Perspective on Ebola

The Ebola outbreak is all over the news this morning.  In a matter of hours the first Ebola patient will cross the border of America, and actually be in the state where I live.  The media is reporting that 50 medical workers have been infected and died while working with patients in Africa.  One worker, they report, refused treatment sacrificing himself to save the lives of others.  

What the news is not reporting is that these are not merely "medical workers" dedicated to medicine.  These are missionaries dedicated to Christ.  They are giving up treatment for themselves not because they are dedicated to a cure, but because they know who they are and where they will be in Christ.

I received this message in an email this morning from one of our Kingdom servants in Senegal.  What a perspective!  What if we were so sacrificial in our own communities for the cause of Christ?

_____________

There have been people sending me messages asking if we’re in danger because of the Ebola virus that has hit Western Africa, because so many have been infected and died from this disease.  We are a good long distance away from these areas.  However, that doesn’t give any of us an excuse not to pray.  Our eternity is secure (all the members of our family).  Also, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Tim. 1:7 NKJV

We must pray, with a heart of compassionate urgency, for those affected by this epidemic, that they have an opportunity to hear the Truth.  I do pray for the American missionaries infected with this illness, but they know in whom they’ve put their trust.  I’m not saying that the loss of their lives is not a tragedy.  It is!  It is cause for grief when anyone dies, especially from such a horrible illness.  But, to die for them is not a lasting suffering.  It is just for a moment.  Then, they are in eternity without pain or grief, and in the presence of a great God that has loved them and chosen them since the foundation of the world.

For those that suffer with this incurable disease, death for them means unending terror and suffering as they’ve never experienced in this lifetime.  Worst of all, they spend an eternity separated from our loving Almighty God.  It breaks my heart to think about those that would suffer so terribly, then succumb to death (which Christ has overcome) and would not enter peaceful rest, but into an eternity of suffering exponentially more horrible than what they have endured in life.

Oh, precious brothers and sisters, we are getting ever nearer to the time when our Savior and Lord Jesus will return to take us to the Heavenly Home He’s created for us (Hallelujah!).  But, there are so many that are lost without Him.  My whole being aches with the grief of this sometimes overwhelming lostness. As we stop to consider all that have died just in just the past few weeks in Palestine, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ukraine, Mali and other places around the world (that have not been media-worthy), we must be pressed with an urgency like never before to prepare so many others for this Glorious Appearance.  Because when that trumpet sounds, it will be too late.