“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

                    -Hebrews 2:14, 15

For most people death is a scary concept. It reminds us all that, contrary to what we’d like to believe, we are not immortal beings and that life as we know it will one day come to an end. Our wealth will be gone (Ecclesiastes 5:15), our accomplishments forgotten (Ecclesiastes 9:15), and our eternal destiny embraced once and for all. While some people allow their entire life to be consumed with the fear of death, I believe many more simply coast through life without giving  it a second thought. However a person chooses to look at it, though, research shows that 1 out of every 1 persons will die some day and that none of us are getting out of this alive (Hebrews 9:27). The only hope we have of escaping it is if the Lord hastens His return, which has all of the same effects of death mentioned above and will happen even more suddenly.

“…God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”

         -Luke 12:20

Statistics show that around 64% of Americans believe they are going to heaven when they die, and that less than 1% believe they might go to hell. At first I didn’t find these numbers overly surprising, but when I considered the fact that 92% of Americans believe in God I was simply blown away. This means that more than 30% of those Americans who believe in God think they are neither going to heaven or hell when they die! Exactly what they believe I’m not sure, but I do know that these numbers perfectly illustrate the point I was making earlier: the vast majority of people simply don’t give death a second thought. If they did they would realize that, if God exists, we would naturally be held accountable to Him for the way we live our life (Romans 14:12) -  being either punished in hell according to our actions (Revelation 20:15), or rewarded in heaven according to Christ’s action on the cross (John 14:3; Revelation 5:9). It’s either one or the other.

Death, while probably not your favorite subject, isn’t something you can afford to sweep under the rug and pretend doesn’t exist. It does exist, and those who have ignored its reality won’t have time to consider the way they’ve lived their life when it comes knocking on their door. It will be too late then to pray or seek for second chances, so it’s best to get those things taken care of now while we still have time.

“…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

                                                  -2 Corinthians 6:2