He Passed Away

When I was in high school, my parents started a nursing home in Leesburg, Virginia. We only had 14 beds, and my mother and father did most of the work. When I went to college, I would find myself looking forward to talking to Mr. Foushee when I went home.  Mr. Foushee was 95 years old and always seemed to want to hear what was going on in my world. Once when I came home for the weekend, I went by to see Mr. Foushee, and his bed was empty. Mr. Foushee had passed away the day before. He and I often read Scripture together and talked about salvation. I was sad, but Mr. Foushee was with Jesus, and that made me happy.

As I thought about Mr. Foushee, I thought about how we need to talk to everyone about Jesus. We are not promised tomorrow, so we need to be prepared. Verse 19 of our Scripture says, “We need to make disciples of all nations!”

We need to overcome our fear of telling others about Jesus. Mr. Foushee was easy to talk to, but some are not so easy. Regardless, we need to talk! We need to spread the good news about Jesus to all! We never know when we will turn the corner, see an empty bed, and wish we had shared the good news with them. Salvation is for everyone, and we are called to share it with everyone. I can’t imagine anything worse than knowing someone who died where we had the chance to tell them about Jesus but failed to do so.

This text is called “The Great Commission” and it is for every one of us!

Matthew 28:19 – “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

By the Rev. Tommy Herndon
Image: Aron Visuals, courtesy of Unsplash