“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

Christians prioritize worship. That Christians worship and prioritize worship on the Sabbath day is normal.

Christians serve, give, and tithe. Christians do these things because Jesus told his followers to do so. Serving, giving, tithing is normal for Christians.

Christians obey and submit to God’s word. Christians submit to God’s word and God’s authority because God is God and we are not. Obedience and submission is normal for Christians.

Christians stand for truth with grace even when the culture around them denies those truths. Christians stand for Biblical truth because that’s what their Lord and Savior proclaims. That Christians are different than the people who do not know God is normal.

Christians go through hardship and suffering with grace. It doesn’t mean Christians don’t feel pain or loss. It just means that Christians trust that God knows best, that God wants what is best for them, so they trust God in hardship and suffering.

These are things that the average Christians do because these are things God calls Christians to do.

If these things sound radical it is because the modern church has become so accustomed to nominal Christianity that doing what is normal as a Christian seems radical.

If Jesus said it, Christians do it. That’s normal.

“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.