Fear Not Death

Started January 11, 2017, Finished April 25, 2026

Take a sip of your hot tea, or coffee, or water, or a scoop of Saturday ice cream, and join me. Read these verses. Hear my thoughts. Examine your heart.

  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith…

Philippians 1:21-25 

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25-26

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?…Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 

1 John 5:3-5 & 12

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.

2 Corinthians 5:1-2  (Check out the rest of Ch. 5)

Hear me clearly: as followers of Christ, we don’t go out looking for our end, by any means. At times we take calculated risks, yet while we labor here and await eternity ahead, we do not invite our demise. We seek to enjoy the days the Lord gives.

Yet, we also aren’t afraid of the unknown in this life…or the end of this life. We are growing in wisdom and discernment through fellowship with God. We are nourished daily by His Word, and we surround ourselves with others doing the same.

As we grow in the likeness of Christ, we do not have to fear the things our world deems fearsome. We don’t have to be anxious. This attribute ought to set us apart in a world that fears death and fights to put off its inevitable, unknown arrival.

There is a cultural stigma associated with death that is swallowed up in the cross of Christ for His people. 

Western society views death as the ultimate loss, lacking eternal perspective; life is just over and done. Some avoid giving time or effort to thinking or understanding spiritual reality, but want to speak of an afterlife the moment a loved one is gone. Others in our culture prefer to avoid conversation of death entirely.

Recently, I met a man who has children. His children had children, so now he is grandpa. Grandpa’s children decided that their children would not hear or discuss the words: dead, death, died…I think you get the point. While there are certainly appropriate times to shield young children from various matters, death will be learned. It’s not something we can skip over or avoid.

If you choose to call it “passing on” or “leaving this world” — it’s still death. It’s coming. Each of us will experience the loss of those we love. And each of us will die.

We throw ‘eternal life’ and ‘no fear of death’ in the mix with our Christian lyrics…yet we need to be sure the reality of the Scriptures, and any truthfulness we sing, makes it all the way to our hearts. It has been said that some of our local churches sing a lot of truth but fail to live by it come Monday.

It has been a big change living in East Africa where death is such a part of the curriculum. You see the coffins being built day in and day out on the roadside, then moved by motorcycle taxi to the next funeral location.

Up in South Sudan, everyone has lost a family member to a snake bite. Across East Africa, malaria and typhoid and unknown sickness take out loved ones consistently. Motor vehicle accidents are commonplace, and lack of medical care or knowledge or finance for treatment can lead to death.

No matter where on earth we live, we should be reminded of our mortality, and think on the sort of life story we are living. In East Africa, we must not grow numb to the reality of loss and death and call to mind the inherent value of our lives and the lives of those around us.

In the West, we must not be so sheltered or shielded from death that we forget our Maker, the brevity of our time here even if we live to old age, and the need to make use of the days for the glory of Jesus.

I will always remember seeing the shadows of the living over the graveside, a reminder that all the living will one day meet the same earthly end. Likewise, the first funeral we attended in Arua where everyone was instructed to pick up a handful of dirt and throw it on the casket, a tangible remembrance of ‘dust to dust’ which ought to convict us to live worthwhile.