August 2022: There's more to life than this

 

Hebrews 9:27-28 (NKJV) 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. I recently attended a Homegoing celebration that made a significant impact on me.  The person who had passed away was the same age as me. We were born in the same month and the same year.  He had passed away suddenly, and before his death,  he was so excited about his life's direction. Of course, to pass suddenly was a terrible shock to his family and friends, but I was in awe of what took place in the service. This young man had strayed far from God during his life, and his heart was quite hardened. It seems that in the period before he died, he was restored and fully committed to his walk with the Lord.   His mother is a powerful evangelist, intercessor, and teacher. She stopped the entire service to plead with people to come to Jesus.  I could not believe it! Here this woman had suddenly lost her oldest son and was pleading for people to get right with the Lord. Then friends of the young man got up to speak.  One young woman's words pierced me to my core.  She said the young man told her, "I was on my way to HELL, but now I know where I am going.  I have no doubt."  Months later, here she was speaking at his homegoing.  She, too, pleaded for people to open their hearts to Jesus.   Whatever Happened to the Gospel? At this time, I was also reading a book called "Whatever happened to the gospel" by RT Kendall.  He asserts that the modern church has stopped preaching the realities of death, Heaven, and Hell for motivational sermons about how to make our lives better here on Earth. He wrote: We are in a generation in which virtually no one is warning the world of the wrath of God to come. Not at all. This is why Christianity is primarily concerned about your death! How you respond to the Gospel of Christ will be the only thing that matters one hundred years from now. Paul was unashamed of this Gospel. He was unashamed of the reason people should be saved—because of the coming wrath of God. That is primarily why Jesus died on the cross. The death of Jesus and the reason He came was so we might go to Heaven and not to Hell. Martin Luther called it “the Bible in a nutshell”4—“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). What makes the difference between spending eternity in Heaven or Hell? The Gospel and your response to it - RT Kendall, Whatever happened to the Gospel   There's more to life than this... I have been reading about the great Revival preaching of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and back then, nobody told people they would get more horses, bigger barns, and how their lives would be more comfortable if they followed Jesus.   No! Those revival preachers were telling people to get right with God so they would spend eternity with Him and stop being so preoccupied with the traps of this life because there's more to life than this earthly realm.  People were convicted of sin and transformed by the Holy Spirit as they surrendered their lives to Jesus. Yet, in the 21st century, we have gone the opposite direction, and from my observations, it doesn't seem to be working.   This young man who passed away said he KNEW he was on His way to Hell, but THANK GOD he decided to turn back, and he had no doubts about where he would spend eternity.  Perhaps we must start challenging people to think about hard things like their mortality and where they will spend life after death. Contrary to popular belief, I believe that people want to be challenged to think more deeply about their lives and what is the meaning of it all. They're searching for answers about why we have undergone so much turmoil in the last few years.  Where is God in all of this, and what does this have to do with Jesus?   I also believe that people are looking for a cause.  I believe there is no better cause than the Kingdom of God, but to talk about that would mean dealing with complicated and complex issues. This won't be wrapped up in 30 minutes or be answered with simplistic and shallow answers. If a Worldwide pandemic, nationwide shutdown, global political tensions, and looming economic instability doesn't wake us up to the fact that we aren't immortal and this life is but a vapor, I don't know what will. Join me in praying for the global body of Christ and those whom the Lord will raise in this hour to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ so that none would perish. Prayer  Lord, we thank you for opening our eyes to the realities of what we're facing in these last days.  God, we pray for the Body of Christ as we see a changing of the guard take place.  Be with those you've called to preach the gospel in this hour so they would stand firm as they preach the truth.  Loving people means being concerned with where they will spend eternity.  We thank you, Lord, for the cross.  We thank you, Jesus for going to the cross and dying for our sins so that we may have everlasting life.  May we be on fire to spread the gospel so that none should perish, and we would all be with you for eternity. In Jesus' name, Amen