If you don't know Jesus, then this life on earth is the only heaven you will ever know.
If you do know Jesus, this current life on earth is the only hell you will ever know!
These words are so very true, and for just about 100% of the members of this gathering place the second sentence is the one that applies.
So you should have picked up two things from that statement.
First of all, being saved we know that if we walk in the shadow of our King Jesus this walk on earth, a very temporary one is as bad as it will ever get.
Secondly, it changes the prospect of dying from one of fear and sadness to one of anticipation for what comes next, or at least it should!
Isiah 46:3-4 says it well
3 “Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
and have carried since you were born.
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
He will sustain us. He will keep us in the stuff that we need. That might be a flat tire that causes the delay getting to the restaurant. The very restaurant where the latest mentally ill or ISIS wanna-be decides to see if he can best his buddy's 50 dead body count. Or maybe he puts bread on the table, or finds the money for the overdue mortgage payment, or perhaps while everyone is losing their way and jobs, you hit the jackpot.
His blessing comes in so many ways, that's its hard to count, but they come, don't they!
These are turbulent waters we have sailed into with someone whose moral compass has been pointing more in the direction of the wind, than to the one unchanging eternal truth and father of everything. Yep, we're there and it's a morass, it's a mess. To me it is feels like entering a battlefield. There is danger everywhere, but I haven't pinpointed the source yet. I'm not even sure of the nature of it. All I know is that it is here, it is waiting, it has powerful weapons, it is going to attack, and last of all, I will win the day and gain victory.
Granted that victory may not have me perched on a throne atop a mound of gold (or old NOS Chevy parts!!!). It may end with my last heartbeat that shows me smiling knowing that I am entering eternity, and knowing that my sacrifice saved those kids standing over there. Yup, might end like that, but that's the way things swing down here in the hood.
I am more concerned, and so should you be as well, if you love our Jesus, to be doing the right thing. I need to be testing the water to ensure it is of good quality, and not concealing some bacteria, some lethal poison, or a virus which will destroy. I can do that, thankfully, or should I say "Thank God" because I have at my disposal My Mark 1, M-101 Bible. This thing has this mechanism in it called knowledge, and even the wisdom adapter! It has a lens through which, like the X-ray glasses of old which the boys used in the comic world to look into walls and sometimes after that girl over there! This optic which works with the other adapters I mentioned to allow me to look at a thing and determine it's quality. Not like the thickness (Thinness??) of the steel on some Korean car, but the quality of something as it pertains to the word of my perfect Father in heaven.
I can look at a new law for example. Let's say, one legalizing the marriage of a man to another man. My optic turns red warning me something is amiss! The Bible condemns homosexuality as an immoral and unnatural sin. Leviticus 18:22 identifies homosexual sex as an abomination, a detestable sin. Romans 1:26-27 declares homosexual desires and actions to be shameful, unnatural, lustful, and indecent. First Corinthians 6:9 states that homosexuals are unrighteous and will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I'm not picking on homosexuals here, heck God loves them the same as he loves me. Therefore if he thinks they are worthy of being loved, who am I to question the one who made me? Yea, its not the man, it's the sin. My Moral, bible powered optic on the world identifies the quality of a concept or idea or law or act, or concept, or what's being said, and that is enough.
Now, being a soldier and some would say not too awful bad of one, although others might say the opposite, but with being a soldier I try to distill things down to the absolute basics and essentials. I have had little precious time to consider in depth every factor bearing on some decision. I had to find a way to ferret out the "Noise" and get to the essential factors, the critical points and act on that. For that reason I am capable at making some decent quick decisions and I am also a miserable failure at the listening part of being married to a woman. Guys, you know what I'm talking about, so I'll spare the 70,000 word manuscript explaining that communication concept, and stay on point with my critical thinking theme.
I have found that with respect to everything that ever has been, is, and is yet to come...With everything like that which is, well, everything, I simply ask myself a simple question: Does it point to Jesus? Does it align with the word of God? Does the holy spirit in me stay in his happy place or start sumo wrestling with my insides?
With all too much these days, I have been hitting the pain meds and pepto bismol quite frequently. Thinking about this thing with transgenders (What is that anyway...I mean how can that be??) I had diarrhea for a week! Check, that ain't right! Next decision...
Islam??? Nope, same-same and it gives me gas too!
And things come up all the time. Strange things that make no sense unless you look at it the way it really might be. Lately it is this Pope's decision to perhaps plant a mosque in Vatican city. Kinda like adding a few drops of vivid black paint to a bucket of white paint in the hope of achieving a brighter, purer white! Yea, like that! How is that going to help? Well, again, 1. I'm a Kentuckian, 2. I'm male, and 3. I'm a soldier. With those three qualifiers, I may not be sharpest pencil in the drawer!
Well, I got to thinking about that. Does it point toward Jesus? Does it glorify him? Well no and no, so we're off to a pretty bad start if you're wanting to convince yourself that anything with respect to that is a good thing. But then the soldier in me started to look about. Yes, sure enough I was short final to yet another LZ, another raid, another battlefield. My goose bumps were up, they're up right now! I remembered that the Anti Christ comes from Rome. Not Rome the city necessarily, but let me ask you, what is the single greatest manifestation of Rome on earth??? Could it be? I'd be watching and testing
Matthew 7:13-15
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them.
I'd be honing your testing skills! I'd be prepping to stand firm on the word, for you too are going to be tested. Shy not from the Lord, because he is your anchorage in this sea of calamity. You better stay anchored, you had better repent and leave sin far behind you, and be that light into this darkening world. Do that for him, he died for you!
