Eternity

It was a sad weekend for our church family, as two families lost loved ones.

In one case, a couple we have known for years, roughly the same age as us, lost their 21yo son the day after his birthday to a heroin overdose.  He leaves behind a little girl and baby on the way. 

Despite having many struggles over the past few years with poor choices and self-destructive behavior, he had been doing well and his last Facebook post the day before revealed a thankful heart and optimism for the future.

As the church was informed and asked to pray for them, an older couple, who the week prior had brought their 26yo daughter to church and had prayed Scott as she was recovering from addiction and doing better, they told their daughter what had happened, warning her.  The next day she died of an overdose too, with her 5yo daughter in the room.  She also has a 7yo daughter.

We taught them and played with them in Sunday School yesterday, they were unaware that their mother had died, because their grandparents did not yet know how to tell them.

These are not isolated cases - drug deaths are rampant and it's not always people from "bad" families or poverty.  Our world is broken and there are many things that promise an escape, or [temporary] peace, but they lead us down the path of destruction.  Not just drugs, alcohol, acquiring possessions, sex and porn, even food.  All false gods promising redemption.

But the truth is we were created to crave and serve the real God, the one who made us.  Without him we are a slave to the desires that lead us to seek significance in places it can't be found.

These deaths have affected me more than any other because of their timing.  Recently I've been reading more about eternity. 

Many of us, myself included, turn to God for help in this life.  We screw it up on our own or fail to find purpose for our life, so, if we are very fortunate, we meet Jesus and he says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

But it's not this life that was Jesus's primary reason for coming.  At the end of this brief life we will find our eternal destination - our residence with no expiration.  Due to the separation of man from God, the default setting on our eternal GPS is Hell.  A place of incredible suffering and torment without end. 

There is nothing we can do to alter this course ourselves.  Doing good things is pointless without having a personal relationship with Jesus.  It is only through him, and his substitutionary death on the cross, where he went to hell in advance, on our behalf, and subsequent resurrection that we can be reconciled with God.

It is not what we do that changes our destination to Heaven.  It is our decision to lay aside our independence and accept the offer of Lordship from Jesus.  The scum of the earth have the same invitation as you and I, because we have all fallen short of God's standard of holiness, the extent is unimportant.

The thief hanging on the cross next to Jesus, at the very close of his own life, recognized that Jesus was the Son of God and had the authority to forgive (erase, remove) his sins against God and become acceptable to God - simply through faith that had the courage to say "I need you, because I am not worthy". 

Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43

We spend so much time and effort seeking peace and pleasure, reward and recognition, in this life that we fail to realize how little time we have to make decisions for the eternal life.

The smartest thing the devil ever did is convince people that neither he, nor hell, are real. 

People say that a "good God" would not send people to hell.  But in fact it is us - we have committed the sin that sends us to hell.  Our good God, sent his Son to rescue us!!  He made a way for us to escape the sentence we were born under.

How little time we spend contemplating eternity, or simply what comes after death.  We spend our days focusing on the here and now, but

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.  1 John 2:17

It is in love, and desperation that I write this.  I urge everyone to take a look at their life and consider the future.  If you have even an inkling that there is life after physical death, you owe it to yourself to find out what that is.  Don't take the chance.

I leave you with this account from the Bible:

Luke 16:19-31New International Version (NIV)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

²⁵ "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

²⁷ "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

²⁹ "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

³⁰ "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

³¹ "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

I love you.  God loves you.  Don't let pride or ignorance stop you from receiving that love.