[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fnotable-deaths":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fnotable-deaths-surround":83},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":13,"columnName":66,"date":67,"description":22,"extension":68,"image":69,"meta":70,"minRead":71,"navigation":72,"path":73,"postType":74,"publication":75,"publicationUrl":69,"seo":76,"stem":77,"topics":78,"__hash__":82},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fnotable-deaths.md","Notable Deaths",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11,12],"Psalms","Hebrews","1 Peter","Romans",{"type":14,"value":15,"toc":62},"minimark",[16,23,27,30,33,41,44,47,50,53,56,59],[17,18,19],"ul",{},[20,21,22],"li",{},"It grabs attention when famous people die.",[24,25,26],"p",{},"The year 2025 is less than three-fourths over, but an on-line CBS News article titled “Notable Deaths in 2025” mentions dozens of well-known individuals who have died already this year. Among others, the list includes:",[24,28,29],{},"Approaching Deadline",[24,31,32],{},"Deadlines are an unpleasant but inescapable part of life. The time comes when bills must be paid, work finished, assignments turned in, lights turned off. In the magazine business, deadlines never disappear, they just give way to new ones.",[24,34,35,36,40],{},"Some say the term ",[37,38,39],"em",{},"deadline"," originated during the Civil War, when soldiers held in prison camps were shot on sight if they crossed a line drawn in the sand outside the prison fence.",[24,42,43],{},"We all face a different sort of deadline: the moment when we cross the line from time to eternity. George Bernard Shaw quipped, “Death has rather impressive statistics: one out of one dies.”",[24,45,46],{},"To the young, death seems distant; but like an early autumn sunset, the shadow of death overtakes us sooner than we expect. Death can be as close as the faulty turn of a steering wheel or the sudden movement of a blood clot. Healthy choices might postpone it, but death is a powerful magnet pulling us downward toward the grave. Eventually it grasps even its most resistant prey. Moses lived to the ripe old age of 120, but he wrote that our days “quickly pass, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10, New International Version).",[24,48,49],{},"Living Hope",[24,51,52],{},"Most deaths don’t make headlines. Most of us will die a plain, ordinary death. There will be a dignified but unspectacular funeral. A few flowers, the Twenty-Third Psalm read by a preacher, and somber friends dabbing their eyes with tissues.",[24,54,55],{},"But wait. There’s no such thing as a “plain, ordinary death.” When it’s yours, it is singularly important. When it happens to someone you love, you can’t just shrug it off.",[24,57,58],{},"And God doesn’t shrug it off either. Jesus’ crucifixion wasn’t a plain, ordinary death; it was a supreme act of grace. His resurrection can relieve our fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15) and open the door to “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3), which is good news for all who live under sin’s death sentence (Romans 5:1-21).",[24,60,61],{},"Coroners sometimes perform a post-mortem to determine the cause of death. It might be wise to conduct our own “pre-mortems” to make sure death doesn’t catch us unprepared. Only Christ Jesus can keep us secure when we arrive at life’s final deadline.",{"title":63,"searchDepth":64,"depth":64,"links":65},"",2,[],"Consider This","2025-09-24","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fnotable-deaths","column","Christian Standard",{"title":5,"description":22},"articles\u002Fnotable-deaths",[79,80,81],"Biblical Theology","Holy Week and Resurrection","Spiritual Formation","QtmF6oOqcK89KtH8VKQIAdlMo5BNh0L0rCA92CxOgu4",[84,89],{"title":85,"path":86,"stem":87,"description":88,"children":-1},"Not Worthy of Them","\u002Farticles\u002Fnot-worthy-of-them","articles\u002Fnot-worthy-of-them","I don't like looking at the cover of today's issue. I'd prefer to think about new church buildings, hot burned ones, cheerful Christians, not suffering ones; prosperity, not pain. But as much as we'd like to avoid the uncomfortable topic of persecution, God's Word won't allow us that luxury.",{"title":90,"path":91,"stem":92,"description":93,"children":-1},"Notice People","\u002Farticles\u002Fnotice-people","articles\u002Fnotice-people","Several years ago my daughter Michelle started making art projects using ordinary objects she finds in the woods and creeks near her home in southwestern Ohio. I’m amazed at the beautiful creations she designs using pine cones, acorns, fossil rocks, and other natural materials. Her crafts have grown into a small business (www.etsy.com\u002Fshop\u002FFairyCreekLane) with the tagline, “Handmade from my backyard to yours,” but even more, they have opened my eyes to a wealth of interesting items I tend to overlook. On the farm where I grew up, fossil rocks were everywhere. I saw them every day, tramped on them mindlessly, and skimmed them across the surface of a pond, but I never saw anything special in them. Michelle has helped me recognize the simple beauty of the brachiopods, horn corals, and trilobites spread along my path."]