Wednesday, April 8, 2015

On Death... and The proclamation of New Life

I recently saw Furious 7 with my sister. Another blog post described it as a" bad movie with a tear-jerk ending," and that about sums it up. Paul Walker is memorialized in a beautiful ending sequence where the two main characters "go there separate ways," and you're left feeling this false sense of happiness that he is traveling another, better road.
As the credits started to roll I turned to Rebecca and said, "you know what's sad... I don't think he was a Christian." That's all. We just paused thinking about that.

Last night I got lost in the world of YouTube Into The Woods musical clips (I'm a sucker for anything musical related), and up pops a segment from Glee, which makes me start thinking about Cory Monteith. I haven't watched Glee since the second season, but with Walker on my mind I start watching scenes from Cory's memorial episode, the Quarterback. Talk about waterworks. Adding emotional characters who release their emotion through song, it created a beautiful tribute to Cory. But here's the thing, he wasn't a believer either.

Two real life people in the world have lost their lives. While the world starts to feel better with peaceful tributes, and while the franchises they worked for still make money, these two men are spending the rest of eternity in hell. That's the part that makes me cry. Was there anyone in their lives that ever shared the gospel with them?

Is there anyone in my life that I haven't shared the gospel with? Because what if they die too, and while I sit at their funeral tribute, I cry not because they're gone, but because of where they are.

Romans 2 is explicit when it speaks about "storing up [God's] wrath against yourself..." because He will "give to each person according to what he has done," and what has each person done? Sin, for there is "no one righteous, not even one." (Rom3)

So like Paul and Cory, I myself have stored up God's own wrath, and know the weight of that sin. But praise be to God that we need not experience that wrath!

God, in his Infinite love has given us His precious Son, who took on my sin, and experienced God's wrath for me on the cross. Rom4:25, he was delivered over to death for [my] sins, and raised to life for [my] justification. And if you trust in Him, you too can experience that real peace of the hope of eternity with Him.

So Furious7 And Glee together had my thinking about the gospel, but also the great need to be proclaiming it.
Jesus is specific in the great commission in Matt.28:18-20, "Go therefore..." (hmm that would make a good mission blog title) "... And make disciples of all nations." But why we ask? Romans 10 has that answer, because if we don't want any more people, like Cory & Paul, to die without hearing, how will they hear without someone preaching it to them?

So therefore Go! What's holding you back? The utter perfection of the greatest Story? The joy that comes from knowing & speaking it? The love that Christ has lavished on you? Those are the catalysts!  Go!

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