I was in #MarcoIsland this weekend for a quick getaway and I had a pretty dark thought. When we first got there (around noon), our room wasn't ready yet. They said it would be ready around 4 o'clock. So we decided to get our swim trunks on and mess around on the beach (and pool) for a few hours. On travel days, I intentionally dehydrate myself so I'm not peeing every half hour while on the road. Well, this backfired when we had to spend 4 hours out in 107° heat. I had a thirst that I'd never had before in my life, and worst of all, we were surrounded by water that was undrinkable. My thought process led me to think about #Eternity and where I COULD spend my time after my time on on earth has expired. The #Bible talks about #Hell in many places but none as real as the parable #Jesus tells about a beggar named #Lazarus and a rich man. In a nutshell, the rich man had all he wanted and was very satisfied with all he had where the beggar was always hungry and was never satisfied. In time, they BOTH died and the #Beggar went to #Heaven while the #RichMan went to hell.
The Rich man says:
"Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'"
This hit me HARD for a few reasons:
1. In the circumstances of me being thirsty at the beach (lets be honest, I wasn't as thirsty as the rich man was), How can you be SO thirsty that you're BEGGING for a DROP of water to keep you going! And the rich man will NEVER die from lack of water in his system. He'll be desperately longing, for #ETERNITY, for JUST A DROP of water... I was thirsty, but not desperately thirsty. To feel the feeling that I felt at the beach was bad enough and I'd NEVER want to feel that for all of eternity.
2. I personally have many friends who haven't #Repented and don't know Jesus as their personal #Savior. I have friends that either don't believe or even mock me for my surrendering my life to #TheLord and His Will for me.
Here I am, a man who understands and repented of my sins, both past, present and future, and doing #God's work. And after the mocking of my #Faith or other reasons, I just dismiss them and have that "Oh well" mentality. Brothers and sisters in #Christ, there are people that we #Love that are gonna spend eternity longing for just a drop of water without success and hope for anything in the future, and we're OK with that!?!? When we say things like, "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy." But then walk away... unacceptable! And I'm the ring-leader in this area. There are some people in my life that I have REAL issues with. I don't like or trust them as far as I can throw them, and never pray for them. I have a childish view of the reality of #Heaven and Hell and don't worry about it because I know that I will be spending eternity laying on cool grass and watching a stream flow through the forest (one of my ideas of Heaven) I know that this is not what the Lord would accept. I know when I'm at the golden gates, I will be asked to give an account on what I did with the life The Lord gave me. And I'm pretty sure me trying to give the truth of God's #Sacrifice to my enemies is gonna be high on the account board. I do realize that it is by #Grace I've been saved, through faith, but faith without works is dead. A persons faith is measured by how they live their days. Its about the fruit of the spirit. If there are no fruit in our lives, where is the evidence that we are, in fact, #Saved? #FollowersOfJesusChrist, we need to do better. The age of men Is coming to an end. The world, as we know it, is going to change for the worse and people who believe in #ChristAndHimCrucified will be beat, tortured and killed. But this world is not our home. This place called #Earth is just a holding area. And what we do in this life WILL matter. Eternity is a LONG time! Lives are in the balance! This ship is going down! Get as many people in the lifeboats as we can. #Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand! Amen
References:
So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' -Luke 16:24
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. -Ephesians 2:8&9
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. -James 2:17
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. -John 3:16
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law -Galatians 5:22&23