Everyone Needs to Know This

Every day seems like someone younger than me passes away, people I know and famous people. I feel sure that the majority of them do not know the Lord and that is the worse part because I believe what Jesus said when he said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). I think I worry about famous people more than people I know. Because Jesus said it was hard for rich people to enter into the Kingdom of God (Matthew 19:23). These are people who have found fulfillment in their life without acknowledging God, without even acknowledging their need for God. They are like the people the Apostle Paul speaks of, people who "exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator..." (Romans 1:25). I love this poem by Emily Dickinson: I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know! How dreary - to be - Somebody! How public - like a Frog - To tell your name - the livelong June - To an admiring Bog! I love it because it makes a case for the freedom of being someone who is not a celebrity, not rich or famous or having to contend with an admiring public, surely something rich and famous people must deal with. They must like it, I suppose, or else why would they choose that life for themselves? My guess is that it is very important to them, and if it is not they would have to at least pretend that it is for the sake of the public's support of their success. Celebrity, that is, wealth and fame, are certainly something our society values and cherishes, strives for and celebrates, but some stars have confessed they hate it, including Lady Gaga, recently saying that she hated being famous, as did Billie Eilish and Meghan Markle. I am sure there are many others. If it were not so, why would so many be in therapy or why do so many famous rock stars and others become addicted to drugs and/or die because of them? I prefer rather to listen to the words of Jesus when I read or hear the words recorded in Scripture, words like, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Another famous quote from Jesus, "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32) may possibly be quoted more often than it is believed, as everyone nowadays seems to think THEIR truth is THE truth, but that is not what Jesus was saying. There are many truths from the Bible that are not immediately understood, just like I didn't understand Mark 8:36 the first time I saw it, but it did something to my spirit and many years later I understood it. "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:36) Jesus didn't chase after people to follow him but he spoke truth that awakened people's souls. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). There is enough truth in those words to fill my soul and give me a reason to be grateful I'm still alive and as long as I am, I will proclaim his name any way I can because without him, we all are already condemned. Jesus said that in John 3:18. Everyone needs to know this before they die.