Writing Your Eulogy as you write Your Will; Can you?

 

‘‘ALL LIVING THINGS MUST DIE’’, In my class six science lesson when Mr. Omondi was teaching us science, the topic was, Characteristics of Living things. He reiterated mentioning most of us in the Class, one by one

• ‘‘Caleb, YOU MUST DIE’’
• ‘‘Stephen, YOU MUST DIE……’’.
• ‘Michael YOU MUST DIE…’’
• ‘’YOU ARE NOT GOD TO LIVE FOREVER’’, he mentioned.

Although the people he mentioned are not dead but him he is dead already which he told us that even himself he must die. This made me become afraid of death and also had some pity of people who die by then BUT when I got born again and found out that the bible has three distinctive deaths.

Death, as Merriam online dictionary says that it is a permanent the cause or occasion of loss of life of all vital functions or the end of life; the cause or occasion of loss of life. By this a realized that the bible has a list of deaths in three distinctive occasions. The bible has put death as;

1. Physical Death
2. Spiritual Death
3. The Eternal Death

When I connect what was said that ‘‘we are a soul and have a body’’, that makes Merriam Webster online dictionary put it on point that death is a permanent occasion of loss of live of all vital functions. Because we are a soul and have a body, when the soul leaves the body, since the body is the most vital function in this world so when the soul is removed the body then remains lifeless, that is when someone is buried we say, ‘let dust go back to dust..’ Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecc 12:7). This physical death is the separation of the body and the soul, which means that life in the soul has oozed away and the bible records it in Genesis 2:7, …….breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a living soul. 

This is what Mr. Omondi was teaching us, that every man MUST one day die, which means the spirit MUST return back to God and dust MUST return to dust whether we like it or not. This then makes everything funny because you can be ready for it and wait for it. Like some years back I read a book by Jerusha Muga entitles, ‘‘If today were your last day on earth’’. If today were your last day on earth, you might think of doing what God told Hezekiah through Isaiah the prophet, ‘‘Put your house in order for your death is near’’ Isaiah 38:1. In simple, arrange how things will be after your death, so this is always a very important matter and it is mostly the time when people like reflecting things a lot mostly about their lives. Looking at the people who have stuck with you through thick and thin and also those who have been very close to you in terms of challenging times in your life.

Then the bible also has talked about spiritual death, this simply as Dr. Paul M. Eliot describes it as ‘‘The Separation from God’’. There are ways of separating from God, where one is sinning, because sin is majorly separating us from God. So to sin is to course death to ourselves because we have separated ourselves from God. Also there is the death which the bible says it is called the second death in Revelation 20:11-15, 21:8. This is the destruction of our soul in hell. This when the body had already been separated from the soul and since your soul cannot decay it has to wait for the time for its destruction where all the spirits which were not loyal to God are heading. Like satan is also heading there, so this death is the destruction of the spirit not the body and as we have seen is when the soul is going to be separated from God eternally. Solomon said that when a man is dead, the body is taken back to dust and the spirit is heading towards God because it was created by God. Ecc 12:7.

So as I mentioned that EVERYONE MUST LEAVE the physical body because it came from dust it has to go to dust. That why I would like that as we are advised to write a will before we die because God told Hezekiah also to put his house in order where my interpretation is to order how everything is going to run after him after his death. So are we also in need of putting our houses in order because we will one day die.

What is a will?

Will, means the legal declaration by a person of his wishes or intentions regarding the disposition of his property after his death, ……….

Laws of Kenya, Law of Succession Act, Chapter 160

It has been put very clear, that it deals with wishes and intentions, which means this is talking about what you wish and intend to happen in terms of disposing your property but after your death. The key important thing here is property, but after your death what will be done to them. Although there is a silent who here, which makes us look at it in another term, ‘‘Who is going to do what with what’’. The who will do what with what is the will to me and that is why Hezekiah was told arrange every what and know who is going to do what with what. This also brought a problem in the house of David, when the sons and the wives knew that David is soon dying they started wanted who to sit on the throne until he picked Solomon.

Before I continue with the issue of the will, I would like to also let us understand the term “Eulogy”. Really what is a Eulogy?

“Eulogy”

is a speech or writing in praise of a person(s) or thing(s), especially one who recently died or retired or as a term of endearment.[1][2][3]

Wikipedia

In this page I will do away with a speech because you will already be dead but remain with a written text to praise the things you did to people who are listening to your written eulogy before your death.

Jesus our savior and our master used to talk about His death, did not mean that He wanted to die. Paul is telling us in the book of Philipians that Humbled Himself unto death even to death on the cross, Phil 2:8, even His death has brought us successes but also when you look at His life before when John the Apostles was talking about Jesus in the day of the Pentecost, three thousands were convicted and Accepted Him as their Lord and savior and were baptized.

It is my thinking that if a person can sit down and understand his or her calling and also outline his or her purpose in life, this person is capable of writing a eulogy and a will at the same time. Because in simple a eulogy will be describing what good you did and a will how your good needs to continued. So in my simple language a eulogy is describing what you did which is purely embedded in you calling and purpose, in short a legacy you have created before death and a will is the extension of the legacy after death.

Jesus told His disciples in John 14:12

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

KJV

He told His disciples that, these works that I am doing you are going to do them, AND GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL YOU DO. Very simple, Jesus knew what He was doing and also informed them that there is something called transition, where I am going to the father. So greater works shall you do more than these.

I know for any person to understand me and agree with me, this person MUST understand what his or her purpose is or His calling is. As I mentioned in the other article, Good and Faithful or Wicked and Slothful, how will God describe you. Which means one day you will meet your creator and depending on what He has purposed you to do, one day you MUST ACCOUNT for your life. In short before you die there is a purpose but after death there is accounting for it, which you can design your purpose and write a note called eulogy for what you have, are doing and will do then put a will to extend it after your death.

I realized that if Jesus knew His death and told His disciples explaining even how one of them is going to betray Him. When He was talking to Pilate He outlined His Purpose and calling very simply;

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 

John 18:37 KJV

Jesus said to Pilate that “..to this end was I born, and for this course I came into the world”. This is a life purpose in one sentence, if we can manage to set up our life purposes in a sentence like this then we wont have any problem with anybody because you will be very peaceful and joyful at the same time, this is due to having the knowledge of your existence.

There is a very powerful hidden word here which is known as vision, vision is seeing your end before you reach there. Which means that vision is seeing what you are to do before your death.

Vision is just a picture of your future, and Solomon said that where there is no vision the people perish Prov 29:18 (KJV). The word perish;

“Perish”

‘To die; to loose life in manner applied to animals, like powerful word; men perish by disease or decay, death by the sword by drowning or by hunger

To be in a state of waste away, or to be lost eternally, to be sentenced to endless misery.

Webster 1829 dictionary

I am looking at this meaning and then I am telling myself that this perishing is just death but without any good legacy to men which simply means no good eulogy and no need of  putting down a will because there is no good thing which should be continued and your death. In this definition of perishing I think we not only look at people who are poor here but also those who are rich. This shows us that even if your riches are not a blessing and also were not found in a righteous way as Jeremiah has recorded it,

As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. 

Jer 17:11 KJV

The bible here is also referring to the end shall be a fool which means in the time of eulogy and will his foolishness will be seen and then comes the most important part which is when dealing with God. If you hurt people, destroyed lives, killed people conned people sold drugs to destroy lives in order to get your wealth. Where do you think you will spend your eternity in; hell or heaven? The dictionary told us that perishing is being lost eternally, endless misery, that is what a perishing rich man will get. His or her end shall be a fool.

Dr. Myles Munroe said that many are the times that we don’t want or we fail to try to separate two things or these two words; ambition or vision. These two words have confused people although some people have tried to confuse others deliberately for their own agendas. He said that a vision is what benefits the community not you, it is what you will have accomplished not for yourself but for the society. Which means an achievement which you will brought to your community.

While an ambition is what you will have accomplished to yourself which to others also at the expense of the society or community. When we look at life we have these two sides of the same coin, an ambition and a vision in one person and even when death arrives people will look at both sides of this coin which is you. Your personal achievement, your ambition and your performance in the society, your vision will be looked at keenly. These two will form part of your eulogy and your will and people will be very eager to hear it  keenly. I think that is why Solomon decided to write much about death in Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Where he stated;

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Ecc 9:5, 10 KJV

Solomon summed it up very kindly, the living know they shall die, but the dead know nothing, simple. You know that you shall die, death is coming to you, But if you die you will do nothing after that. So he is encouraging us that whatever our hands finds to do, let us do it with our might because after death there is no good or work expected from you it will be done. You are no more, we will be interacting with your eulogy and your will. Paul is telling the Corinthians that the time is now and the day is now for salvation 2 Cor 6:2. I repeat what Paul has said that you don’t need to wit for tomorrow to be Born again as the bible puts it in John 1:12, 3:1-5 and Romans 10:8-10. Eternal life begins by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior over your life and eternal damnation succeeds when you reject Jesus to be Lord and savior of your life as Jesus said it very clearly that,

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

John 3:17-18 KJV

God did not send His son to condemn but if you reject Him then you have condemned yourself but if you believe in Him then you are saved, easy the choice is yours. Condemnation and perishing are one and the same thing because you shall not like it in hell or eternal damnation.

After getting saved your eternity is assured and then now is when you become a co-worker with Christ Jesus and God 1 Cor 3:9, 2 Cor 6:1. When you come to Christ, you begin to write a new eulogy because you are now a new creation and the old is gone and the new has come as the bible states in the book of 2 Cor 5:17.

Vision is the best thing to have in life and it does help a person to focus his or her life and also can help you write your eulogy at an early years of your life. You don’t write eulogy because you want to die but because you want to be focused in life and to know what you want to perform or achieve in life before you die. Vision is very dangerous to any personal is not focused in life. Most people think that when a person is born again, the person has no focus; No, when a person is born again is when a person should be very purposed, focused and determined because the person has come back to the original purpose of his or her maker. You go back to the plans that God has for you and the purpose which made Him create you;

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 

Jer 1:5 KJV

For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

Jer 29:11 KJV

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. 

Prov 19:21 ESV

When we read these, we realize that God has plans even before you were born, every was set by God and because we are co-workers with Him and we have His mind in us then our performance will be our vision. All visions come from God, you begin by re-aligning with God the time you become again.

Death, to me is a transition, this is transiting from the body to operate in the spirit. Leaving the physical to enter the spiritual. So please play it well in the physical so that when you transition to the spiritual it will be well with you or you wont go to eternal damnation but head to eternal life.

Can you now agree to write your eulogy as you write your will? Death is a must because it has been designed as a process and part of transition from the physical to the spiritual and only that the spiritual is determined by you performance in the physical. That is why I am saying if that your performance and decisions in the physical will decide where you are heading in the spiritual. So live life now with the knowledge that it will affect where you will live in the spiritual.

I don’t write this to you that you are going to die, or to tell you kill yourself or die soon, am reiterating what Jesus was saying that, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, ……….. John 17:15. This will make us that at the end we shall say exactly what Jesus said.

I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

John 17:5 KJV

I hope that there is a time that you will speak like Paul;

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

2 Tim 4:6-7 KJV

This a statement of a person expecting death, ready for death and also with confidence and having no problem when it comes as Jesus also told Pilate, for this end I came and four this course was I born, John 18:37 and when it was time for His death He said ‘‘It is finished’’  John 19:30. Do you know the time that you can say ‘‘it is finished’’ not ‘‘you are finished’’ because death is just transition and put your vision down as God told Habakkuk 2:2-4 and let it guide you as you write your eulogy, because the difference between eulogy and vision is that Vision is the performance articulated and ready to be done before death while eulogy is the record of your performance recorded and unleashed at your death.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulogy Eulogy as defined by wikipedia

1. https://divineseekers.org/good-and-faithful-or-wicked-and-slothful-how-will-god-describe-you/ Knowing you purpose in God