Next Wednesday my husband and I will be attending a free Medicare Seminar at a local restaurant. I can't believe I'm this old and eligible for Medicare!!! I still feel 28 years old inside!
I was just thinking, as responsible adults we do all we can to prepare for retirement with our 401K's, Medicare, etc., but how many of us make preparations for our ETERNITY?
We all have eternal souls that will eternally dwell in one place or another after we die yet many of us don't give a thought to make preparations for where we will inhabit eternity. We plan our retirement (even our funerals if we know in advance we need to) but for eternity? If you're honest, you try to avoid thinking about it. It's scary.
Before I became a believer in Jesus, the topic of God and heaven scared the daylights out of me. What did He think of me (if He thought of me at all)? How does one qualify for heaven? Most of us, if we're being honest with ourselves, know that we don't even measure up to our own standards much less that of a Holy God who demands absolute perfection. This bothered me so much I just drove it out of my young mind and avoided thinking about it but the questions lingered: How does God see me? Do my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds (a leftover from my Jewish upbringing and the Yom Kippur Day of Atonement). How do I know if I'm okay with Him and He with me? I could find no assurances from any source so rather than seeking for the answers, I became an atheist for a short period because then I had no one to be accountable to.
At 17 to my great surprise, I became a believer in Jesus as Messiah without even seeking for it. All at once, for the first time, the Bible actually made sense to me and as I read the scriptures for myself, I discovered that not only did the Holy God, creator of the Universe love me, but wanted a personal relationship with me. Little ole nobody me. That was almost 50 years ago and my passion for the Lord has not diminished.
I now have more days behind me than I do in front of me, and eternity is weighing more upon my mind. Am I living my life the way He wants me to? Am I sharing my faith with the opportunities He has afforded me? Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I'm serving the Lord in some way, and it is a reminder that I still belong to Him and am privileged to be used of Him in other's lives; which is why I started this blog. I used to hand out Gospel tracts as a young believer and approach total strangers with the gospel who found it as off-putting as I used to before I believed. No one likes confrontation so I try to develop a relationship first, share my faith and experiences as allowed but I still worry that I'm not doing enough. I'm not quick enough on my feet to come up with perfect responses to people's hard questions. Most don't even want to know about God, truth be told; they avoid the topic like the plague but sooner or later every single one of us will have to face our death and where we will spend eternity. Have you given any thought to this? Have you prepared for it or are you being an Ostrich and hoping it just all goes away, and that hell and heaven aren't true?
Unlike people I have read about or seen on YouTube having numerous supernatural encounters with God, and of those who have died and returned and attested to the reality of both heaven and hell. The descriptions of heaven and of God's love for us makes me long for it something fearsome. The descriptions of hell are so disturbing and nightmarish that people who have had them come back to life with real PTSD that God has to deal with. Hell is a horrific, nonstop assault on all of your senses: sight, smell, pain, thirst, anguish but the absolute worst part is the hopelessness; the knowledge that there is no escape and that you will be there for all eternity. After listening to the descriptions of hell, I can honestly say I would not wish my worst enemy to be there. Unlike my early years as a believer, I have come to have a healthy fear of the Lord and of hell. I cling to the promises that if I'm born again, I have been redeemed and rescued from a fate truly much worse than death: eternal death.
People often rail against God, accusing Him of "sending" people to hell when the opposite is true. Because of our sinful nature we were all doomed to hell, God went to excruciating and extraordinary lengths to rescue a thankless human race from this fate, but most reject Him. They expect everyone to go to heaven even if they are unrepentant, unregenerated sinners. Think about it, heaven would no longer be heaven, if it allowed in human souls still mired in sin; it would become as filthy and corrupted as the earth we now dwell in! God is the source of all light, life, and love; if you want nothing to do with Him in this life or the next, than your only option is for your eternal soul to dwell in utter darkness, alone, cursed for all eternity for rejecting the free gift that has been offered you. He does not "send" you there, you choose to go by rejecting Him. Everyone who testified of having seen hell said that they knew they belonged there.
I have never had any supernatural experiences other than some answered prayers. Sometimes I get paranoid that I do not have these experiences because I gauge them as proof of having a "real" relationship with God while mine has been solely based on faith in His word that "those who call upon the name of the Lord and trust in His name will be saved." To be honest, I would love to get a glimpse of Jesus, or hear his voice or have dreams and visions but that has not been His way to deal with me and so I must be satisfied with "Blessed are those who haven't seen and yet have believed."
Yet as my eternity draws closer and also because of my prior breast cancer diagnosis, I find myself longing more and more for the surety of heaven's promise and Jesus' salvation.
I am trusting Him with my eternity. Have you?
Comments