Christians and Memento Mori

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Thursday July the eleventh, twenty twenty four. It is currently two forty nine pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I know, I even, I know, I probably always kind of emphasize the date and all of that. I usually do that I kind of over emphasized it today I really want you to think about today is Thursday, July the eleventh, before you know it. I mean, that tells you we're about to end another year. Twenty twenty four is going to be over before you can I mean, it's gonna like we're gonna blink and we're gonna be looking at the end of twenty twenty four looking at the beginning of twenty It is now two fifty pm Central Time, meaning that our day is gonna be before you know it. You're gonna blink, and today is going to be over, and then the next thing, you know, tomorrow will be here, and then it will be over. So I really want you to think about time. I really want you to think about time and how that relates to your life. But let's do this.

1:25 I don't know if you've ever experienced this. I know I'm not the first person to experience it because I've heard it done and way too many sermons and way too many churches, and a lot of time it's done, I think sometimes in youth groups. But someone will come up, a pastor, preacher, Sunday school teacher, and we'll say, all right, everyone, let's get out a piece of paper, and what we're going to do is we're gonna figure out time. Right, Okay, you have how many hours in a day? Twenty four? And then you start figuring out twenty four hours a day. How many hours in a week. Okay, Now you have your total hours of a week. Now, subtract this many hours for sleep, all right. Subtract this many hours for say, you know, showering, personal hygiene, that kind of thing. All right. Subtract this many hours for say, food and eating. Okay. Now subtract this many hours for work. Okay. Now subtract this many hours for this all right.

2:16 Now, how many hours do you have left? And out of those hours, let's subtract a couple of more for entertainment. Okay, Now, how many hours of that week do you have left? And how much of that time is committed is dedicated to the things of God? How much of that time left is dedicated to the Kingdom of God, to ministry, to scripture, to prayer, to that type of thing. How much time is left? And almost everyone, no matter what shirt, you do this, and almost everyone's looking at that piece of paper kind of going, wow, that's a lot of hours for this, or a lot of hours for that, and a lot of that doesn't even capture time. That kind of just we just kind of waste. We don't even really have a measurement for it.

3:05 It's just here and it's gone. But almost everyone is usually convicted. And usually the preacher will say something like this, only that which is done for Christ will last. Everything else will burn up. Everything else is vanity, everything else is meaningless, everything else is useless. Only that what is done for Christ will last. Now, typically after a sermon like that, people are like, you know what, I'm I'm gonna commit myself. I'm gonna dedicate myself more to living for Christ. I'm gonna I'm gonna try to get rid of all this frivolous stuff out of my life. And I think people get very committed, maybe very Maybe they're gonna make a schedule, they're gonna I think usually this is my own. Now there's always the exception to the rule, but I think typically it always just ends up leading to failure, disappointment, shame, humiliation, frustration, aggravation, discouragement, depression, and just feeling like an absolute and total failure. Now, usually somewhere in that sermon someone will quote this scripture say then that you walk circumspectully, not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil. Redeem the time because the days are evil. And then typically the preacher will say something like this, Hey, if the days were evil when Paul was writing

4:39 to the Church of Emphasis, imagine how evil the days are today. So you need to be even redeeming the time. Even more so, you need to be better at redeeming the time. Are you redeeming the time? And again that will go back and look at your chart. How many hours in a week? How many hours do you spend with this? How many hours? And now I don't know how it impacts the average person in the pew, I don't know. For me, it's led to kind of a lifetime of frustration and struggle and shame and humiliation and disappointment. And I've tried to navigate it. Like like when I was younger, and I would hear this, I'm okay, that's you know what. All I'm going to do.

5:25 That's all I'm going to do is I'm going to go home. I'm going to read my Bible. I'm going to listen to hims and sermons and I'm going to study and I'm going to read and I'm going to study and I'm going to pray. And that's all I'm going to do. And then I would read books like Ian Bounds his complete work on prayer, and he talked about all these great men of the past, right, these great men of the past, and how they would wake up at three in the morning and pray for four or five hours before they even started their day, or they would pray this and they would pray that. And I'm like, you know what, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pray more. And then then I would read other books by other individuals. Em Bounds. I just remember the most, mainly because it's sitting right next to my couch where I watch television. The complete works of em Bounds is just sitting right there. But I know that book very well because I bought that book as a teenager. I still have the exact same book, and I remember reading it, going, how can I pray this many hours? What does it even look like? What does that even sound like? I don't even know how I do this right? And just thinking how do I live my life and do this? And then I would read other books about about these people who spent this much time reading the Bible, or this much time memorizing scripture, or this much time. And I remember an evangelist coming to our church and he had the entire New Testament memorized, and I was like, wow, okay, how many hours would that take? And so and so.

6:49 Then I'm like, okay, so I'm supposed to pray this many hours, but I'm supposed to be reading the Bible and memorizing the Bible and studying the Bible this many hours. Okay, Wait, I need to also be trying to to minister to people. Okay, Wait, I'm also supposed to be fasting. Wait, I'm also supposed to be going to church and wait, I'm okay for crying out loud? What do I do? And then I thought? And then, as a young person, there were times I really greatly contemplated, I wonder, wonder if I should become a Catholic and become a Catholic priest, even though I wasn't Catholic, and even though I may have struggle with their theology, I thought, at least they have a system. Right, you become a Catholic priest, the church is gonna take care of you. And then you marry yourself to the church, and your whole life is ministry, the Liturgy of the Hours, confession, Mass. You know, that's all. That's your life. You don't have any other destructions, you don't have to worry about anything else. You don't have to do that, right, I mean you you I could do that, right.

7:49 I never really thought about a monk or a monastery. Later on I had those thoughts, but at that point, I think, maybe that's the answer. Then I could really dedicate myself to the things of God. I really could. So I would go all these weird like one minute, I'm like, you know what, I'm not gonna listen to anything. I'm not gonna watch anything. Everything is gonna The only thing I'm gonna listen to and watch are things that are related to my faith to Christianity. And so then I would make radical changes only to slip back into going back to the other way, and I would just be I would be tormented, right, I would be tormented, and what I how do I do this? How do I do this? Then when I got married and then had kids, well then it became very complicated because like I just can't make radical changes now, right, I just can't say, Okay, that's it. We're not gonna watch anything, We're not gonna do anything. Everything's just gonna be because you can't just mess with your kids that way. It's like like they're not a part of a social experiment. So then it's like okay, so then maybe I just don't do this or I don't do that. I'm like, well what do I do? Then the next thing, you know, Okay, I'm in the United States Military. I was in the military before I got married, but I was I'm in the military, right, So I have full time job in the military, sometimes fifty sixty hours a week, depending if we're doing exercises or deployments or whatever. I mean, who knows how many hours I could be working in a week. Sometimes good, sometimes a lot.

9:11 And next thing, then I'm going to school. I'm going to multiple schools. Right, I'm going to a Bible institute. I'm taking classes at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm going here. I'm registering for this school and this school. At some point I was like full time student and like two or three schools. We'll all have full time job in the military. Right, so I'm balancing all of this, And then the next thing, you know, I'm still going to school full time. I'm in the military full time, and I'm a full time pastor teaching Sunday school Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday an hour of teaching. All of those times, I'm doing all of the teaching. Oh. Then, by the way, then I came up with the idea, oh, let me start broadcasting.

9:58 I'll start broadcasting. And the next thing, you know, that kind of turned into almost like a full time job. So I had a military, full time job, full time student, and multiple schools. That was full time pastor. Oh in a full time broadcaster. Oh and I also have a family somewhere in all of that. But see, my mind is see I'm redeeming the time. I'm doing this all for God. I'm doing this for my theological education. I'm living my life for God. Now, the only thing I actually really did is hurt my family, hurt my I just made a mess of every I mean, I just totally destroyed it. I mean, I look, there's no excuse. It was just an absolute disaster. It was all on me. I mean, I just ran myself to the point of like total just exhaustion. But I would tell you, redeem the time. So you got all those hours in the week. Look what you do compared to what I do. You want to question my salvation, buddy, you can't even get near the things I do for God.

10:52 Your dedication to God is trash compared to mine. I read more, I study more, I listened to the Bible more. I'm going to three schools and I'm getting multiple degrees and theology and Bible education. You can't touch me, right, I mean almost like an in arrogant way. And that's a little bit of that lordship salvation. I'm passing all the test, right, I'm doing so good. Now that didn't always work out so well. So there's got to be a balance, Right, how do you live your life? Do you redeem the time? So I've struggled with this concept my whole life, and I've preached multiple sermons where I had everyone grab a piece of paper, this is how many hours? How many hours is dedicated to the things of God? What is wrong with all of you? Right? I have done that to people. Not only have I done it to myself.

11:46 I've done it to people, and not only have I had it done to me. And I don't know the answer because on one hand, I know, well, we're supposed to meditate on God's word day and night. We're supposed to pray without ceasing. We're supposed to love God above everything else. I'm supposed to be, you know, studying to show myself approved. I'm supposed to love God's word more than money and food. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Out of the mouth of God. I mean, on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. As a newborn babe desire the sincere milk of the word the Bible is food, So I should be partaking of the Bible more than I'm partaking of physical food. How do I meant it? Oh? Wait, we should be meeting even more so as we see the day approaching, we should not be forsaking the assembly. We should be meeting even more. Wait, the early Church meant every single day. Okay, how do I do all of this?

12:45 So? I've been struggling with this concept for a good portion of my Christian he lithe. Maybe you've never had this problem. Maybe you've just kind of been like, go to church. When I go to church, read my Bible. When I read my Bible, take it or leave it, just kind of do whatever I want to do. Maybe you have figured it out. I've never figured it out. I have never figured it out. I have always been I struggle, and to this day now I don't struggle as much today. Only this may not be a good reason, only because at this point it's like, I don't know if there's any easy answers, right, I can try to go from extreme to extreme to extreme, but that really never does much for me. So how do you live your life?

13:33 Do you redeem the time? Now? Why have I spent thirteen minutes to try to take you on a journey through all of my struggles with it. Because I woke up this morning and I looked at my email, and I looked at my email. I was gonna look at the actual time of the email, but we'll just go to the article. If the email had a subject line and that there was a link in the email, and the email said, why don't more Christians talk about Memento Maury? Memento Maury?

14:18 And I'm like, Memento Moury, Why don't more Christians talk about Momento Morey? Now I'm just gonna be honest with you. Okay, you can laugh at me, you can mock me. When I saw Memento Maury, I was not thinking Latin, right, even though I had to take Latin into Catholic universe, I wasn't thinking Latin. I wouldn't even think of a Latin phrase Memento Moriy was. It wasn't even crossing my mind that this is a Latin phrase. I would this is what? See? Why don't more Christians talk about Momento Moury? So the first thing I started thinking is that A that's not a philological term. Did I did I was I sleep in systematic theology classes? I mean, I've got I've got multiple degrees in theology. I'm not did I forget this term? And then I started getting irritate with myself. I'm like, why don't Christians talk about Memento Moury? Is this some philological concept? Oh, I'm gonna be embarrassed. I'm gonna read this and I'm gonna feel I'm gonna feel dumb, all right. So I'm like, okay, So I got ready to look at it because that's what I was thinking. Then for a brief second, I'm like, well, wait, ante, I wonder Memento Moriy some ministry and this article is going to be like why aren't Christians talking about this? Because this ministry is majorly problematic?

15:26 Or maybe it's a book? All right. Then I just started speculating, just going going crazy with it, like trying to figure this out, like, okay, what is Momento moy I get my brain never went to Latin, so I and and then there's a there's a picture right under that. When I go to the link, why don't more Christians talk about Momento Moury? And this This was updated July the eleventh, twenty twenty four. I don't know when it was originally published. And then there is a female wearing a black dress and she's kneeling down and she's putting flowers at someone's headstone, and I'm like, why don't more Christians talk about momental moy? So then I thought, hmm, I wonder if this is some kind of crazy cares Again, my brain never went to Latin, all right, you can make fun of me. My brain never went to Latin. And so then I was like, I wonder if this is like some charismatic thing. They do that great some you know, crazy charismatics do that grave soaking when you go to the grave of some person who is very spiritual and you can kind of soak up their holy spirit power or whatever craziness they're they're anointing or I probably not use the correct terminology, so don't sue me, all right, but you can. And I'm and I'm like, well, is this is momento may some kind of grave soaking thing? Why is this woman at this tombstone, at this headstone? And it has something to do with Christian's not talking about my mental moy? What is this? I know you're mocking me.

16:56 You can be laughing. You can like that guy doesn't even know Latin. He's an idiot. Okay, I may be an idiot, but I'm just telling you I did not ever associate this with Latin. Then I started reading the article, and the article begins this way. One morning I woke up with a powerful thought in my mind, Memento, Maury, what is happening here? What am I missing? I know you're laughing, you're mocking That's okay, you can laugh at my expense. That's all good, Okay, because maybe when as soon as I said momento Moury, you were like, I know what that is. Okay, well congratulations, okay, you can email me and tell me right right. But so then I read the next part, so there was like, that's the opening sentence. I woke up one morning with a powerful thought in mind, momento Moury. Right now, at least one thing I will say about the writer that's got me hooked, because I want to know what momento Moury is. Okay, next the next uh, like like paragraph I called one of my closest friends one of us is going to die? Is my mental moury? Like is this some kind of like witchcraft? What is I know, I know it's a ladin phrase ladies and gentlemen. I know. I'm sorry, but and I'm like, what is it? Is? A woman in the black dress? Is she a witch? Okay? Did this happen in Salem? Okay? What's

18:27 going what is you? What do you mean one of us is going to die? Oh? Oh, I need dramatic music. Dun dun, dun dun. Then the article continues, seriously, have you thought about this? One of the four of us close friends, well, die and we'll have to deal with that. I said, okay, all right, I still don't know what my mental moury is, but you've got my attention. Next, Normally i'd be annoyed at that opening, but today I understand I've been thinking about that too, She replied. Whoa. So you called your friends say hey, one of us is going to die, and the other one's like, hey, wow, I've been thinking about the same thing. Okay, what is going on? What is happening here? Then very next sentence momento, maury I repeated, as we hung up to begin our days.

19:33 So wait a minute, So you just talk about dying, then you say momentum Maury, Momento Maury, and then you repeat that, and then you hang up and then to go about your day. So then immediately I start thinking, oh, momento Moury has something to do with dying. All right, all right, okay maybe me and I know. Look it was early in the morning. I know I should have figured it out by now. Next paragraph, one of our husbands was celebrating a big birthday. Another of my closest friends had died with little noticed. As I brushed my teeth, I contemplated the fleeting nature of life on this side of glory and the kitchen.

20:15 I grabbed hold of my husband. I hugged him tighter and longer than usual. Let's have coffee on the porch this morning. What's gotten into you today, he asked as he grabbed his mug. Memento Moury. Whatever that means. I like it, he said, as he hugged me again. Now at this point, I'm catching on that momento Moury has got something to do with death. I still wasn't like the phrase was not coming to my mind right because I guess because immediately I had started thinking I was missing something theologically or this was some new charismatic movement or maybe she's a witch like who knows, I just started. That's where my mind just started going whichever direction it wants to go. I know my brain is a dangerous place, but hey, hey, you're welcome to tour it for a few minutes. Okay, right, here we go. What does memento moury mean in English?

21:10 Okay, now you've you used the hook, You've rilled me in. Here we go. What does momento mory mean in English? Most of us don't wake up every day with the Latin phrase in our minds, unless the night before we rewatched the nineteen eighty nine Robin Williams fan film Dead Poets Society, and rose thinking, karpe, dim, Now I do remember the Dead Poets Society. Don't you remember the movie The Dead Poets Society? Oh? Man, what a movie? I mean? Don't you remember it? Not in any way saying it's a Christian movie or anything like that. But that was a powerful That was a powerful movie when it came out in nineteen eighty nine, And I think all of us then wanted to become you know, I'm gonna get me a notebook and start writing poetry and I'm gonna buy some books on poetry. Every I think I didn't you? I mean no, okay, maybe you didn't. All right, if you watch let me know if you have that. But again, I'm not claiming it's a Christian movie, right, it's in this article. Don't blame me, all right, but you're right. When you watch that movie Carpe dim everyone started knowing that phrase, all right, and that meant if you don't know krpe, do you seize the day? Seize the day? And it did have a prof that that movie did have a profound impact on me again because it was like, seize the day. Now, Christianity is like, yes, seize the day, all for God, for his glory, for his honor, for his purpose. Seize the day because the only thing that will last is what is

22:40 done for Christ. Right, Okay, how do I do that? Now? That poets society wasn't going at it from a necessarily saily a Christian perspective, obviously it wasn't. It was more like, hey, this is your life, seize it. Drink everything life has, don't waste a drop. Okay, well then how do I do that? Like, what's the how do I balance this all out? Now, for the most part, the average person considers Latin a dead language, the exclusive purview of lawyers, doctors, theologians, and the residents of Vatican City. Now, as someone who's got degrees in theology, yeah, and who has taken Latin, obviously, I think it's a dead language because obviously I don't traffic in it. It's okay, because my mento moriy did not mean anything to me other than what are the charismatics doing today? Wait? What are witches doing today? Wait?

23:41 Right, Like, okay, I know you're laughing at me. That's okay, Yeah, here we go. However, we could improve our outlook on life by incorporating more Latin phrases into our common vocabulary. Now, I don't know if we can really improve our outlook by incorporating Latin phrases. I think I'm not a fan of really that. Hey, if I learned some Latin phrases, I fix the out my outlook on life. I think Latin maybe concepts that are expressed in Latin, if we keep those in. It's not that I know the Latin phrase, or I know the Latin words right, or I state the Latin words correctly. It's what is the concept there are certain concepts that may improve our outlook on life. I'm going to argue this may not improve our outlook on life. I'm going to argue this may actually lead you down to a pit of total despair, despondency, discouragement, and wanting to give up. I could be wrong. Let's see next paragraph.

24:48 My husband Rob might might have been more concerned than enthusiastic if he actually understood what momento moury means or meant. I'm kind of paraphrasing a little bit, not reading it exactly. Sometimes when I read articles, I try to be precise, and then sometimes I just kind of start, you know, I kind of saw the words and I kind of restated, so let me read them exactly right. My husband Rob might have been more concerned than enthusiastic if he understood that Memento moury is Latin for remember you must die. Remember you must die. Remember you must die. And at that moment I felt stupid as someone who pursued a degree in Catholic theology. Memento mori, that's kind of like an Ash Wednesday thing. Remember you must die, you will return to the dust, you will return to the ash Yeah, you will die. Be reminded of your death, be reminded that you are mortal.

26:02 Remember that you are going to die. Okay, Like that's kind of a major concept of that. So momento moury means remember you must die. Remember you must die. You may want to write that down, Remember you must die. You may want to put it on the refrigerator. Remember you must die. And our times it will seem to many a particularly morbid way to greet someone, but in times past it was a phrase used to encourage people to make the most of life and live with humility. In other words, there was a time at least The claim in the article is that you could greet someone with momento moury, remember you must die, and the reason you would greet some way is a way to encourage you to make the most of your life, like carpe dm seize the day, and that you would live with humility. Now, should we start greeting each other that way? Memento Mary, memento Morey. What do you think if you go to church on Sunday just start telling everyone Memento Maury, memento moury. And when I say remember you will die, I don't know if anyone will appreciate that. I don't know. Do you think that would improve your outlook on life? Do you do you think it will make it better? I think in many ways, the only way we can really function in life and be productive and accomplish

27:37 anything is forgetting that we're going to die. I don't know. If we live with a constant reminder that we're going to die, we would be that because look, if you just think about it, if you knew you were going to die in three weeks, I think you would just start throwing out most of your responsibilities, right like, you can't function if you're constantly thinking I'm going to die in twenty four hours. You almost have to forget that, I think. And so maybe I'm wrong. You may disagree. That's okay. This is a lot of This is just me offering a lot of thoughts, right. This is not me trying to offer anything something dogmatic. If I get to something dogmatic, you'll know that I'm being dogmatic here. I'm just trying to struggle through this concept from the force of my affection to my invitation to linger over coffee. Rob the author of this articles obviously female.

28:32 Her husband is obviously by the name. His name is Rob. He enjoyed the side effects of my reflection on the phrase. While unable to translate the words, he was happy with how the message translated to my actions. Life is fleeting and we should make the most of every opportunity. Now, this isn't a life philosophy that originated with Romans. Similar sentiments are written in both the Old and New Testament and Psalm chapter ninety verse seventeen. I'm going to read it as the way it's translated in this article Psalm chapter ninety verse seventeen. You may want to write this down. Psalm chapter ninety verse seventeen teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom.

29:26 If you want to grow in wisdom, what you need to do is to realize the brevity of life. One of the things that will increase wisdom is realizing just how brief life is. Now that will that increase wisdom or will that increase foolishness? I don't know. If I know my time is short, will I be more wise or will I be more reckless? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I struggle with that. Maybe in theory. It should make me wise, but I don't know. In Luke twelve, Jesus reminds the crowd that life is short and then you die with a parable about a rich fool who stored up earthly wealth but forgot to have rich relationship with God. He warns the disciples to abandon worry and to live for the kingdom of God, prepared for his return at all times. Paul wrote in Ephusians five, which we've already read, be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

30:27 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Now, of course, the King James or new King James, I think both redeem the time for the day's evil, redeeming the time for the days are evil? Are you redeeming the time? And would it assist you to be better at redeeming the time? If you remember memento moriy if you remember that phrase, If you remember remember, If you remember the phrase, remember you must die. If you keep in mind, if you get to keep that at the forefront of your brain, remember you must die. Look I think one of the number one ways to prove that we don't really think that we're going to die.

31:19 Look, I know we know it, but I don't think we I don't think it's ever anywhere near the forefront of our minds. And this is the reason why as soon as someone you care about, as soon as someone you love, family member, dies, almost inevitably, there's shock, there's denial. You can't accept it. It seems unbelievable, it seems like for it. But at the same time, isn't that bizarre? People thousands, hundreds of thousands people die every single day. It should be like the most common. It should almost be like, oh, someone died, Okay, Well that's I'm gonna miss them, right, Because on one hand, you have to expect it. Remember you must die. Just name the people in your life. They are going to die. They are going to die.

32:09 If not today, tomorrow, if not tomorrow, the next day, if not the time, it's inevitable. Like you can't see, but if you could, if there was a clock put up above their head, it would be counting down, and you wouldn't know exactly how many hours they have left, days, months, months, or years. And you may be shocked by what you see. But I can tell you whether you see that clock or don't, it's ticking down. And remember they must die, and remember you must die. But we are always completely blindsided by it because we always have this idea that it's not going to happen until here, and even then we're still somewhat taken back by it. This isn't a philosophy that originated with the Romans. Similar sentiments are used in both the Old New Tests. Okay, we looked at Psalm ninety, and we looked at Luke twelve, and we looked at Ephesians five. Now listen here. The Biblical writers often wrote about death. They warn those defying. They warn those defying, denying, or ignoring God to consider it before it is too late that the incomes to everyone. At the same time, they encourage those who believed in God and trusted him for salvation to endure right now. This is important. This is to the Christian. According to them, the Biblical writers encouraged those who are believers to encourage us who believe to trust in God for salvation and to endure

33:42 all manner of discomfort, difficulty, persecution, and even death, believing that this life is brief, but eternity stretches before us because of Christ. The idea then is, hey, we as Christians should be we should be so aware that remember, you will die, that we are like you know what, all that matters are the things of God. But see that's the thing. What would that actually look like? Now I'm going to skip one thing that they say here, all right? And then there there was an article in the Atlantic magazine and this article makes a reference to that article. And they tracked or they claimed that the origin of memento mori is to be tracked down by the early Christian apologist Totullian. Totulian wrote, and I quote or Totollian tells a story of an ancient Roman general who assigned a servant to stand behind him whenever the crowd celebrated his exploits and reminded him. And then they give the entire Latin phrase, I won't try to show you how bad I learned Latin, but so let me read it against you have a general whenever the crowd would come out and to celebrate his exploits, and hey, look how great you are? This person he basically had stand behind him. The

35:14 servant would stand behind him. He would say this, translating it into English. Remember that you are just a man. Remember that you will die. Hey, all the people are coming out. You're amazing, You're great, You're this great general. You have all these accomplishments. Oh what, You're the best. And the servant is kind of standing behind him, going, hey, remember, remember you're just a man, and remember you're going to die every day. Do we need to be reminded. Remember you're just a person, You're just a human being, and you're going to die. It seems this would inspire a sober and humble attitude in the face of victory, and a reminder not to waste the time of those who fell on the battlefold behind will not enjoy. Hey, hey, you may be the victorious general, but don't forget all those people who die, So don't waste the time you've been given because they no longer have it. Memento Maury, Remember you will die. Now this article, there's a lot here, there's a lot here. I'm gonna skip down. I'm going to skip down a little bit.

36:40 And they have a section here. Now what I will do if I remember correctly, and I will probably forget, I will send a link out to this article utilizing the Church one app notification system and the notices. So, if you have the Church one app, CHURCHNE, download the Church o n E app Church one app, then search and do a search for Theology Central make us your chosen broadcaster. You'll get a notification at some point at the conclusion of this that we'll have this article so you can read the whole thing. Because I think you really should contemplate every single word in this article. I really really do. I think everyone should consider this. But they asked this question, why don't modern Christians talk about memento mora, and so what they do is they talk about how that, you know, it seems throughout Christian history momento moray. This Latin phrase was very important to Christians.

37:32 It says modern Christians are likely reluctant to spend too much time talking about death because the stereotypical hang on. All right, here we go. I don't know why my page completely updated. All right, here we go. Modern Christians are likely reluctant to spend too much time talking about death because of the stereotypical hell fire and brimstone. Preacher of ages prior and the twentieth century. Falling World War One, the Korean War, and Vietnam War, the culture and church teachings moved away from heavy handed discussions of death and favor of emphasizing the love and abundant life in Christ, Jesus, love, peace, and unity, or the hallmarks of the Jesus movement in the nineteen seventies. All right, so is it because we moved away from more of a hell fire brimstone to a more love, peace and unity and looking at all the good things Jesus will do for you in this life. I mean Joelstein, I mean, I'm not saying he's the one to be blamed for it, but I mean he kind of encapsuled, capsule, encapsulated the philosophy of your best life now, And I think Christianity always sells it. Hey, you come to Jesus, boom boom, boom boom. You're not gonna struggle with sin anymore. You're gonna be set free. You're gonna be this, You're gonna be that. You can now do the will of God. Basically, you're gonna be perfect. Oh, you focus on all the power and things God

39:05 is going to do for you now not focus on the fact that now I'm a Christian, but I'm still going to die. I'm still going to suffer. But when I die, then I will live because I'm in Christ. It's kind of a different emphasis. Right, This approach had merit, but in recent times there has been a swing back towards a greater appreciation for the brevity of life. Perhaps not surprising, Stoicism has been revived and gained popularity measurably so since nine to eleven, and with increasing rapidity since the pandemic. A Christian should prayerfully consider if this is a time, considering active global conflicts, the rise of racial prejudice and hate, and the division visible even in the Church, to revive thoughtful and sensitive conversations about the realities of death, the importance of seeing the value in every day and the essential hope and inherence and following Jesus, who is the resurrection in the life. Now they give us and I'm skipping some more, right, I'm going to skip some more here. Right, we could get into the rise of We can get into a philosophical discussion, but I don't want to go there right now, all right, So they asked this question, what can you learn from Momento Moury.

40:21 Right, I'm only going to focus on one of them. They write this, do what matters for eternity now? Too often we're attempted to spend precious minutes, hours, days, and even decades on diversions, distractions, and demands that will not matter on the day we face death. Momento Moury reminds us to choose carefully how we spend our time creating art, writing, and music. We were designed to create, loving deeply those who entrusted to our care, serving others with and testifying to the truth of Christ, enjoying God and his gifts with gusto. Now they they kind of approach it in a different way. Hey, hey, do what matters for eternity now?

41:09 But some of those things are they gonna matter in eternity? I mean, what do they say, create art, right, make music, enjoy all of God's gifts? Now? Is that gonna matter in eternity? Is it gonna be an eternity? Oh? Wait, all those who created a lot of art come up here, all of those who enjoyed music or made music way, all those who wrote. I don't know if it's gonna work that way. I have See that that's see, that's where we struggle with, right, right? Is that that that's always this struggle I think. I think there's always been a diversion or division in Christianity. Mean, some will say no, no, no, no, no, no. Your life needs to be focused on the things of God, God, the Bible, fasting, prayer, church, memorizing scripture, meditating on scripture. These are the things that brings God glory. And this is all about the Kingdom of God. Do your work. You're being equipped to do the work of ministry.

42:14 Do the work of ministry. Start worrying about enjoying all the gifts supposedly God gave you. Christians can't even agree if it's a gift or it's a curse. Right, So someone would say it's distractions. Stop with all of that stuff, get busy with this, and others are like, no, no, no, see see, God give us these wonderful gifts. So I'm going to spend my time enjoying this and this and this. Okay, well how does that work? Are you really putting God first? See? I think there's always that argument. Momento Moury, what do you do? What do you put your focus on? Where do you spend your time, Where do you spend your dedication, Where do you spend your focus? Everyone probably listen to me. You've got hobbies, you got things you love to do. But in the light of Memento Moury, you are going to die.

43:02 Did those things matter in eternity? How do you determine what's going to matter in eternity? What's just going to burn up? I think it's hard for us to see eternity. We see now. So how should Memento Maury impact your life? How should it impact your life? Now? I'm not going to go through everything in this article. I will send it out, but I want you to consider this phrase. I want you to consider this phrase carefully, all right. I want you to really really get it. Remember you must die. Remember you must die. I want you to write that phrase down. Remember you must die. And I look, I don't have an I know something. I will get emails because people get mad at me. I don't always have answers here. Remember I have always tried to describe this podcast. I'm just a sinner with a microphone trying to figure all of this out, like you are, all right, I feel in some cases I may have a lot of education, and it can offer some great insight. And I think I'm pretty good at Exejesus and hermoneutics and church history.

44:14 But I'm still just trying to figure it all out, right, So I'm not trying to come at this like I've got to figure it out. Remember you must Die? We all need to write that down to day and go how should that impact my life? How is that going to impact my life? When this broadcast ends. You know what I'm going to be. I'm going to be very upfront with you when this broadcast ends, even though I've been talking about my mento morey, Remember you Must Die. You know what I'm going to do. First thing I'm going to do is I'm going to upload this episode to all the podcasting apps. Then I will upload it to the Sermon Audio platform. Once I get all of those notifications that it's been uploaded, I may hit play for a couple of seconds, make sure it sounds good, all right good. Then you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to reach over behind me. I'm going to turn on the AC unit to get the studio cool again, and then I'm going to go downstairs and you know where I'm going to find myself. About fifteen minutes later, I'm going to be in the swimming pool because it needs to be vacuumed and cleaned, So I'm going to be doing that. Does that have any weight on eternity? Should we even have a swimming pool? Is that a waste of time and money and effort? And then after that, I'll probably get rid. I'll probably have some food, right, I'll probably have some food. If you haven't had the Chicago tavern style pizza from Pizza Hut, I would highly recommend it because it's really good. But does that because I had that the other day and it's really, really, really good, the tavern style pizza from Pizza Hut. Hmm, that's good? All right,

45:45 all right? But I see, I see, I see how excited I'm getting about food? Is that really matter for eternity? Oh? And then you know what I may do. I may watch a movie tonight. Oh you know what I was doing last night? Okay, you're ready? Oh? I was reading comic books. Yeah, the big Summer DC comic Summer Comic Crossover special where this crazy lady who hates superheroes is trying to drain them of all their powers and it's chaos and it's crazy. Oh it's a really good story. But see is that going to matter for etorney? I know what you're saying. How unspiritual of you. You should have been reading your Bible. You should have been listening to sermons. You should have been chanting Psalm one nineteen. You you heathen, you reprobate, memento Maury, I'm going to die. Remember you must die, you will die. Was all of that a waste? You could be arguing. You could have been broadcasting. You could have been doing a devotional message. You could have been doing sermon reviews. You could have been you could have been talking about what's going on? Why weren't you doing that? You're absolutely right? I could have been How should this impact us? Do? How do you? Because

47:22 look everywhere every single Christian listening to my voice. You've made some decisions in your life. Look, you've reached a point where you're comfortable. I guarantee you've reached a point where you're pretty comfortable with how much time you read your Bible, whether you go to church or don't go to church, whether you skip Wednesdays and Sunday nights. You've you've found a place. You're comfortable. You're just like you know, well, we may go to Sunday school, may not go to Sunday school. We may go to you've already you've become comfortable with that. How much you read, how much you study, You've comfortable with it. Whether you've memorized a scripture in fifteen years or not, You're comfortable. You've found a place where you are comfortable. You feel like there's enough spirituality that you don't feel too much guilt or too much shame.

48:04 You feel somewhat comfortable, and you've accepted it, and you still pursue all of these other things. Money goes to How much money do you give to the work of God? How much I mean, there's always the I mean every church in the world that the joke has been in the church since I was a teenager. That church is a lot like a sporting event. Right. You have twenty percent of the people in that huge stadium who's doing all the work, and they're badly in need of some rest because they're out there playing this sport. They're beating them theirselves up there, giving their body to it. They discipline themselves, They work, work, work, work work to be able to play this sport. So twenty percent of the people are in desperate need of rest. They're in desperate need of some kind of relaxation.

48:50 Well, the eighty percent of the people in the stadium are there in badly need of some exercise because they're just sitting there stuffing popcorn in their face or a hot dog, and they haven't done anything, and they're just sitting there watching everyone else do all the work. I've heard this my whole life. That's the church. You got ten percent of the people who do everything, and you got the other rest of the people who don't do anything. In fact, it's hard enough for them to even show up. And in many cases they don't even give ten percent of their income. They give none, So they don't give, they don't show up, they don't do anything. They'll be the first to complain about everything, but they won't do anything. Well wait a minute, wait a minute, we metto Morey. You remember you're going to die, so shouldn't you be dedicating yourself to the things of God? Now, See, it's easy for pastors and churches to utilize this as a manipulative technique, right because you can manipulate everyone. Hey, stop spending all your money and time on this and this, and then give more money to this ministry. Be here for every service and participate and volunteer because what you do for Christ will last. Everything else will not last.

50:00 It can also be very You can be preached and with very questionable motives as well, because the church benefits. When people stop with all of the other stuff and give their time and their treasure and their attention to church, the church benefits. The church is better off. They have more money, they got more volunteers, they got more people helping, and they got people actually showing up to services where you don't have to cancel them. But it can also be done in a selfish way, right, what's the answer. I don't know the balance we say, see Christians talk a big game. Oh we love God with all of our heart, mind, body, and soul.

50:45 God is the most important thing. Ask go to any church, what's the most important thing in your life? God? And family? God and family? Will you spend most of your life doing everything else other than focusing on God or family? So I don't really know if that's number one or number two. I think God maybe even down there about number sixty three. If you look at the actual time, you focus on the things that God and now you say that people get offended. But I think there's some truth to that. Now, will Memento MORI make you go, hmmm, I'm going to die. This is a limited amount of time. What do I do with this limited amount of time? Now, I think I've gotten the point across and enough for you to consider. Let me. I started with kind of my own struggles with this, my whole Christian life, and especially because I became a Christian as a teenager and was like, okay, right, whether I thought about I'm going to die, I did realize I'm supposed to be living my life for Christ because that's the only thing that's going to lie and I need to be put on these other things aside. And I never got it. I never figured out the proper balance. Well, now here I am. Let me explain this story, all right. So my daughter, oldest daughter, she's obsessed compulsively so with our family line. She wanted to trace back and she's done the DNA and ancestry dot Com and she's just like research, research, research, and she traced back that my family.

52:19 If we go all the way back that our family served. That she found out she's like a granddaughter of the Revolutionary War because one of the first people in our family was very instrumental in the Revolutionary War. He worked and wrote letters to George Washington. Some of those letters still exist. Not only that he worked, he was like a general under Alexander Hamilton. He was very much involved in trying to gain rights for Native Americans and trying to work with the different tribes to give them rights and protect them and where they wouldn't be, you know, messed over. So Alexander Hamilton, George Washington to me, he goes way back with some really important concepts during the Revolutionary War and things that happened. And I won't go through the entire born story now.

53:09 For me, I don't really care. I don't really. I'm like, well big, I mean, in some ways it's cool, but I'm like, I don't really care what my ancestors just did. They died, that's all I know. And here I am, okay. And I know you may think that sounds horrible, but I'm never I'm not. I don't like nostalgia. I don't like to look back, even when it comes to music. Yes, there's a lot of older music I love, but I would rather listen to new stuff eighty percent of the time and just mix in some of the older stuff because I like to move forward. Older movies. Sometimes I'll pull up an older movie, but I'd rather watch a new movie. Sometimes I want to, I'll get in a little marathon for a older I always like move forward. I like to move forward. I don't like to do a lot of looking back, because you know what, you can't go back. It's over, it's done. Give it up. Stop talking about the good old days. They're gone. It's over. It's done.

53:54 Forget Can you move on? For crying out loud, I can't say when older people are like, oh all the music today, stop it. Okay, your day is over. It's done. Stop right. But she was going on and on and on and on about this, so she went further and further into our family line. And when she started realizing, as you get especially more to my more immediate relatives, man, they all died young. And she's like, she's like, hey, dad, you know, if you base it off everyone else before you, you may have ten years. If you're lucky, your mom didn't make it to forty. Your dad didn't make it. I think he made it to maybe sixty something he died.

54:39 You don't have long okay, you got about ten years left. And of course saying it more as a joke, kind of a morbid, dark humor, but that's okay. I'm all down with that. And and then I was like, that's funny. Stop calling me at three am to tell me about your research. And because she does call me two am, three am, four am, and I'm like, yeah, I'm going to die because you never let me sleep, okay, But so so we have our little joke, and then I start thinking about it. Man, ten years, If I make it ten years, I'm like, like, I'm beating out my whole family. Like I'm gonna be like, I'm gonna be the alpha dog. I'm going to lead a leader of the pack. I'm the survival of the fittest. I outlived all of you. Yeah, come on, what do you gotta say now? But ten years, for crying out loud, ten years, that's gonna be like, that's gonna be like gone.

55:45 So then I started thinking, huh, now what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Now? Everything I'm about to say. You're gonna think I'm fleshly, You're gonna think I'm ungodly, and hey, I'm just being down. I'm just gonna look, I've stated it if if anyone ever has any misconception that I'm look, I'm only a podcaster who's a sinner. I don't sell this any other way. I'm just a center with a microphone, That's all I am. So I'm just gonna tell you my fleshly thoughts. I start thinking, so what should I do? Ten years? Let's just go with ten years? Like I just started going, like as if I know it's not a fact, obviously, I know it's not a fact, but let's just go I mean, because reality is I mean, you know, with my all the things that happened in the military and my seizure disorder, you know, I could be gone any day, right. The doctor's always used to tell me you have a cazear disorder, it's gonna kill you, all right. So but I so, so I know in one way, but I just go with the ten year mark. Just go with that, right, all right? So then I started thinking, Okay, well, if the church my kind of ministry, time is kind of coming to an end. The church is basically over where.

56:52 That's kind of done. I'm kind of finished with that. So now I'm a I'm a podcaster, a spiritual, fill logically minded podcaster. All right. So then I started down, what am I really accomplishing? I mean, come on, I spend hours a day. Does anyone really care? I mean, Memento MORI. Remember, you're going to die. Are you really accomplishing anything? And when you're gone, nobody's going to care. Your podcast is going to be deleted. No one's going to remember one thing about your stupid episodes? So do I do? I keep putting an hour after hour, trying to challenge hermeneutical principles, trying to challenge the way the church does things, putting for theology, challenging us to consider Memento moray some you know Latin phrase, What what do I? What do I do?

57:46 I double down? You got ten years? You better start doing like eight episodes a day. When I get to the end of those ten years, let's see. Then it does come to it. Whoa you did? Look you did? You did? Fourth thout? I had five thousand episodes a year for ten years. Wow? Great? And then you're gonna die. You know what's gonna matter. I mean, come on, let's just be painfully honest. You know what. Nobody's gonna care. Come on, you can sit there and try to sell it all day. Nobody's going to care. I will be replaced just like that. And look, I've always known this. I've talked about in the military, watching people have their retirement ceremony and then watching them leave. They're literally their office is taken five minutes after they walk out the building, and people for they may talk about them once or twice, but usually within a week or two, nobody even knows they care, and they may come back six months, a year later. A good chance a lot of the people that were there when they were there have already been PCs. They've already moved on in their military career. And everybody's looking at you like I don't know who you are, I don't care, but I did this and I did that. Nobody cares, buddy, go what you want. Nobody cares what you accomplished. That was yesterday, This is today. We move forward. We don't look back. You can think of some musical artists that is like changed to music forever, ask ask a thirteen year old, fourteen year old, fifteen year old about some of those I don't even know who they are. Now. The music still exists because

59:19 I'm streaming services still there. Maybe some young people will stumble upon it, but in many cases they don't know, and you know what, they don't care. They'd be rather listening to something from today, which makes sense. So I started thinking, ten years what do I do? Do? I say? You know what? Get out what the getting's good? Let's end this baby, wrap this up? Now? What am I gonna do with ten years? Now? If I don't do a podcast, what do I do? Well? What would that mean for my spiritual life? My spiritual life is so much connected to this podcast. It could be utterly like it would be like taking a gun and sticking to my head and spiritually speak.

1:00:01 You may think that's ridiculous, but you know, so much of my reading and studying is about what I'm going to say behind it. If microphone, I read and study and then to come to this microphone. It's almost like my devotional time. It's my spiritual time, like it's all connected. You eliminate this, I like, I don't like, do I just read and study, and now I have no what do I do with it? What do I do with it? Like? I don't know how to You can say, well you shouldn't think that way. Well, maybe I shouldn't, but I've been thinking that way for basically since I've become a Christian. I've always been involved in teaching to some capacity from very early on. It's never stopped. So all of my study is always I have an outlet for it, no more outlet? What do I do? I don't know. I don't even know what to do? Like that could be devastating. I don't know what do I do? What do I do? If I if it wasn't there? What would I be? Would I just then dedicate my life to I don't know me music and movies and comic books and reading and wrestling and all the other hobbies that I would I just dedicate myself to that?

1:01:07 What would that look like? Well? Wait a minute, I got to be putting God first? Well how do I put God first? If I don't have this podcast? I mean, this is like, this is how I know to do that? Right? We say, and some people say, no, you do this for your own ego. I won't deny I'm a I'm a selfish center. But I do know that there's a lot of like there's a lot of my own spiritual like you, it's like me, it's like my own spiritual walk on display. I'm not coming at this like I'm better than anyone, I'm more godly than anyone. I'm coming like like, hey, how are you doing today in your Christian life? Well, this is where I am today, And you kind of hear what I'm thinking or talking about in real time, so that this is kind of like I'm like, this is not just like it's a part. So I don't know, like momento more, what do I do? What do I don't?

1:01:58 I don't know. Remember, you're going to die. I know I'm going to die. How do you work? How do you balance it out? Now? In some ways, whether I have five years left, ten years left, three days left. In some ways, you know what, it shouldn't matter. I should have still been putting God first, irregardless of how much time is on the calendar or how much time is on the clock ticking down. It shouldn't matter. But you know what the reality is, I don't think we always put God first. And I don't know that balance, because I think if you struggle with that, I think you just I think you find yourself in a very dark abyss. Now, on one hand, here's what I do know, and this is the one thing that does give me peace. Whether I put God first or whether I put God in like one hundredth place at the back of the list, none of that has anything to do with my salvation. My salvation is not dependent on where I put God. My salvation is where I am, and that is in Christ Jesus.

1:02:55 And I am eternally secure by faith alone, not by what I do. And what I do doesn't prove anything, because my faith is based off an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness, and I have to prove that infused righteousness by what I do. I can't prove it imputed righteousness. But I don't know how you live your life knowing you're going to die and being told now because you know that you should only live for what will matter in eternity. You should only focus on what is good for the Kingdom of God. God should be first in everything you do that I preach is so good? What does that look like? And if I'm being honest with you, that is kind of what led me to the ministry idea in the first place.

1:03:50 Wait, I'm supposed to put God first. God is a book. Well, then the only way to pull that off is my job be well God. Now, I had no idea that ultimate I was gonna end up being a bi vocational pastor where yeah, yeah, I destroyed everything. I don't know. Memento Maury, Remember you're going to die? What do you do with that phrase? Have you found the balance in all of this? Does it even bother you? Or have you become so comfortable with it you don't even care anymore? You can email me News I F at yahoo dot com. News I F at yahoo dot com. Now, after I've talked about I'm going to die and putting God first, I'm just gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna I'm getting ready to upload all of this, and I'm gonna go downstairs and do things that really have nothing to do with God responsibility. I got to get the pull cleaned and then watch your movie.

1:04:57 Now, I'm gonna try to make the movie a spiritual exercise, because I'll probably think about the concepts in the movie from a spiritual perspective. So I will do that. Does that count? I don't know. I may read some more comic books. I don't know. I may listen to music I don't know. I may just walk around in circles going. I don't know, because this topic can drive me to the point of going because I don't know how to balance it. But you figure it out and let me know. Thanks for listening. Everyone have a wonderful day. I'm mentor more. God bless