Do we even care that we are going to experience eternal death if we do not know the living God?
Either we do not believe in Jesus the Messiah or we are just “cultural Christians” or we care a damn about any of these. As someone told me , “who knows if these things mentioned in the Bible are true?” Well, history has proven that events of the past mentioned in the Bible has taken place and many events mentioned are taking place now as though turning the pages of the scripture and there are many events yet to take place that are mentioned. It is happening in front of us!
Last night my daughter and wife were watching the movie “Titanic” at home and when I came down to get some water, I saw my daughter crying while watching the movie. My wife too had tears rolling down her cheeks. When I enquired about the reason for their discomfort and the tears, my daughter said,” do you know what would’ve gone through their minds at that time when the ship was about to sink?, what those little children had to go through?, What a horrible way to die! etc. etc.” When I thought about it, yes, it would’ve been really horrible to face death in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, when if everything would’ve gone well, they would’ve all been either sleeping , eating , partying or may be even playing some games on board.
The makers of the ship were so over confident that they did not carry enough life boats and had supposedly said, “Even God cannot sink the Titanic!”
Thinking about it, I told my daughter, “Darling, you’re crying for all those people who lost their lives in the Atlantic and the agony they went through, right?” She said yes. Then I told her about a reality that is to come. I reminded her that all of us, the people whom we know, including our good friends, relatives, work mates, school mates, neighbours and all kinds of acquaintances who do not know and do not have a personal relationship with the Creator of this universe are going to die an eternal death, which is going to be many times worse than the death the victims of Titanic accident had. Then she stopped crying and looked at me and said, “Yes, that’s true dad.”
Isn’t it true that many of us who call ourselves Christians go about our daily lives not giving a thought about this eternal truth?
Before I became a born-again Christian I would never talk about Jesus the Messiah to others, for the simple reason- I did not want to offend my friends who are from different faiths. Now my heart goes out to them and I pray that they would all have an encounter with Jesus and accept Him as their personal saviour before they leave this planet. There are people who think “why are these “morons” trying to force their faith on us?” To be honest, born-again Christians go through this not for their sake but for the sake of their friends or relatives who are going to experience eternal death due to not believing in Jesus as the Messiah.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6.
I am taken back to memory lane many years back, I was a teenager and new to the hustle and bustle of the city of Bombay. To get to the place I wanted to go, I had to cross a train track (which was the norm then).As I was about to put my leg on the tracks someone just pulled me back and said ”there’s a train coming”. When I looked to my left the train was already in front of me. I gave a sigh of relief and thanked God .
The work of evangelists is similar to this- a train is coming straight on to hit you and for some reason you did not see it coming and “fortunately” there was someone to pull you out in time from the train tracks, so that you are saved.
I cannot think of the fact that my friends with whom I crack jokes, laugh, play, party and go for holidays with are not going to be with me in the Kingdom of God. This haunts me and I look for any window of opportunity to speak about Jesus the Messiah to whoever I come in contact with even if they would consider me a moron or a lousy character who is a bigot, a fanatic or whatever. Eventually, I know they would thank God for sending someone to speak to them about the living God.
What a pity, it is to see the church going “nominal Christians” who mind their own business, do not “offend” others and do all church activities so religiously and live their lives like anyone of the world. The difference is if we are “born-again”, we are dead to the standards of this world and are preparing ourselves to be heirs to the Kingdom of God.
John 3:16 says – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
If we consider Christianity as one among the many religions and life-styles around the world and viewing Jesus as another human being, we are gravely mistaken. True Christianity is all about the relationship with the creator of the universe, rather than a “religion” the very concept on which the whole world is having disagreements over! Religions indulge in war and hatred in proving which one is superior to the other and such negative emotions and activities are not from God who is full of love and compassion.
Jesus is the Son of God i.e. part of the triune God. God had to take the form of a human being to appear before us because God is so powerful. Believing in Jesus the Messiah and accepting Him as our personal saviour is not about following a religion but it is in-fact about having a relationship with the creator of the universe, so that even if we die a physical death on this planet, we would be raised from the dead and have an eternal life with the God of this universe in His heavenly Kingdom for billions and billions of years for eternity.
The truth is, after our death on this planet, we would be raised on the day decided by God. Those who have believed in Jesus Christ would enter the Kingdom of God and live with Him for eternity and those who rejected Jesus Christ would be in hell with satan for eternity.
God bless you all!