The Cruelty and Horror of Assisted Suicide

I saw this image on the J C Ryle Facebook page a few days ago. I felt shocked, then sad as I realised the reality for many millions of people. I couldn’t forget what I had seen. 

Death has always been one of those difficult subjects. We try to avoid thinking about it but it’s all around us; war, terrorism, crime, famine, earthquakes, abortion, murder, freak weather events, genocide, cancer, accidents, allergic reactions, suicide and now assisted suicide in some countries and the list goes on and on… If we dwelt on the reality of our own frailty and helplessness we’d never get anything done.

The Christian Institute provided a sobering list of what the Bible has to say about death at the Birmingham City Mission Convention this weekend:

-the punishment for sin (Genesis 3 vs 17)

-universal precursor to judgement (Hebrews 9 vs 27)

-a curse (Deuteronomy 30 vs 19)

-the wages of sin (Romans 6 vs 23)

-the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15 vs 26)

-feared by unbelievers (Hebrews 2 vs 15)

-the source of immense human grief (John 11 vs 33-35)

-the end of the opportunity for salvation (Luke 16 vs 26)

The last one on this list is the most frightening of all. What it means is that the minute a soul breathes their last breath here on Earth, they are consigned to their eternal destination without recourse or escape. 

I was on an Open-Air Mission team in Yorkshire last week and one of the guys had a talk entitled “Where are they now?” Then, he had large pictures of famous (or infamous) people including Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, Hitler, Jimmy Savile and Amy Winehouse. 

You might imagine that this generated a lot of comments from passer’s by. A few bright sparks pointed out the obvious that they are all dead. Some people were angry about Savile being in the same list as the Queen or even that their pictures were next to each other. Others shouted things about individuals and where they felt they should be. Most believed good people like the late Queen and Margaret Thatcher would be in Heaven and bad people like Hitler and Savile would be in Hell. Amy Winehouse was more of a puzzle but most seemed to want to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The truth (and point of the talk) is that none of us know for sure where these people are now because we aren’t God and we don’t know their hearts, but we do know that their souls have lived on and that they are either in Heaven or Hell forever. They are not just dead in the ground as some would have us believe. 

The Bible also makes it clear that their perceived goodness/badness has nothing to do with where they ended up and although we may think we are better than some of those people, we are not as good as we think we are. The reality is that none of us live up to God’s perfect standard so instead of using society’s yardstick which sets the bar ridiculously low, we should be looking to God who sets the rules.

The debate about whether we should legalise assisted suicide in the UK is a product of secular (and atheistic) values permeating society. Would anyone really dare to suggest it was kinder to “help someone on their way” if they knew their loved one would face an angry, just God at the end of the process? Most sane people would surely agree that no matter how much pain someone was in, an eternity in Hell has to be far far worse. 

The Bible tells us that we are given one life and that the dates of our birth and death are determined by God. Every breath we take is a gift from God who sustains the Universe second by second and minute by minute. When we die we will face God and give an account of our lives; the God who created us, Who knows all things and Who is angry with our rebellion against Him. 

This would be a terrifying prospect for every person if it wasn’t for one historical event that changed everything…

God loved the world so much that He provided a mediator in His Son Jesus. He  sent Him to live a perfect life and then to die on a cross for the sins of the world. God the Father punished God the Son on the cross. This perfect sacrifice opened the way for anyone who believes that Jesus died for them to repent and be forgiven of their sins. We know the sacrifice of Jesus worked because He defeated the curse of death given to humanity at the beginning by coming back to life. Anyone who repents and believes in Jesus will be at peace with God and enter Heaven one day. 

This is amazing news for a broken, dying world.

However, most people who are advocating things like assisted suicide and encouraging others to consider ending their lives prematurely, don’t even acknowledge God let alone the Good News of the Gospel.

They are not, therefore, forgiven of their sin and will face God’s fury and be consigned to Hell for all eternity. Hell is a place of fire, punishment and torment where people will want to die but won’t be able to. Their pain will endure relentlessly. It's why the Bible warns us to "flee from the wrath to come...."

The horrible cruelty is that people who support this legislation are leading others astray by believing they are compassionate and caring and wanting to end people’s suffering.

Instead, they need to realise that God is the author of life and meddling in this way will have tragic and never ending consequences for those who die prematurely and are unprepared to meet their Maker.

Christians, please think about this and stop being neutral and/or silent during these discussions. There is no place for supporting assisted suicide in the church and we must stand against these evil laws that may soon be on our statute books unless we resist them with everything we have at our disposal. 

God is on our side and prayer is powerful when we take our part in the spiritual battle seriously.

Let's support the Christian Institute and other organisations as they seek to defeat this horrible bill once and for all. Let's also make evangelism a most urgent priority as we seek to share the Good News of Jesus with every soul before it's too late for them...

Does God Still Speak to us in Dreams?

I was planning to write a post about free speech as our open-air keeps getting shut down in Rochdale, then I thought about the importance of relevancy in evangelism because people don’t want to hear irrelevant news. 

Somehow, these topics didn’t inspire me and then last night, I had a dream…..

 In my dream, I was standing in front of a mirror in the toilets of a hospital, presumably washing my hands. A girl appeared at the wash-basin next to me and I saw her reflection in the mirror. Her head was shaved completely and she was dragging an intravenous drip containing medications. She was wearing a dressing gown and looked very unwell.

 On seeing my face in the mirror she immediately smiled and enthusiastically said my name. I looked closer but I didn’t recognise the girl. It was difficult to put an age on her due to the absence of hair on her head. Despite my lack of acknowledgement, she began chattering about things that had happened in the past. It was obvious that she knew me and knew me well. I concluded that we must have been good friends.

The girl told me that she had been given a terminal cancer diagnosis and only had two months to live. I felt terribly sad for her. She asked if I could come and visit her and proceeded to escort me to her ward.

At this point, I realised that I needed to say something rather than just allowing myself to be swept along by the girl’s excitement at recognising an old friend. I said simply, “You know that if I come and visit you, I will be speaking to you about Jesus.”

The girl hesitated and temporarily let go of my arm. Then, she nodded and quietly said, “I know I didn’t want to hear this stuff before, but now I’ve got nothing to lose.”

 Then, I woke up.

It’s fair to say that a dream like this is unsettling. Is there an old friend somewhere in the UK dying of cancer that I’m meant to share the Gospel with? Is that person actually in Southeast Asia or America or another part of the world that I’ve visited on my travels? Is it someone I knew in the UK who now lives elsewhere? 

If I start thinking like this, the possibilities are endless and could lead to panic as I try to identify them before it’s too late!
 
Perhaps, I should try to work out what my dream means by reading the Bible? After all, that’s always good advice, isn’t it? 

My Old Testament reading today states this:
 
    “When there is a prophet among you. I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.” (Numbers 12 vs 6)
 
According to this verse, the only one in my reading today that refers to dreams, if God sent my dream, I must be a prophet. Hmmm…
 
This may sound silly, but sadly this is how some Christians respond to every dream, sign or other seemingly miraculous event in their lives. They come up with their own interpretation of what God is saying and take Bible verses out of context to support their chosen path. I sometimes meet confused people who have done this and are still focusing on a dream wrongly interpreted and sometimes even confirmed by unwise church leaders.
 
If God had been wanting me to take some specific course of action in relation to an individual, the person would probably have had a face that I recognised. God doesn’t hide His will from us; He wants us to find it. The Bible passage that I read can’t be applied to this situation as, clearly, I’m not a prophet.
 
So, is my dream worthless? Did I eat too much cheese yesterday?
 
Well, God is in control and He allowed me to have this dream so it may be useful. I can take certain things from the dream, submit them to the Bible and perhaps take a less drastic course of action than frantically travelling the world to find my unidentified dying friend.
 
    -The theme of the dream is obviously the urgency of evangelism. The girl had been given two months to live which had put everything into perspective for her. The distractions of the world were no longer her focus as she faced death and eternity. Some here would object to Christians preying on the vulnerable, but the reality is that this girl needs to be offered hope for a future life in Heaven. Surely, telling a person how they might be forgiven of sin and find peace with God is the loving and kind thing to do at the end of their earthly life.
 
    -The dream could be a reminder that it’s never too late to make peace with God. In conversations on the street people often tell me that it’s too late for them which we know isn’t true because of stories like the thief on the cross who received forgiveness as he was dying. However, occasionally, someone asks a question like, “Can I do this at any time?” The answer is always, “Yes, but don’t leave it too long as we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.”
 
    -Another aspect of the dream might be that a person may be more likely to listen to someone they already have a connection with whether it’s current or from the past. My main evangelistic work is with strangers but I still have responsibility to share with people I know.    
 
   -We can also see from the dream that although someone has rejected God in the past, their circumstances might change and they may be willing to listen on a second, third or fourth attempt.  So, we should persevere and not give up even if they have previously told us they aren't interested. We must find the courage to try again.
 
     -The setting of the dream was a hospital. As a result of attending the FEW conference for evangelists a few weeks ago, I had already looked into the possibility of joining Good News for Everyone (GNFE). One of the reasons for this was to try and get Bibles into places locally, including hospitals and to have conversations with people in these settings. I had spoken to one of my church leaders, who is involved with GNFE and I’m hoping to attend a prayer meeting with local members soon. Perhaps, the dream was a reminder not to forget this ministry and to ensure I get to that meeting.
 
   -In the dream, I was also struck by how alone the girl appeared to be. Being given a terminal diagnosis with such a short time left, will make a person feel alone even if they are surrounded by friends and family, but we mustn’t assume people have a support network as there are plenty of people who don’t have anyone. We know this because of the tragic cases of people who die in their homes and lay undiscovered for weeks, months and even years because no one has missed them. You might be the only person who cares for someone.
 
   -The final lesson that can be extracted from the dream is the importance of taking every opportunity to share the Gospel. It would have been easy to enjoy reminiscing and there probably were plenty of memories that could have made the girl’s last days enjoyable enough, but her greatest need in that moment was to hear that Jesus saves and that she needs to get right with God. It was interesting that, in the dream, she responded as if she knew what was coming when she encouraged me to visit her. It wasn’t the reason she asked me, but she was open to the possibility in a way that she hadn’t been before. I only found this out when I braved the conversation.
 
Perhaps, you’re thinking that I’m over analysing my dream and that there’s no way God intended to communicate all of this to me or maybe that I come across as a bit too much of a hero. I did wonder this myself as, confronted with this situation in reality, I may not have been as bold as I was in my dream.  
 
However, all of the things that I’ve extracted can also be found in the Bible and are a good motivator for evangelism so I think they are profitable.
 
To answer my original question: Does God still speak to us in dreams? 

I don’t really know, but if He does, He will confirm anything He wants us to learn through His Word and it will always be in context.

Don't Let Disappointment Turn Into Bitterness

My church appears to be under spiritual attack. In the last few months we’ve lost people suddenly, had some people hospitalised and others are awaiting test results. This week, half of the members went down with covid so we’ve been forced to postpone our Spring Supper outreach event. It all feels a bit bewildering and has got to the stage where every time I receive an email I’m almost afraid to open it because I’m wondering what has happened now.

We all experience disappointment in life in one form or another; the relationship that failed, the promotion that was given to someone else, the injury that caused us to miss out on a trophy, the person who seemed to be a friend but proved untrustworthy. More significantly; the death of a loved one, the loss of a livelihood, the child born with disabilities, the diagnosis of a terminal illness. The list is endless.

It may be stating the obvious, but anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time will tell you that they have experienced just as much pain and suffering as the non-believer living down the road. Sometimes, more.

The problem is that, whether we recognise it or not, a lot of our theology has been shaped by the prosperity gospel; God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and happy and to live our best life now. So, when this is not our experience, we subconsciously feel that we must have done something wrong, or that God doesn’t love us, or has abandoned or forgotten us. Instead of remembering that the Christian life is a daily battle, we wonder “why me?”

We feel that we cannot voice our disappointment with God as Christians aren’t meant to have such feelings, so we internalise it and in time it can make us bitter and angry.

Recently, I was listening to a sermon and the preacher told an incredible story about two Swedish missionary families that had gone to serve in a remote location in the Congo. When they arrived, the tribes people were extremely hostile and refused to even let them speak, let alone settle amongst them. One family gave up and moved somewhere less remote. The remaining couple with their small child were forced to build a mud hut, outside the area, in the jungle. The only concession from the tribes people was that a young boy could bring them eggs and chickens every so often. During his visits, the wife shared the Gospel with this young boy who, after some time, made a profession of faith.

Shortly after giving birth to their second child, the wife died from an illness leaving the husband with an apparently fruitless ministry and two small children in the middle of nowhere. He gave up, took the newborn baby (Aggie) to the original missionary family and left her with them. He returned to Sweden with the toddler and walked away from the faith completely refusing even to allow God’s name to be mentioned in his presence. He married his wife’s sister, who wasn’t a believer, and had four additional children, then became an alcoholic and developed diabetes. The missionary couple that had fostered Aggie also died in a suspected poisoning so she was handed to a childless couple who happened to be visiting at the time.

This sad story would be seriously depressing if it ended here.

The couple later adopted Aggie and she went on to marry and have her own children. One day, she received a copy of a magazine from an anonymous sender in the post. There was a picture of a gravestone in the Congo and she recognised her mothers name. Reading the article, she discovered that the little boy who her mother had witnessed to had founded a Christian school in his village and had shared the Gospel with many others. There were now 600 believers in that area alone!

Aggie decided that she had to share this news with the now ailing father who had abandoned her. She went to his bedside and when she started to speak about God he cut her off stating that God had deserted him in the jungles of the Congo all those years before. She persisted and told him about the little boy and the many converts. Hearing this, he turned back to God then died a few weeks later.

Hearing this story, many things went through my mind. Humanly speaking, the whole thing seems impossible. What if the little boy hadn’t understood the message, or hadn’t cared enough to tell anyone, or hadn’t been the type to assert himself, or had died at a young age? Any of these things would have been possibilities, maybe even likelihoods, without God orchestrating events.

What of the man who, having started well, had allowed his disappointment and grief to turn to bitterness turning his back on God until his final days. What of his second wife and the children he had raised as a non-believer angry with God. What a tragic waste.

We can almost find ourselves feeling sorry for this man and thinking that his reaction is understandable. He had given up everything to serve God on a foreign field and as well as the rejection by the natives, God had allowed him to be stripped of everything that was important to him. It was only when, years later, God in His mercy revealed that the pain and suffering had not all been purposeless, that he repented of his bitterness.

It’s worth asking ourselves whether our faith would stand up to these tests. Will we serve God when our ministry appears fruitless, when we face one setback after another, or even when we face serious persecution?

I’m not wanting to minimise the suffering in our nation, but for some perspective, I’ve just read In God’s Underground by Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor in Communist Romania who was imprisoned for many years and tortured for his faith. The violence is described in graphic and horrifying detail so don’t rush out and buy it if you are sensitive.

When we face disappointments, we should acknowledge them and allow ourselves time to grieve the loss of a person, opportunity or ministry. We can ask God the why questions but we may not get an answer (Job didn’t). We may need extra support, encouragement and help from our church family for a while, or maybe longer.

However, we mustn’t allow our disappointments to turn to bitterness and fester in our soul damaging our relationship with God. This is the devil’s ultimate goal, he doesn’t just want to cause a Christian pain, or make them suffer on Earth, he wants to cause them to doubt God and to destroy their faith completely leading to eternal torment. The spiritual battle is real and we must be ready to fight even when things seem impossible, or circumstances threaten to overwhelm us.

Imagine dealing with all these difficulties as a non-believer. Then, the suffering is pointless with no hope even in death.

As believers, God promises never to leave or forsake us. He is with us in the disappointments of life that will inevitably come our way. Let’s persevere and keep trusting Him in the knowledge that we have eternal life in Heaven to look forward to!

Is There a Solution to Our Biggest Problem?

“Let yourself have fun and let yourself fail. Who cares? We’re all going to die. Just have a go.”               A heavily edited excerpt from an interview my cousin, Connor Swindells, recently gave to a national newspaper. At 26 and on the edge of stardom, you might think that death would be the last thing on his mind, but it isn’t.

In fact, no human being has ever had an answer to the problem of death. It hovers over us like a dark cloud throughout our lives rearing its ugly head from time to time when we lose someone close to us.

So, we do one of several things; ignore it, refuse to think about it and bury our heads in the sand choosing instead to live for the moment, or we become obsessed with health and safety to ensure we live as long as possible, or even, in extreme cases, we arrange for some kind of preservation of the body, just in case the scientists find a way to restore life in the future. If you are hoping for the latter, by the way, it will never happen!

We can’t beat or cheat death and, at the risk of stating the obvious, it gets us all in the end.

I often meet people who are upset about a particularly serious accident or tragedy where lots of people have died. The terrible incident at Aberfan, where a rubbish tip on hills above the village merged with springs of water causing a catastrophic collapse of slurry that killed many children at the village school and some adults, have been mentioned a few times this year even though it was decades ago.

People ask how God can be loving yet not have intervened as these, and other tragedies, unfolded. One man told me that if he had been God, he would have moved the trajectory slightly as the slurry descended the hill, so it avoided the school at Aberfan. I had no answer to this particular observation, and I’m not sure the man was expecting one, it was more like he was thinking out loud.

Reflecting, I wondered whether the man would still have been upset if he had been able to change the course and a group of different people had been killed instead of all the children. What if one of the new victims had been a relative of his, or the parents of one of the children that had survived and was now an orphan?

We can easily fall into the trap of thinking like this man. Perhaps we think the saddest aspect is because most were children that had barely started life. But is there ever an age that makes it easier to lose a loved one?

Some of the angriest people I meet in the street are still holding a grudge against God for allowing one of their grandparents to die decades earlier. Often, they had lived to their 70’s or 80’s but the person still believes God was unfair in allowing it to happen.

They are asking, “Why Me?”

Leaving aside the issue of us being unable to assess the fairness of God due to our comparatively minuscule minds and the fact that we cannot see the bigger picture.

The reality is that if God intervened to prevent your relative or friend dying in an accident or from an illness, others with people who love them are dying in similar circumstances all around the world every second of every hour, of every day. These people might well ask why your loved one was saved and theirs was not. 

If fairness is what we are concerned about, would that be fair?

Taking this to its logical conclusion, the result would be that God would be forced, or expected, to intervene in every situation where someone’s life was at risk, otherwise He would be showing partiality, or favouritism, to one person over another.

Then, we would all live forever!

Maybe at this point you are thinking that this sounds like a good idea and wondering why God didn’t set things up in this way in the first place.

Actually, He did…. but we messed it up. 

Our first parents rebelled against God and rejected His rule over them. So, God gave them over to their own ideas and, because of their sin, He cursed the Earth with suffering, sickness and…. wait for it…. death.

The Bible makes it clear that we ultimately die because of our sin, “the wages of sin is death…” and that we all are guilty of sin, “for all have sinned”.

God can’t just overlook sin, or He wouldn’t be just and fair. He can’t just intervene every time someone is in danger or there would be no penalty, or consequence, for sin which also wouldn’t be just and fair.

This would be a pretty diabolical position for us all to be in, and this post would be seriously depressing, if it weren’t for one important fact.

God loved us so much that He had a rescue plan. A plan to defeat the curse of sin, suffering, sickness and death that He had placed on the Earth due to our rebellion. A plan to send His Son Jesus to live a perfect life on our behalf. A plan for Jesus to die on a cross, taking the punishment you and I deserve, and to be buried in a tomb. A plan for Jesus to defeat the curse of death by coming back to life.

I said earlier that no human being has an answer to the problem of death. This is true, but thankfully God does.

Jesus was able to stand in our place, pay for our sin and reverse the curse of death because He was sinless. If we repent (turn away from our sinful lives), ask for forgiveness, and trust that Jesus died for us on the cross, we are promised eternal life in Heaven as a free gift.

Effectively, we can receive the benefit of Jesus defeating death and live forever with Him.

The alternative, which I don't recommend, is to stand before God on Judgment Day carrying all of our unforgiven sin. God has to punish us at this point, or He is not just. The punishment is eternal in a place called Hell.

Either way, death doesn’t have the last word, God does. 

Will you face Him joyfully having been forgiven through Jesus or will you suffer His righteous anger for all eternity?

 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(1 Corinthians 15 vs 55-57)

How Safety Conscious Are You?

Western societies are becoming more and more obsessed with health and safety, and eliminating risk. I stated the obvious in a previous post that, regardless the precautions taken, sooner or later we will all die.

We see reports in the national and local news every day of people killed whilst going about their daily business. A farmer trampled by cows, a man swept out to sea by an out of control vehicle, two teenagers found six hours after their car crashed in a remote area at night, former spies poisoned in a supposedly safe part of the country, London’s murder rate over-taking New York’s. And now, of course, there's the coronavirus. I could go on, but the point is that it could happen to any of us at any time. I’m sure these people weren’t considering that they might be living the last hours of their lives before tragedy struck.

Ironically, perhaps, many people who fuss and worry about their daily safety, or the relative safety of others, make little or no preparation for the most risky venture of their lives; appearing before God on Judgement Day without a remedy for their sin. Surely, preparing for eternity in either Heaven or Hell is worth at least a few hours of immediate consideration?

When I look at the things that keep us busy in this life, I almost feel desperate, because so many of them are unimportant, meaningless and trivial. We are far too attached to earthly things. We are often too comfortable and secure, making us unwilling or unavailable when the time comes for us to consider a work that God would have us involved in.  We really need to examine how we spend our time, resources, and money, in light of eternity. 

Those who want to keep their daily focus on Jesus, where it should be, are too often told to lighten up, or to find some hobbies or other interests. They are labelled as "extreme" or "fundamentalist". They are too often dissuaded from evangelistic zeal for a plethora of seemingly valid reasons, rather than being encouraged, or even joined, in the spiritual battle for souls.

People are now so distracted by earthly things that the spiritual no longer registers on their horizon. God has somehow been relegated to the “List of non-priorities that perhaps I’ll get round to investigating when I’m on my death bed.” How can this be in a society that is so safety conscious?

Could it be that our nation’s obsession with health and safety is a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable appointment with death? An attempt to draw out the short period that we have here on Earth. If people really believed in a place called Heaven which is reportedly so much better than our current situation, then why are people so keen to stay here? Why do they want to avoid death at any cost?

Doesn’t it make more sense to suggest that most aren’t really sure what happens when they die? I know of several people who, on starting to realise that Christianity might be the truth, have been afraid or unwilling to explore further due to the implications it would have for them personally. They prefer to continue as they are and leave things on hold.

Some prefer to revert to fantastical imaginings of Heaven as a place full of their favourite eateries, or hobbies, or unlimited alcoholic drink. They make wrong assumptions about what Heaven will be like, rather than examining the reality that, according to the Bible, they won't even be going there.

Others prefer not to think about death. They completely bury their heads in the sand until their day comes, figuring that they will deal with it when it happens. 

Any, or all, of these approaches, though, seem like a pretty risky way to carry on!

There’s an advertisement that shows a bunch of people settling down on an aeroplane. The captain starts listing all the things that could go wrong with the plane because the proper checks haven’t been done. He suggests they just “wing it.” As everyone rushes to get to the exit door before the plane takes off, the point is made that you wouldn’t want to travel on a plane that wasn’t adequately prepared for the journey, so remember to check your tyres, fuel and oil on your car.

Aren’t we doing the same thing with our lives when we fail to even consider the life beyond this one? When we travel through this life without adequate preparation and expect to just “wing it” when the time comes.

What if God has already provided everything we need to make adequate preparation for eternity? What if God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and to rise again on the third day defeating death and sin once and for all? What if His sacrifice means that on that Day of Judgement we can stand boldly before God knowing that our sin is covered and we will be welcomed into Heaven?

Where Will You Spend Eternity?

The craziness of Christmas is over and we are already into a new year. Was Christmas everything you hoped it would be? Were the celebrations as exciting as you wanted? Did you enjoy the time with family and friends, and was it peaceful? How about the food, are you suffering still from the over-indulgence, or was it as good as you were expecting? Did the children’s wishes come true? What about the gifts, did you get everything you asked for? Did the presents satisfy you?

Do you feel tired as you head back to work? How will you make next Christmas better than the one before? Do you feel exhausted just thinking about it?

My Christmas was disrupted by a stark reminder of the frailty of human life; a member of my extended family was rushed to hospital where she remains in critical condition. Our plans for Christmas were swiftly changed as the lady’s direct family rushed to her bedside.

Suddenly, things were in perspective; a husband could lose his wife, a son his mother and small children their “Granny.” The material celebrations were pushed to one side as everyone rallied round. We made our way to church praying for God’s will but hoping for a miracle. Phones were constantly being checked and the bleep of a text message took on new significance.

This week, in the UK, we have seen news reports of an eighteen year old, with her whole life ahead of her, struck down and killed by the flu virus. Reports in The Daily Mail suggest that flu deaths have soared by 77% in a week.

The inquest into another eighteen year old girl’s death is also being reported. This young lady died after suffering a fatal reaction to a burger. She had known allergies and had told the waiter about them. The response from the restaurant to this investigation was interesting. When asked what ‘lessons they had learned’ and what they would be doing differently in future. They basically said that everything was already in place to prevent this type of tragedy and they didn’t plan to change anything…

I’m sure the restaurant will end up with findings against them and they likely have been negligent. However, the point to note is that regardless of the lessons learned or things that are put in place, needless and preventable deaths will continue to occur. The restaurant staff have just responded in a way that doesn’t sit comfortably with those who believe we should be able to make the UK 100% safe, by some unspecified date in the future.

Assuming that were even a vague possibility, what about the person who dies every 3 minutes from heart disease, the 5 people killed in road accidents every day, or the total of 1,500 people who die each day, in the UK alone? Can anyone legislate to prevent this or do anything else to stop it?

I’ve made the point before that it’s almost possible to overlook these morbid statistics until reality bites when someone we know is taken from us. Have you noticed how shell-shocked people seem when a violent crime or fire kills people in their village, or even their street? 

It’s the wake up call that it could happen to any one of us at any time. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Even if we take all of the precautions possible; never venture outside, never have contact with anyone else and live like a hermit. Death still comes eventually, and no one returns from the grave. The Bible tells us that: 

“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement,” (Hebrews 9 vs 27.)

Why am I offering you this gloomy reminder at a time of year usually reserved for renewed hope as the resolutions are sincerely made? 

Our church leaflet for the year has a three word headline:

STOP AND THINK!

We live in a world corrupted by our sin and under God’s curse. The earth is slowly dying and we see the evidence all around us in people’s suffering. We cannot prevent every accident. We cannot predict or vaccinate people against every disease. We cannot really control anything about our lives, and our claims to be able to do so are out of touch with the reality. God maintains and controls everything and we are entirely dependent on His grace and mercy to us.

I’ve just finished a book, Heaven and Hell by Edward Donnelly. It is a terrifying reminder of the reality of hell for non-believers, but offers hope (certainty) of heaven for all who will put their trust in Jesus:

“Imprinted on human consciences is the uneasy awareness that beyond this life is a place of punishment for those who do wrong. It is so often denied not because it is unreasonable but because it is extremely unwelcome….Suppose the Bible had told us nothing about hell, not a single word about future judgement and condemnation. Would that make it a more loving book? Is concealing unpleasant reality an evidence of true caring? Not at all, just the opposite. People complain about God’s warnings when they should fall down on their knees and give thanks for them. It is in love and mercy that he warns us about hell, so that we may be delivered from it.

The most foolish aspect of all is that your everlasting damnation is unnecessary. For the Lord Jesus is pleading with you at this very moment. He is calling you to himself, commanding you to turn from the sin that brings only destruction. He is infinitely kind and gracious. If you ask him to be your saviour, he will receive and forgive you. He will wash you clean and make you safe forever, and you will be holy and happy, looking forward to an eternity of joy and glory in heaven. 

                                                                                                    ‘Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ (Hebrews 4 vs 7.)”