According to an internet source (bing.com), the estimated population of Douglas County in 2016 is 13,358 and covers about 815 square miles. Most everyone here has family and friends. Since there is only one incorporated town, even people who don’t know each other, ‘run into’ each other often enough that they are recognized by sight. The result is that there are few strangers here. Only the new people are the strangers and that won’t last long.
That’s why loss is felt deeply here. Those that are in church one Sunday and suddenly gone the next; or, the ones that are suddenly absent from the check-out stand. The obituary appears in the paper and the loss is felt like a swallowed gasp caught in the throat. They are gone from here, but where did they go?
It says in Revelation 20:11-15 that the dead are standing before the book of life awaiting judgment. There is a song that goes something like this: “Please search the book again, I thought my name was there. How sad. Even sadder still is when it’s those we know. The chance for salvation is now while still among the living.
It’s not something anyone wants to do--go to sleep and wake up in a devil’s hell. Those who miss getting their name in the Lamb’s book of life will have to go past the cross of Calvary and know it was real. It will be too late then. They’ll go past a crucified and risen Savior and they’ll go past the dead and resurrected body of Christ. Only then will some learn that hell is a real place.
That’s why loss is felt deeply here. Those that are in church one Sunday and suddenly gone the next; or, the ones that are suddenly absent from the check-out stand. The obituary appears in the paper and the loss is felt like a swallowed gasp caught in the throat. They are gone from here, but where did they go?
It says in Revelation 20:11-15 that the dead are standing before the book of life awaiting judgment. There is a song that goes something like this: “Please search the book again, I thought my name was there. How sad. Even sadder still is when it’s those we know. The chance for salvation is now while still among the living.
It’s not something anyone wants to do--go to sleep and wake up in a devil’s hell. Those who miss getting their name in the Lamb’s book of life will have to go past the cross of Calvary and know it was real. It will be too late then. They’ll go past a crucified and risen Savior and they’ll go past the dead and resurrected body of Christ. Only then will some learn that hell is a real place.
