William J. Stewart
The end of June and beginning of July has been a difficult time for me. My mom passed away on June 28 from complications after colon cancer surgery. She was not a Christian. As it became apparent that she was not going to survive, all my family were sorrowing over her impending death. I was too, but in addition to that, I was grieved by the knowledge that she was not ready to meet the Lord. I sat by her side in the hours leading up to hear death, helpless to do anything for her. My family must have thought, “See how much he loved her,” when I broke down in tears at her last breath. Luke 16:23-24 has never been so real to me as it was in that moment.
I have experienced regret and guilt – I did not do enough to admonish her. I’d invited her to study, but not near enough. I’ve spoken about the Lord with her around, but not as firm, not as assertive, not as boldly as I needed to do. She knew where I stood on choices she’d made in her life, but I failed to adequately warn her of the eternal consequences of those choices. And now there is no longer an opportunity to admonish her, to invite her, to speak about the Lord to her, to warn her about the judgment and hell.
In her will, she stipulated that she wanted me to preach her funeral. How sadly ironic. She wasn’t interested in hearing me preach while she was alive, but she gave me a podium and an audience to preach Christ to in her death. We remembered the dead, and we preached to the living. I doubt most of the people there ever heard the gospel proclaimed before. I don’t know if they’ll have the opportunity to hear it again. So I made sure that as we buried my mom, who was not ready to meet her Maker, no one who was present could claim before God when they die – I didn’t know.
Time will take away the grief of losing a loved one; but there is no remedy for the pain caused by knowing someone died outside of Christ. May this heart wrenching loss produce greater zeal and urgency in me to warn people before it is eternally too late.
Who are the people in your life who are not ready to meet the Lord? Proclaim Christ to them. Warn them. Admonish them. Whether to obey or not to obey is their decision, but make sure you do your part. May no one be able to say in eternity, “You never mentioned Him to me.”
