by Leon Mauldin<\/p>\n
I attended a funeral today in Cullman County, Alabama, for the brother of one of our members of the local church. As I looked around the cemetery among the tombstones, I saw several markers for some for whom I have conducted services.<\/p>\n
Such occasions furnish opportunities for reflection.<\/p>\n
“Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 7:1 NKJV).<\/p>\n
“It is better to go to a funeral than a feast. For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take this to heart<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 7:1 NET).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The text is not being morbid, but rather is stating reality. It is not wrong to go to a birthday party or a wedding. But one is not usually thinking about the brevity of life and the reality of death at a house of feasting. The very nature of death and funeral services forces us to do some sober reflection.\u00a0When Solomon said “the living will take it to heart<\/em>,” he showed that the living, not the dead, now need to learn some vital lessons at the funeral.<\/p>\n
Once during a call-in radio program, I was asked, “Where is that passage that says God promises us only 70 or 80 years?” I responded, “I think the text you are looking for is Psalm 90:10, which states, ‘The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.<\/em>‘ But the verse does not say God promises us 70\/80 years; He does not even promise us tomorrow.” Moses, who wrote Psalm 90, when on to say, “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom<\/em> (Psalms 90:12). Life is brief at best, even if one lives to an “old age”; thus the urgency of making it count by living for God and the doing of His will.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Leon Mauldin I attended a funeral today in Cullman County, Alabama, for the brother of one of our members of the local church. As I looked around the cemetery among the tombstones, I saw several markers for some for whom I have conducted services. Such occasions furnish opportunities for reflection. “Better to go to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[109,652,746],"class_list":["post-86112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-death","tag-grief","tag-sadness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57894,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lesson-from-a-funeral\/","url_meta":{"origin":86112,"position":0},"title":"Lesson from a Funeral","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Harry R. Osborne via\u00a0Guardian of Truth\u00a0XXXVIII: 21, p. 10, November 3, 1994 Have you been to a funeral lately? None of us enjoys funerals, but the reflection demanded by such occasions is good for us. 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