“In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. His people made no funeral fire in his honor, as they had for his predecessors. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings” (2 Chronicles 21:19-20).

A king dies. But no funeral fire was made in his honor as had been done for all his predecessors.
A king dies. But was not buried in the tombs of the kings.
A king dies. But to no one’s regret.

Gee.

What the heck kind of life do you have to live where no one cares that you died?
What the heck kind of life does a king have to live where no one will honor the death of a king?
What the heck kind of a man do you have to be that when you die, you die to no one’s regret?

Yet, I’ve known such lives. They certainly were not kings. But they die and no one regrets that they are gone.

No one wants to remember them. No one wants to celebrate them. They’re just glad that they are gone.

Thank God most are not like that. The only thing that matters here on this side of eternity is the quality of relationships you have. That’s it. You are here so that God can use you to make life better for the people around you.

So, here’s the question: Do you make the people around you better? Or do you make them bitter?

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Every single person who was healed by God eventually died. No one lived forever.

Think about that. If they were going to die anyway, why did God heal them? What was the point of healing? What does this tell us?

Just as our verse of the day tells us, everyone is destined to die. No one is to live forever on this side of heaven. What is normal for this side of heaven is for everyone to die.

And when they die, what will happen?

Just as everyone is destined to die, everyone is destined to face judgment.

Could it be that God heals people, that God gives people more days because God wants to give them the opportunity to better prepare for the inevitable judgment that is to come? And if that is the case for when people are healed, doesn’t it make sense then that those who are healthy now are given our health and vitality so that we too might live to be prepared to face judgment?

How do we do that? What’s the key? Jesus. Get to know Jesus. Be about the business of Jesus. Live for Jesus. Serve for Jesus. It’s all about Jesus.

The following is written by Billy Graham.

I know little about nuclear fission or uranium and other elements used in making nuclear explosives. But I believe in the atomic bomb, and so do you. But how can we believe that it exists, if we don’t understand it or have any scientific knowledge about the way it works?

The answer is obvious. Others understand nuclear fission even if we don’t. And others have been what happens when a nuclear reaction takes place even if we haven’t. We read what they say, and we accept it as the testimony of reliable people.

I spend much of my time perusing the pages of a certain book – the Bible. In it I discover that centuries ago God acted and spoke, and reliable witnesses recorded it all. God even guided them as they wrote, so now I read the very words of God himself.

I may not understand everything there is to know about God, but I know him and trust him because of what I read of him in the Bible. Most of all, I know he came down to earth in the person of his Son, and “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

• Billy Graham