The media is filled with advertisements encouraging people to
plan for the inevitable. Funeral homes encourage individuals to pre-plan and to
pre-pay for their funeral services. Financial
planners will encourage families to have a will. Life insurance companies spend heavily
advertising the fact that we need to provide for our loved ones in the event of
our death.
Many in our
society have pre-paid their funeral expenses, purchased life insurance to take
care of their loved ones, and have drawn up a will. They have made the
necessary physical preparations, but they haven’t made spiritual preparations
for eternity.
The Bible teaches in Hebrews 9:27,
“And it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” The words, “after this,” are very
important. They reveal that there is
something beyond the grave that we must be prepared for.
What is it
beyond the grave that we must be prepared to encounter? We must be prepared to encounter
eternity. The Bible says in John 3:3 –
“unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Have
you made spiritual preparations for death?
Have you experienced the new birth? To be born again simply means to
accept Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.
How do we do
this? The Bible tells us in Romans
10:9-10, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.”
The Apostle
Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Bible teaches that The Lord Jesus defeated death and made provision through
His sacrifice on the cross that we can have eternal life.
The Apostle
Paul wrote these words in Romans 5:6, “For when we were still without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” The words of Jesus are recorded in
the Gospel of John. “And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
eternal life. For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).
Being prepared
spiritually should be a priority. In
Luke 19:10 the Lord made this statement, “for the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost.” Jesus
came for each of us. He offers eternal life
today to all who will simply call on His name.
The Apostle
Paul wrote these encouraging words in Romans 10:13, “For whoever calls on
the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Luke, the beloved physician writes in Acts 4:12, “Nor is there salvation
in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which
we must be saved.”
There is power
in this name to redeem humanity that has been captured by sin. Paul wrote to the church in Philippi the
following words: “That at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of
those under the earth, and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
I invite you to
call on His name today. When you do you
will meet the One, who alone has the power to forgive you and release you from
the guilt and condemnation that are a result of your sins. 1 John 1:9 gives a beautiful description of
what happens when we call on the name of Jesus. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”
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