Pastor's Ponderings, June 15, 2020

The Memory Of The Just Is Blessed

William Shakespeare wrote the play, “Julius Caesar.” One of the famous lines was, “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”  Unfortunately, we tend to remember the bad things that people did while they lived and not the good deeds.

I recently had a wonderful conversation with an old friend from our school days.  We spoke of our lives, people who had passed, those who had done well, and those whose complete story had not been written.  In addition, I just read the obituary of a person whom I met and who seemed unimportant to me years ago, but whose life was a blessing to many. We may wonder what people will say about us when we are but a memory

God says the righteous person’s memory is a source of blessing (Proverbs 10:7).  What we have done for good or evil will impact those who think about us when we are gone.  Were we good examples of holiness or was our life a source of shame and degradation? All of those who remember our lives should be inspired to achieve their lofty goals or to avoid our misdeeds. The Bible says that our lives which we desperately cling to are but a soon disappearing vapor (James 4:14).  What we do with those moments between our birth and our passing should bring praise and glory to God.

When those who have known you are remembering your life, let us endeavor to have lived a life that glorified God and exhibited total obedience to Him.  Hopefully we will have been like a book that people read and found valuable life lessons (2 Corinthians 3:2, 3).  Hopefully our words will have been graceful, seasoned and well pleasing to God and man (Colossians 4:6). When we are being discussed years from now, let us endeavor to have those conversations bring joy, peace, and wisdom to all who remember us.

Proverbs 10:7
Amplified Bible (AMP)

7 The memory of the righteous [person] is a [source of] blessing, But the name of the wicked will [be forgotten and] rot [like a corpse].

James 4:14
New International Version (NIV)

14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

2 Corinthians 3:2, 3
New International Version (NIV)

2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 

3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Colossians 4:6
New International Version (NIV)

6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone