God has given every person the Godlike power of choice, the ability to think, react and make up his mind. We can read every verse in Scripture from any passage God calls to your attention. The more we listen to Him in the word or prayer the more familiar you become and more certain you are when He is speaking. If we know why cannot we know whether we would be going to heaven when we die. Look at here, the Bible says, “Not everyone that said unto me Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven …… we had done miracles, prophesied in your name..... I will profess into them I never know you (Mathew 7:21-23). Every believer understood that these verses troubled us the most. We have a question before us as to whether our Jericho is a pride, fear of man, and out-of-control temper, spiritual decadence, a roving eye or a root of bitterness. In our search for eternal truth it is getting closer to God, and let us know that hell is going to catch many people by surprise. How can you know what is out there after you draw your last breathe.
Is your love for Jesus burning so much in your heart that you just cannot wait to tell someone about Him today? The prophet Jeremiah records his struggle to speak out – “ But His words was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay ( Jer.20:8,9). John Wellesley pleaded for such bold witnesses; ‘Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not as a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen such alone will shake the gates of hell. Wellesley would tell his evangelist trainees that when they preached, people should get angry or get converted. Theirs was not- Jesus loves you, but a Biblical message of sin, righteousness, law, judgment and Hell. He knew that message would lead people to the cross and to the Saviour.
Many people typically answer this question by saying they are good enough to go to Heaven. Of course, you know you cannot guarantee that you are going to wake up tomorrow morning. Each of us will get to the edge of death at some point in our lives. We are all hanging by our fingertips, one breath away from eternity. You should not put your head on your pillow tonight unless you know for certain that Heaven is your eternal destination and He is the sovereign ruler over all heaven and earth- and hell. We can remind ourselves of quiet scene of the night streets of Jerusalem, the tense, shouting of a crowd, most terrible sounds, the conclave in the house of the Sanhedrin to hold themselves ready for an emergency midnight sitting of the court, when men were working overtime to get three great wooden crosses ready for a triple execution at the dawn. The world had ever seen the pomp of power, the marching of legions, the godless worship of brute forces, curse of spiritual wickedness in high places and domineering menace of materialistic politics. That was the setting of this hushed hour of Sacrament and peace.
Some people think they will live their life the way they choose and then, when they are old and satisfied, they will get right with God. Whether you are old or young is not determined by your age but by when you die. If you die at eighteen or you are going to die at eighty, you have a lot of life left. We will not have enough strength on our own to pull ourselves ‘over the top’. God does not promise that everything will become smooth in your life with material abundance and there will be no problems once you surrender your life to Jesus. The temptation to hunt you will come from ungodly religious people who are jealous of how happy you are and how blessed you are in the things of the Spirit as well as in things of the world.
And today, in the services of faith, we are not playing at ritual in a crashing, needless world, not fiddling while Rome burns nor even, like the psalmist, crying for the wings of a dove that we may fly away for an hour from the pressure of tormenting facts and be at rest. We are here for the power that is going to help us to face the dark more manfully, the power which, - thanks be to heaven in the hours of testing. Over against the guilt and the standards of the world, we have affirmed Christ’s values till He comes. Believers of today by your action, you will remember that St. Paul put it challengingly to the members of the Corinthians Church, “as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup ye to show the Lord‘s dead till He comes”. Human life of ours is – resting back upon God, and then in the strength of that going to do battle with the thousand troubles of the world, and against the multitude of problems.
Keduovilie Linyu Chairman Baptist Revival Church Kharuzou
