"In Remembrance of You"

What Will People Remember?

As I was cleaning out some old news papers I came across the paper from June 26, 2009. I was looking at The News & Observer published in my home town of Raleigh, NC. This was an edition of the paper that had gained quite allot of attention as the front page displayed a picture of a curly haired man holding up his hand covered by a white glove and making a face that appeared made him appear to be in some kind of pain while he was caught in this photo performing on stage. It was indeed a photo of Micheal Jackson. It probably was a photo that had won him allot of popularity but it was strange that he appears in this photo to have been anything but enjoying life.

I have heard allot of other stories since his death of how he was accustom to staying up all night on eBay buying things to how he had been sick for some time and wasn't able to get out and do things due to his physical condition. It just amazed me how someone that could easily afford most anything that we could and much more could be living his life with so little enjoyment and lack of contentment. It isn't my place to judge Michael but I want to share an excerpt about his death that was published in the paper.

Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits and failed plastic surgery, died Thursday afternoon at UCLA Medical Center after arriving in a coma, according to a city official. he was just 50 years old, 39 of which he spent in the public eye he loved. The rest of the article was continued on page 12A.

There was another person who died the same day and she had spent many years in front of the camera as well. Her name as you probably know was Farrah Fawcett. She was a popular actress in the movie "Charlies Angels" and had modeled quite a bit and was mostly known for her pose wearing a red bathing suit. The announcement of her death was also on the front page in a two inch by six inch column squeezed in beside the three quarter page article on Micheal's death. Let me share an excerpt from the article posted on Farrah which takes us to page 12A.

The article starts out with the following," A winsome smile, tousled hair and unfettered sensuality were Farrah Fawsett's trademarks as a sex symbol and 1970's TV start in "Charlie's Angels." Then goes on to say that she had captivated the public as her life drew to a close in a far different way; as a cancer patient who fought for, then surrendered her privacy to document her struggle with the disease and inspired others. She had died from anal cancer. "Fawsett, 62, died Thursday morning at John's Health Center in Santa Monica, nearly three years after being diagnosed with anal cancer. Ryan O'neal, her lifelong companion had returned to her side when she became ill, was with her. Born Feb. 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas went on to attend the University of Texas and was voted one of the 10 most beautiful women on campus. Farrah was popular for her acting in commercials and TV shows such as "That Girl", "The Flying Nun", "I Dream of Jeannie" and "The Partridge Family". I can remember watching most of those!

There was another picture that caught my attention while turning to 12A. It shows a Sgt. Al Smoot, of Harold, California, a member of a U.S. Medevac team, giving CPR to a U.S. soldier at the emergency room of the U.S. military hospital at Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. The article on page 3A goes on to say that doctors expect 2009 to be the bloodiest year since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. I noticed that the wounded soldier wasn't named in this article although he had put his life on the line for our country. I haven't seen an article following this that says anything about him either.

The last place that I went to look was page 8B. This is where the people who don't get headlines or articles written on their lives get the chance to share some things about their lives. This is the obituaries. These articles told about peoples lives from when and where they were born to the schools they attended to the ball teams they were fans of. They told of their accomplishments and activities in their communities; their church and how they participated there; the goals they had achieved and ways that they had volunteered to make a difference in the world. It really seemed that these people, although much less popular in the world, had been more productive and fulfilling in their lives in their own ways.

You probably are wondering by now, "What in the world is he telling us all about people who have died for?".

First of all I want you to know that I don't normally look at the obituaries and the celebrity news but as I was reading a passage in 2Peter, it reminded me of this day in history. A day when I picked up the paper to read about two of the most popular celebrities that had ever lived; a soldier who was giving another soldier CPR and all the people in the obituaries to include a member from our local chamber of commerce. This is a day when I recognize the life accomplishments of the popular people but on this day in history, June 25, 2009, I cannot tell you anything about the other 153,779 people who past from this life into eternity. They have come and gone and I haven't any idea what they did while they were here. That brings me to today's message.

As I was reading in the first chapter of 2Peter I found that the apostle Peter was giving a message to "those who have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ."

2Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

I have to ask myself, "Am I going to be remembered for what I did for myself or others; for having had a divine nature and escaping the corruption or for being part of it and living it up while on this earth?" When I was in my late teens I had spent a while hanging out with people who wanted to live it up, party and have a good time! It didn't take too long for me to realize that this pathway was leading to a dead end. As I expressed to them that I enjoyed their friendship but wasn't going to continue with the partying and late night activities they began to drift away from me and I felt strangely unwelcome by them. I finally asked one of them why they were acting this way and she told me that I wasn't near as much fun to be around since I had stopped drinking. You know, I thought long and hard about that and satan tried many times to use that very statement to lure me back into that lifestyle of party and lust of things to fulfill my flesh.

I believe that Peter is saying in this passage that the exceeding great and precious promises come from the knowledge of Jesus, who gave to them by his divine power all the things that pertain to life and godliness. Life and godliness come in one package combined because it is through this that we become partakers of the growth in Christ, escaping the decay comes with fulfilling our lusts and fleshly desires. Let's look at some more of this passage to see what else Peter says,

2Peter 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity are the things that keep our lives from becoming barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ! If my life is about this, I can be fruitful and meaningful! What if I don't do this? Then what is my life to become?

2Peter 1:9 But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

My eyes cannot see what my Lord has done for me and I will live my life in the guilt that is put on us by satan. I will live my life constantly seeking something that will please my flesh and my need for inner peace. Is there a better option if I find myself living this way? What should I do to change the way I feel and my desires?

2Peter 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
2Pe 1:11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I know this old English in the Bible isn't always easy to understand but Peter is saying here that we need to make sure and diligently search that we know that we are doing what God had called us here for in this life! Do you think God put your entire DNA strand together to make the unique person that you are without putting a very special purpose in with that package as well? Something that only you can accomplish in your lifetime! That is why Peter tells the others that he is soon to be gone but he will make every effort that they hold onto these things that he has taught them whenever they remember him after he has left this body which he calls his body a tabernacle, meaning "home" in the Greek.

Speaking of death, Peter is referring to leaving his tabernacle and he wanted the believers to understand that he wouldn't be in the body that would be left behind. There was another famous man in history by the name of Socrates and there is a thought very similar to this in the last conversation of Socrates with his friends. As this great man was about to drink the poison to which he was condemned by the Athenian judges, his friend Crito said, "But how would you be buried? - Socrates: Just as you please, if you can but catch me, and I do not elude your pursuit. Then, gently smiling, he said: I cannot persuade Crito, that I AM that Socrates who now converses with you; but he thinks that I am he, whom he shall shortly see dead; and he asks how I would be buried? I have asserted that, after I have drunk the poison, I should no longer remain with you, but shall depart to certain felicities of the blessed." Platonis Phaedo, Oper., vol. i, edit. Bipont., p 260.

Yes! Crito did not understand but maybe through the last words of Socrates the seed of truth was planted in Critos heart. Let's look at the last thing that Peter says about his life and death to the believers.

2Peter 1:15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
2Pe 1:16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Peter says that he was not fooled by the fables that were told by people in this time to deceive the ones who were looking for the Messiah. His knowledge of the power and coming of Jesus were due to his actual witnessing of this event in history! The life and death of Jesus wasn't front page news to be continued on 12A like Michael JJackson's or Farrah Fawsett's. He wasn't even posted on page 3A like the military Sgt. who was saving lives in our military hospital overseas!
The death of Jesus was one of a criminal and a man that died as a common man even though he came into the world as our Messiah that the world might be saved!

Yes, the record of Jesus would have been posted, if anywhere, on page 8B in the obituary along with the other 153,779 people who died on June 25, 2009. His might say something like this, "He came to save all men great and small; experiencing death so that we might live in victory over the guilt of sin and the natural desires of the flesh! Although He was followed by few in this world, His sacrifice, love and influence on others will always be remembered!"

I cannot answer for Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawsett, the military overseas or even the thousands found in the obituaries every day across the globe, but I can answer for myself and my actions today! I pray that I have made the right choices and been fruitful.

I ask of you today, "Will you remember these things when you think of me?" I hope so!

I don't care which page of the paper your life story is on!

What matters most is that you have believed on Jesus as your Savior, in faith, and that you have received the Grace and Peace through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord! That is when You too can say that you are truly alive!

Philipians 4:13 - I can do all things through CHRIST which strengthens me!