“He’s in the newspaper!” - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

He will say, I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. Indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.
Luke 13:27.30

"He's in the newspaper!"
An elderly lady used to read nothing but the obituary notices in the newspaper. It was the age of the deceased, compared with her own, that interested her above all. In her mind she then made some calculations and estimated her expectation of life. When she came across the name of an acquaintance, she remarked, "He's in the newspaper!"

While the headlines on the first page of the newspaper bring important or sensational news items, the obituary page reminds us that every day a host of people quit this earth for ever, mostly for common reasons like illness or old age. But their death is always the consequence of the plague that has afflicted mankind since he was banished from the garden of Eden: sin.

Who is prepared for this final departure? We fear that not many are ready to appear before the "Judge of all the earth" (Genesis 18:25). They drift along without God or Jesus Christ and without believing the gospel and being converted. And it is not always people who are conspicuous through their reprehensible life. To this large crowd belong honourable people who have rejected the salvation that God offers through Jesus Christ.

If a name is "in the newspaper", it does not automatically mean that it is also recorded in "the book of life" that God keeps (cf. Revelation 21:27).

Today's reading: 1 Chronicles 2:1-55 · Psalm 78:65-72