Read the Word:
Romans 8:9-11
Meditate on the Word:
As a pastor, nothing makes me more sad than to get a phone call to officiate a funeral for someone that I never met. As a general rule, if I’ve never met you and am presiding over your funeral, this means that:
- You do not have a church home.
- You do not have a pastor.
- You were not living for Christ.
- Your family is hoping that you somehow made it into heaven.
When meeting family members of the recently deceased whom I did not know, I can count on hearing, “He’d give you the shirt off his back,” and other platitudes describing the deceased as generous and loving to a fault. The absolute worst is, “if anyone deserved to go to heaven, it’s Grandma.”
The truth is that we are all born dead in our sins. Those who are transformed by the love of God demonstrate some sort of evidence of it in their lives. If the Spirit of the living God is living in you, this cannot be hidden. People will know. They will not have to hope that somehow you made it into heaven; they will see the evidence of a life changed for Christ.
The very first funeral I officiated was the glaring example to this rule. The lady had previously been a very active member of the church, and had been in a facility for 20 years due to health and dementia issues. I was assigned her funeral because her pastor had previously agreed to a wedding on that day. When I met with the family, instead of talking about how great she was, they talked about how much she loved God. How she had served Him faithfully. They told of her works, but not as hope for her salvation, but as evidence of it. They saw the work of the Holy Spirit in her life.
Does your family see the work of the Holy Spirit in yours?
Pray the Word:
Thank God for the presence of the Holy Spirit today.
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