“THE DAY THAT HAS NO TOMORROWS”
MERRY FRIDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY
14TH SEASON OF BEYOND THE GRAVE OPENING NIGHT-OCT. 26TH
“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Rev.2:10
What started as just an ordinary day ended in disaster for the lives of so many that have been killed by terrorists, tsunamis, murderers and horrible hate crimes. To many of us the thought of this can bring fear and despair. One of these instances hit close to home recently when our daughter who lives in Lafayette watched as her sleepy Cajun town turned upside down at the disappearance of Mickey Shunick. She fought a heroic death at the young age of 22, which eventually led to the capture of a serial killer. Death will come to us all and to be brutally honest, we must face the question to what lies ‘Beyond the Grave’.
We are starting our 14th season of Beyond the Grave here at Victory Fellowship. Our plan was just to do a cute weekend Halloween drama in 1999 but the crowds just still keep coming after 13 years. There is something about death and eternity that all of us find mysterious and to some fearful. Random shootings are on the rise with the latest tragedy happening at the recent Batman showing in Colorado. We decided to use in our drama the tragic but brave story of Rachel Scott who was the 1st shot in the Columbine disaster with 11 others in 1999. She had a burning passion to “reach the unreached”. The Christian girl in our drama, who we named “Liz”, has a famous line when she realizes she is in heaven, says “I know what this is, this is heaven and I have been waiting for this since I was ten!” Heaven remains too far away in our thinking, after all there is too much to gain here on earth; so we think.
Just recently Craig Scott, who is Rachel’s brother and was also in the library where most of the Columbine shootings took place, was interviewed after the Batman tragedy. He talked of his anger, bitterness, and His faith dealing with his loss. He said one of the ways he got healed was the good that has come through his sister’s death.
Adam Clarke says; “Be thou faithful unto death – Be firm, hold fast the faith, confess Christ to the last, and at all hazards, and thou shalt have a crown of life – thou shalt be crowned with life, have an eternal happy existence, though thou suffer a temporal death. It is said of Polycarp that when brought before the judge, and commanded to abjure and blaspheme Christ, he firmly answered, ” Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me wrong, how then can I blaspheme my king who hath saved me?” He was then adjudged to the flames, and suffered cheerfully for Christ his Lord and Master.”