Category: Eternity

Preparing to Travel

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

While I write this post I am in the midst of preparing to travel. Beloved Spouse and I are taking a road trip to see our Granddaughter dance “on pointe” in a grand end-of-year production of The Wizard of Oz. We will stay and help with family projects and enjoy the exuberance of the Ballet Girl’s four brothers, two dogs and 19 chickens. What a fun week it will be! Then our trip will take us to a family celebration of a great nephew’s recent marriage. The gathering of family we rarely see will no doubt be a joyful time.

Preparing for this travel has me making lists to ensure that all of what should be in our travel bags, in the camper’s kitchen, what should be prepared for Mother and the house left behind is fully thought out. This planning for the immediate future is important. What shoes will be needed for the ballet performance and the wedding party? What attire is appropriate for helping wrangle children and chickens and assist with yard and house projects for a week? What details about food in the freezer and notes reminding about yard maintenance should be made for short-term memory-challenged Mother?

Do you know where you will spend eternity?

This puts me in mind of all our lives. We should be preparing for our biggest trip of all. The destination will determine what we do to ready ourselves. So what is your eternal destination? Heaven? Hell? Those are the only two choices for every human being.

Destination: Heaven

If you intend to spend eternity in the presence of the Almighty and Holy God, you must prepare on His terms. First you must have your “ticket” and “passport.” There is only one way to Heaven. Because we are all sinners and separated from our Creator, we may only approach Him if we bow in humility and repentance before Him. He has provided a way for us to live with Him forever, but the “ticket” isn’t automatic. If you know and believe that Jesus– God enrobed in flesh– came to earth, lived as a true man, died under the wrath of the Father in place of us for our sins, was buried and is now raised to life, you may have eternal life in Heaven with Him.  This is the only valid “ticket” to the presence of God and Heaven.

Once you have your “ticket” your preparations will be an ongoing process. But don’t worry. The Spirit of God who lives in the one who embraces Jesus will be sure that soul will be clothed appropriately. You will have the robes of Christ’s righteousness and the shoes of peace. (Philippians 3:9, Ephesians 6:15)

You won’t have to worry about food or drink. Jesus declares and provides Himself as Living Water and the Bread of Life. (John 4:13-14; 6:35)

The trip may be rough. There are likely going to be some tumultuous times and difficult places on the “road.” Your route may take you past perilous ravines that threaten your faith in God. But He is watching over you and calling you onward to Heaven’s gates.  You may think you’ve taken wrong turns and are alone in a deserted place. But God is there and Jesus has promised never to leave or forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5) And just like He promised the thief on the cross in their dying hour, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”(Luke 23:43) Jesus will see you all the way to Heaven.

Destination: Hell

If, however, you decide to go to Hell, don’t worry about taking Jesus’s claims seriously. He says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6). You can just go into eternity on your own. No problem. You–your own self– is the goal, right? “I’ll do it MY way.” No need for this “Jesus is the only way” idea.

That way you don’t have to worry about a thing. No God, no light, no comfort. Just yourself for eternity. (That equals pure misery for eternity, I think.)

There isn’t much to pack since you came into the world naked and will leave it naked. (Job 1:21) “Nah,” you say. “God will let me into heaven. I’ve been pretty good. He’s a God of Love, isn’t He?” But be reminded, that there is only one Way to Heaven: Jesus. All your good works will stay right here. Utterly useless as a way to get through the “Pearly Gates.” God does not grade on the curve. He has a definite requirement for entry into heaven that is non-negotiable. Believe in Jesus, be born again and enter Heaven, or ignore God’s offer of salvation and inhabit Hell for eternity.

Maybe you’ve talked yourself into thinking about eternity later. If that is the case, my advice would be to work hard now to get great clothing and accumulate lots of “cool” possessions and spend every moment of your life relishing them. You need to be sure you have every delight and comfort you can possibly gather. Enjoy them as much as you can. One caution, though.  Be prepared to leave for Hell at any moment. God is the One who decided the day your birth and He is the one who has set the day of your death. Remember His warning to the rich man who was deciding to pull down his barns and build bigger, better ones: “But God said to Him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you’ and now who will own what you have prepared?” (Luke 12:20) Meanwhile, just drift on a river of hedonistic pleasures. Don’t worry about eternity.  It will get here soon enough. Or more likely sooner than you expect.

Prepare to travel! Know your destination! I’m praying you will be sensible and talk with God about your eternal destination. Only He can affect where you go. On your own, you are bound for Hell. If you turn to Him His grace will give you eternal life– in Heaven.

QUESTION: What preparations are you making for your eternal destiny?

Faith- Really?!

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Faith is complicated. And simple. Many times I’ve heard phrases like, “just have faith” or “I’m a person of faith.”  What does the speaker (or the meme-maker) mean? I venture to guess that the first suggests that the speaker is exercising “positive thoughts” about some desired situation yet to be resolved. The second seems to say that she considers herself to be moral, upright and one who thinks about “spiritual” things with some regularity.

what is ‘FAITH’, really?

 

But the truth is that FAITH depends on what or to whom it is applied. I believe many people are not totally clear about just what ‘faith’ means.

Here is the main part of the definition I found on www.dictionary.com.

Noun

  • Confidence or trust in a person or thing:
  • Belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion.
  • Belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.
  • A system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.

Notice that the first definition requires confidence or trust of something or in someone. Let me give you an example.

I can stand staring at a chair and declare most emphatically “I have faith that chair will hold me if I sit on it.” But until I actually sit on the chair, my ‘faith’ is just words. Until my action matches my declaration, I don’t really have ‘faith’. The one who has true faith knows what he believes about the object of his faith and is willing to completely trust himself to that object with its implicit message: “I will support you”.

In the case of the chair, we need to know how it is made. We need to know it will be capable of holding us up if we sit in it. If it is made of flimsy material or the joints aren’t glued or screwed adequately it cannot hold us without collapsing. It cannot support us even if we say with vehemence and stern authority that we have faith in it. If the object of our faith is untrustworthy our faith is useless and downright dangerous.

It is the same with our need to know just what it is that will happen to us when we die and where we will spend eternity. Many people have a vague ‘faith’ that their good deeds will outweigh their bad actions. Others think “everybody goes to heaven” with ‘faith’ that God won’t send any one to hell or maybe there isn’t a real hell. Others avoid thinking about the subject altogether. The truth is that we all will die and we all will face the judgement of Almighty God. Where we spend eternity will be the result of what and who we trust.

Eternity is long and the afterlife is real. A real heaven and a real hell exist. There IS a God to whom we will bow and answer for our deeds. On that solemn Day of Judgement what will we say? Jesus says He is the Way to a right relationship with God, but how do we know Who and what is Jesus? Can we trust Him with our soul and eternal destiny? I urge you to read the Gospel of John (especially chapter 10) for a clear answer to that question.

Being a Christian says that I trust or believe specific things about Jesus Christ that will influence my life and my eternal destiny. What is it exactly that I believe and trust about Jesus?  Upon what is my ‘faith’ based?

The Apostle Paul succinctly states it in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

“For I delivered to you, as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

God is perfect and holy, we have sinned and deserve His wrath as punishment. Jesus- God Himself- came to live among us as a real man.  He was crucified and God the Father laid all our sins on Him.  He died in our place under God’s wrath so we do not have to face that terrible judgement. He raised from the dead and lives forever so that we can have eternal life. His perfect life, His death in our place and His resurrection assure only those who believe in Him that they have been saved from their sin and will live forever. There is no other way to approach God and to be sure of our entrance into Heaven.

 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way narrow that leads to life…” Matthew 7:13-14.

God urges you to seek Him NOW while you are being moved to approach Him. You don’t know that you will have the next minute of life, let alone time enough to decide about what you believe. Once you are dead it will be too late.

So if I believe this about Jesus, how does faith act? It takes God’s Word, The Bible, seriously. It hears what God says and obeys what He has commanded. It believes the promises He has made. We obey Him when He says “have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3.  We believe Him when He declares “the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 7.  These are examples of exercising the faith we have been given by our gracious Heavenly Father.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2: 8-9

QUESTION:  So do you just say you have ‘faith’ in Jesus without really being clear what it is that you trust and believe? Do you act on your faith? What does your faith show itself to be genuine?