WHERE WILL YOU END UP?

     —“This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Matthew 13:49-50.

     The Christian had made the point.  You get caught up in everyday affairs, while the seconds on the clock relentlessly tick on, not allowing you even one second longer than your allotted time here on earth.  At the point of your imminent death, no amount of crying, begging, pleading, or making promises will change the outcome of your destiny with God.  All that has been “pre-determined” by your many moments, hours, days and years of your life added up to this moment of your death.  Your actions and inactions that you did or did not take in searching out God and a relationship with Him now determine the outcome and a bad ending cannot be salvaged.   —”But they will have to give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” I Peter 4: 5 .
 
     Just as a marriage that for years has been abused or neglected, there is no “quick fix” for a lost or failing relationship when the divorce decree is final and the papers are in the mail.  So is your status with God. He desires a loving, close, daily relationship with you, and He desires it now.  He is like an anxious lover, waiting for your “yes” to Him, so that you and He may become one in the Spirit.  He wants to see Jesus in you, and see you wrapped in His Son’s love and His purity so that He may look upon you and be close to you.

     This kind of relationship requires love and commitment on both sides.  God is here, waiting.  It is you who “calls the shots” and determines how your life will proceed.
     Take a moment. Look over your life— past, present, and future.  You cannot change your past, but the sins of the past are upon your heart and soul.  Are you in need of cleansing?  Do you need someone to love you more than you can hope or imagine from any human?  Can you think of how your future will be without such love and care?
     All you need to do is to say “yes” to Him and His love and cleansing power. —”Just as a man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people;  . . . to bring salvation . . . “ Hebrews 9: 27-28 .

     Jesus will love you and the Holy Spirit will abide within you to comfort and guide you from this day forward.  Allow the waters of baptism to flow over you and wash away the filth and care of your old life and sin, and rise in a new and eternal life with God forever!
     Then you will be assured of your future and the wonderful answer to that burning, timeless question — “and then what?”