No One Escapes

Bible:

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. Ecclesiastes 9:1-3 ESV

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 ESV

Reflection:

Some years ago, in 1979, a plane was taking off from O’Hare Airport in Chicago. It was supposed to fly to Los Angeles, but there was something wrong. While the plane zoomed down the runway getting ready to take off, an engine fell off the left wing. The plane was going too fast for it to stop, so it had to try to take off. No one is exactly sure what happened, but the plane didn’t get very high before it crashed into an old aircraft hangar. When it crashed, it exploded, and all of the 271 passengers and crew on board (and also two people on the ground) were killed instantly. It was a terrible disaster.

Some of the people on the plane were probably very good people who loved God and tried to please him. Other people probably were not very good people. It didn’t matter who was good and who was bad, or who loved God and who didn’t. Everyone died in this plane crash. When disasters happen, there’s almost never a magical way that good people are kept safe from harm and only bad people get hurt.

The Bible says that whether you are a good person or a bad person, whether you love and serve God or whether you don’t, the same thing happens sooner or later. Everybody has to die. Maybe death won’t come in a terrible disaster like a plane crash, but in some way or another death will come. The reason for this is sin. The whole world is sick with sin, and everyone dies because of it. Everyone takes part in the sin of the world, because everyone has turned away from God. There’s no escape from death.

But God made us to live, and he wants us to live with him in his kingdom forever. So he sent Jesus to be our Savior. Jesus won eternal life for us by dying on the cross to pay for our sins. We could never be good enough to earn life with God, but through Jesus God gives it to us as a free gift. Because of Jesus, death isn’t the end for us, but instead we have life forever.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to give us the gift of eternal life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2014/05/25/american-airlines-flight-191-remembered-35-years-later/

Immune from Trouble

Bible:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”’” And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies. Exodus 8:20-24 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-47 ESV

If we have died with him, we will also live with him, II Timothy 2:11b ESV

Reflection:

Before there was a vaccine that wiped out smallpox, many people got the disease. If they didn’t die, they would often get terrible scars all over their bodies from their illness. But there was one group of people who almost never got smallpox, even when everyone else around them did, and that was the milkmaids. Milkmaids were known for their clear, beautiful skin without smallpox scars. Why didn’t milkmaids get the disease? A doctor named Edward Jenner discovered that it was because milkmaids usually got sick with cowpox, and that made them immune to smallpox. They couldn’t catch it; their bodies would fight the disease.

When God sent the plague of flies to the Egyptians, he kept the flies away from the people of Israel. It was as if they were immune to this problem. God did this to show that the plagues he was sending to Egypt weren’t just happening by chance. God was sending them for the purpose of saving his people.

Sometimes Christians think that God will make them immune from all the problems that other people have in their lives. But this isn’t true. God allows his people to have problems just like other people do, and he also helps and blesses people who don’t know him. Jesus said that God gives sunshine and rain to both good and bad people. When we have problems, it helps us to understand other people better and share God’s love with them when they are sad. God wants others to be his people, too. There’s only one time that we can be sure God will save us from trouble, and that’s the trouble of sin. Sin causes sorrow and trouble and death, but Jesus came to die for us and take away our sins. Because of that, our sadness and death won’t last forever. Like the milkmaids who got cowpox and were saved from smallpox, Jesus makes us part of his death, and that means we are saved from dying forever, away from God. Instead, we will have life forever with Jesus.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die for me and forgive my sins so I can live with you forever. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

Marrin, Albert Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: the search for the smallpox vaccine. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2002