternity–being reconciled to God. The key word in this passage, I want to bring to your attention, is that God is pleading through you, He speaks through His beloved children. Sadly, until Christ returns we must be His hands, feet, and voice on this earth and we must remain diligent in keeping His Word alive as long as we have a breathe in us.
Pastor, Jim