“You say you’re going to a funeral? You’re going to drive all that distance just to go to a funeral? I wouldn’t! Why, I’m too lazy even to go to my own funeral!” And the speaker laughed loudly at his own joke.
But it was not such a joke as he thought. Truly, he will not go to that funeral though. His body will, but it is only the shell he has lived in all his life. His family and friends will look at that body in the casket and murmur would-be comforting words: “Doesn’t he look natural?” “He’s at rest now.” “He looks so peaceful!”
But the real, essential being of the man will not be there. He will have gone—gone where? He had an appointment to keep—“It is appointed unto men once to die”—and then what? Then “after this the judgment.” The question is, Where is he now?
There are two definite places. One is the “Father’s house,” where Jesus said “there are many mansions,” and added: “I go to prepare a place for you...that where I am, there ye may be also.”
The other place (there are only two) is “the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” That’s right, it was not prepared for people; God did not want to send anyone to hell. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” But if they refuse God’s love and mercy and reject His offer of life in heaven with Him, He will not force anyone to accept His wonderful gift of eternal life. No one will be in heaven against his own will.
When next you go to a funeral, think for a moment about the soul that once inhabited that body. Say to yourself, “Where is that person now?”
And then ask yourself one more question: “If I were lying there, where would my soul be?”
Think of it! Think of it now.
When your body lies in its casket, it will be too late to change. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).