As a medical doctor, I have probably seen more people dying than the average man. With our high mortality rate in Africa, death is not a rare sight in some Ghanaian hospitals.
I remember my horror when, as a new medical student, I first entered the mortuary. The place was filled with the stench of death, and all around me were naked bodies of men, women and children. Some were young, others were old. Most had been struck down in the prime of life. Rich and poor lay side by side, all pride and dignity forgotten in this helpless state.
Really, I think everybody should at one stage in life, visit a mortuary. Then maybe we would realize the uselessness of this temporary life.
As the Bible says, “All is vanity”.
As medical students working at the Accident Centre, we could encounter up to ten fatalities from one road accident alone. It was very distressing, and made one wonder where all these souls were going.
When a man dies, his spirit leaves his body. Without the spirit the body is dead. When Jesus died on the cross, the Bible makes us to know that He yielded up the ghost. This means that He gave up the spirit. His spirit came out of His body.
Likewise, we learn in the seventh chapter of Acts that when Stephen was being stoned to death, he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
We can see here that when a man dies, his spirit moves from one point to another. The spirit cannot be affected by physical death. So although the body itself decomposes and returns to dust, the spirit lives on eternally.
I have seen people die on hospital wards very often. You can almost see their spirits coming out of them as they gasp for their last breath. One minute they are alive, the next minute…they pop off. Gone!
But where do their spirits go? Let’s go beyond the grave and find out where they went. You see, according to God’s Word, there is an appointment we must all keep after death.
…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement:
Hebrews:9:27
Basically, this judgement is a time for separation: when Christ (our Judge) takes His own (those who have yielded their lives to Him), and casts the rebellious sinners into Hell.
…and HE SHALL SEPARATE THEM one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Matthew 25:32
Talking about unrepentant sinners, Jesus said:
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Matthew 25:46
The fact is, there are only two destinations beyond the grave HEAVEN AND HELL. The spirits of those who were righteous in Christ go to be with the Father in Heaven, while the spirits of those who rejected Jesus will be cast down to Hell.
Dear friend, there is more to life than marriage, money and your retirement home.
I know a man who has a special bank account for his burial. He has everything planned out carefully to the last detail. Others have given elaborate instructions concerning their coffins and their graves.
But that is where their plans end
Little do they realize that they are going beyond the grave!