How Would You Like Your Obituary to Read?

By Larry Coffey

In Revelation 14:13, we read as follows: And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

As we know, obituaries are generally always very positive with a list of accomplishments and great character traits in addition to family connections. Rarely is anything negative included regardless of a person’s real character. For example, I read these in a recent Louisville Courier Journal Sunday edition.

--Mike was a brilliant man that lived with conviction, led with wisdom and always left room for humor. He had unparalleled wit.

--David was a graduate of the University of KY and achieved his most valued personal accomplishment when he earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He was an avid reader, an intellectual conversationalist and a supporter of the arts.

--Sandra dedicated her life to being a fantastic and wonderful mother and was the foundation of the family. She was an excellent gift giver, always knew the right thing to say, never missed a special date, and was a constant cheerleader and supporter.

In contrast and quite unusual, I read the following obituary in the September 9, 2023 edition of the Grayson County News.

--Butch died on August 28. One could say it was an unsuspected passing, but this sort of ugly, unceremonious death can always be expected when you choose drugs over anything else, including your own children. These children (names listed) aren’t left to “honor his memory”, they are left to wonder why they were never enough for him to get clean, and to deal with the pain of never having a real, present father. If you are reading this and thinking it is terrible, you’re right, it’s terrible, the terrible ugly truth of the consequences of living a life of drugs. Butch will be cremated with no public service.

Like me, you probably never read an obituary that told the ugly truth about someone. It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago (probably not true, but humorous). I was told a man was attending a funeral and the preacher was going on and on about how great the deceased was, and the man spoke up and said, “Who is that man up there in the casket? It sure isn’t the man I knew.”

The point of this article is that if you knew that your obituary was going to reflect the real person you were in life, the one the Lord knew, how would it read? We need to be sure we live a life that could have an obituary that is full of deeds which follow us that please our Lord.  

Former Days

By Larry Coffey

We read in Ecclesiastes 7:10, “Say not, why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” Yet, we often speak of the good old days as though life was much better in past years. While there will be things we remember with great fondness, we tend to overlook how much our lives have improved. Of course, older folks may think about their former health and strength, but are living conditions really not as good as former days?

Christians will remember that more people seemed to be interested in spiritual matters, and the number of people who attend church services has been declining over the last 50 years. We have also seen a decline in morals. Abortion and homosexual marriage would have never become law in the 1950’s.

In Christianity Magazine’s September/October, 1996 issue, Ed Harrell said this: “The past was never as good as we remember it being. There is bad and good in every time. The present is probably better than we are able to admit. I see more fine young people in the universities today than ever before in my career as a teacher.”

Going way back to the days of Noah, we read in Gen. 6:5, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The Lord allowed life to continue until only eight people in the whole world were faithful. Move forward several hundred years, and the Lord told Abraham he would not destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if he could find 10 faithful people there, but Abraham couldn’t even find 10.

Today we have many more than eight or 10 people serving the Lord at the Douglass Hills church alone. And just think of the thousands and thousands of churches in this country and around the world with people serving God. I hear members of the church say times are getting so bad the Lord may return soon to end life here. Of course, neither I or anyone else knows when Christ may return, but based on history, it is going to be a long time before that happens.

According to my notes from a Wednesday night talk I gave at DH in 1998, I made these comments: “I want to praise the young people we have here at DH. In my opinion, we now have as good a group of young people as we have ever had. They are involved in our worship, and they are involved in visiting and helping others outside our assemblies.” And I believe today, 25 years later, we have a great group of young people. They are involved in our work and their interest was further demonstrated by their participation in our recent Youth Forum.

So, former days are not always better than present days. And I believe there is a lot to look forward to in our future days.

Will There Be Work in Heaven?

By Larry Coffey

In listening to Kenny Embry’s podcast, Balancing the Christian Life, he recently discussed the subject of “What is Heaven Like” with Wes McAdams, an evangelist from Texas. One segment of the podcast dealt with the subject of this blog, which I found to be quite interesting.

There are some things we know about heaven, some things we think we know but the figurative language used makes it hard to be sure, and many things we don’t know. We know God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit will be there. We know angels are there, and ultimately all those who have been obedient and faithful to God will be there. We know eternal life will exist and there will be no tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain (Rev. 21:4). We also look forward to other things not there, such as temptation and sin, because Satan won’t be there. We know it will be a joyous place beyond our ability to imagine.

What about work? Will it be there? Many people believe Rev. 14:13 teaches there will be no work. This verse states: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.” The word used here for rest literally means, “they shall be refreshed.” This leaves room for a different understanding than we may normally assign to it.

I’ll admit I have always thought we would be worshipping God and on vacation continuously. On the podcast Wes asked the question, Would you really want to be in a church service and on vacation throughout eternity? As I thought about that, my answer would be no. To worship and rest, yes. But only that, no. I want a job. I want to serve God, but I want Him to give me something to do. And now I believe He will. Why would I say that?

From the beginning of creation, God has always expected man to work. In Genesis 2, it says “God finished his work that he had done, and he rested” (Gen. 2:2).  In verse 15 of that chapter we read, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15).  God gave man work to do even before He created woman. It seems his garden job was what we would call a good job. Not one with a lot of pressure and long hours. Then after the fall, we read in Gen. 3:19, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.” This is a much different kind of work than Adam had in the garden.

In addition, we read in Matt. 22:30, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” We know angels had jobs. They did what God and the Lord asked them to do. The Bible often speaks about angels and their activities. Since we are going to be like them, it only follows we will have work to do. I want the kind of job Adam had in the garden, or jobs like the angels have. All I have read and observed is that those who work have a far greater level of enjoyment than those who don’t. A sense of accomplishment yields a lot of satisfaction. God has always expected us to work and I don’t think that will change when we get to heaven. I hope not.

Gospel for All

By Larry Coffey

The Bible clearly teaches the gospel of Christ is available for everyone who seeks it. While reading a book on the life of Walter Scott, a preacher in the early 19th century, I noted two good examples of this fact. Scott moved to Carthage, OH, a small village near Cincinnati and lived there 13 years. When he moved there, the village was described as flourishing with drunkenness, profanity, idleness, and neglect of the public and private duties of religion. The single redeeming feature was a Sunday school where an incident of interest took place on Scott’s first visit.

In one of the classes was a bright girl about 13 years old, who, along with others, had to find the answer to the question, “What shall I do to be saved?”  She searched her Bible and found the answer in Acts 2:38. When the day came for the class to answer the question, she was the only one with a ready answer. With a feeling of childish triumph, she quoted the passage: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Rather than receiving the teacher’s approval, she was disappointed to learn she had not given a satisfactory answer. Soon the class was over and the superintendent asked the same question. She rose and quoted Acts 2:38, but her answer was not approved again. She cried and wondered why her answer was not accepted. Just after this, Scott preached in the village school house and the little Sunday school scholar was present. To her surprise his text was the very passage she had read in Sunday school. Her response to his lesson was a request to be baptized. Her example caused six men to step forward and be baptized at the same time.

These proved to be the first fruits of a great harvest. Many more soon also obeyed the gospel. Among the converts was one who had long held in the village an unenviable notoriety—a poor fellow who was regarded as the most hopeless of an exceedingly irreligious and immoral population. He was a clever, dissipated good-for-nothing by the name of Parker. When it was announced in the village that a strange preacher was to be there to hold a series of meetings, for reasons unknown, Parker decided to attend. After a few nights of sitting on the back row, he came forward to be baptized. Needless to say, Walter Scott looked upon him with surprise and astonishment.

After Parker’s conversion, he made this statement: “I was as great a sinner as any of you; a drunkard, a gambler, poor, miserable, and wretched. But now I am redeemed from my former ways and have become a man.” As far as was known, both Parker and the 13-year-old girl remained faithful the rest of their lives. The cases mentioned show that the gospel can be brought to the comprehension of a little child and its power can be felt by one as wicked as Parker. Walter Scott’s labors resulted in planting a church that had 200 members within about two years from his first visit.

Bible Reading

By Larry Coffey

David Norfleet preached a lesson recently entitled “Engaged with the Truth”. He emphasized knowing, teaching, and practicing the truth. In John 8:31-32 we read, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  This clearly stresses the necessity of reading the Bible often.

We all would acknowledge the importance of reading our Bible. What we know about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, we learn from the Bible. Churches frequently offer annual Bible reading programs. Some have schedules for reading the Bible all the way through in one year. Many people who start the year with good intentions end up not continuing. So, churches reduce the amount to be read and schedule annual reading of just the New Testament. That works better, but still some Christians can’t seem to complete that either.

In reading a book on the life of Walter Scott, a pioneer preacher in the first half of the 19th century, I noted that bro. Scott taught and baptized a 23-year-old-man by the name of Samuel Church. He was a diligent Bible student and by the time he was 40 years old, he had read the New Testament through 150 times and the Old Testament 75 times. One might say they didn’t have as much to do then, since there was no television or internet service. We may forget about all the modern conveniences we have which they didn’t have such as electricity, heating and a/c systems, plumbing, etc. It is probable we have “more time” available for reading than did they.

Also, in February of this year, I talked to a man who had read the Bible all the way through in 20 days in that month. The man has a full-time job and a family. This causes me to think we are  making excuses when we say we don’t have time to read the Bible daily.

We do the things we consider to be most important to us. And there are many things that should be priorities. However, I suggest that letting God talk to us each day through the reading of his word should have the highest priority. A familiar scripture is 2 Tim. 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Can your mind fully grasp eternity? Mine can’t. However, it can understand that knowing God’s will for us is absolutely essential for us to prepare for eternity with God. And for us to know God’s will, we must have a regular Bible reading habit to which we commit a portion of our time.