“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

“Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8).

Who or what are the “them” referring to? Idols.

Those who make idols will be like them. Those who trust in idols will be like them.

So, then, what are idols like? Take a look at the preceding verses.

• Idols are made by human hands (v.4)
• Idols have mouths but cannot speak, have eyes but cannot see (v.5)
• Idols have ears but cannot hear, nose but cannot smell (v.6)
• Idols have hands but cannot feel, feet but cannot walk (v.7)

Gee. Idols can’t do anything. And that’s exactly the point. Idols are powerless because idols are dead. We know that idols are powerless because we are the ones who made them with our own hands. Idols are our own creations. Of course they can’t do anything.

Those who make idols will be like them. Those who trust in idols will be like them…Dead…Powerless.

So, then, why would anyone make idols? Because idols are easily controlled. After all, we made them. And because we made them, they are less demanding and exacting. Because we control idols, we can manage them.

But they are dead. They are powerless. They can do nothing.

So it is with anyone who makes them and who puts their trust in idols.