Once to Die
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. – Hebrews 9:27 NKJV.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, – Romans 3:23 NKJV.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23 NKJV.
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” – Romans 10:9-13 NKJV.
Meigs County, Tennessee needs more staff and another ambulance, and no one is disputing that situation. It is a sad and dangerous problem for the residents of the country. Rebecca Schroeder began having a reaction to a new perfume she had bought and called 911. She began convulsing, but still no ambulance. It took 97 minutes for help to arrive, but it did not come from Meigs County and only after her father contacted several nearby counties for help did an ambulance arrive from Monroe County EMS.
As you would expect, criticism of the Meigs County EMS was vocal at a public meeting. The problem in the case of Schroeder was that the only ambulance in Meigs County had already been dispatched on another call. Tony Finnell, the Director of the Meigs County EMS explained that situation. But he may have made things worse when he said, “Ma’am we’re all gonna die, my suggestion to you is to get your heart right with God.” Sadly, as one resident of the county shared, two people have died which may have been as a result of the situation with the ambulance service. (News Channel 9 WTVC 05.02.24)
Death, it is a topic we don’t want to talk about and that we would prefer not to think about. Occasionally we are confronted with the reality of death when someone close to us passes away. It is shocking when someone we know suddenly dies. Because of that we are forced to consider death for a few minutes or at the most a few days as the family is grieving and there is a funeral service. But as soon as possible we push the thoughts of death away.
My uncle, about two weeks before he passed away, wanted to see me to share some things about him and his family. An unrelated thing that he shared was of those he knew who had died suddenly. Personally, in the last couple of years I know of three people who have suddenly met with death. Two of them were accidents and one was a medical incident. I think there have been more but those are the ones that come to mind. But if you scan some of the posts on Facebook, or X you will see every day there are multiple deaths that have occurred suddenly.
Although we don’t want to talk about it or think about it, death is still a reality that will come to all of our lives as Hebrews 9:27 states. So back to the Meigs County EMS Director’s suggestion, how do we get our hearts right with God? If you know Jesus as your personal Savior 1 John 1:9 is still in the Bible, and we are told what to do: “If we confess our sins, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
If you have never believed upon Jesus unto salvation (John 3:16) and been “born again” (John 3:3) then you will need to follow the Romans Road of the Scriptures above:
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
Romans 10:9-13.
Death often comes suddenly, and without warning, isn’t now the right time to get your heart right with God?