They were all having lunch in cafes, rushing to meet deadlines at their desks, serving customers at a counter, lining up to pay for their shopping, studying at their desks wishing the school bell would ring. Mothers were feeding their babies or putting them to sleep, some people were having a day off and putting their feet up.
They were all just going through another normal day. But it was all changed in a horrifying one- minute quake that has reduced the city to chaos. For some, it would be the end of a long 'day ' on earth.
I often think of the testimony of Ian McCormack on his hospital bed, slowly dying from multiple box jellyfish stings. He said to himself, 'I'll take a quick nap, then I'll be stronger to fight this'. He woke up later, and the room was pitch black. He thought to himself, "who turned off the light?" and, "where is everyone?"
He got up and walked in one direction with his arms outstretched, aiming for a wall with a light switch. But there was nothing.
'Maybe I've gone too far,' he thought, so he turned in the other direction. But still -- nothing. He felt fully alive. But he had not realized that he'd crossed that invisible line between the physical realm and the spiritual realm. He was dead. But death is only the beginning.
I don't know about you, but what happened today in Christchurch reminded me of the frailty of life; that 'today' is as tenuous as a puff of breath in the winter air. My thoughts and prayers are with them in this fearful, uncertain time. I hope great good comes of it all, despite the current chaos. But I can't help but be challenged right now to assess my own life, in light of its frailty. And yet, it's so hard to live like it's your last day when it seems that life will go on forever.
And we're right -- in a way. According to the Bible, we will live forever - just not the way we are right now, and not in this realm either.
... Also He has put eternity in their hearts... Ecclesiastes 3:11
We were made to live forever. But HOW we will live forever comes down to individual choice: in the arms of God, or in the steps of embittered demons who themselves have rejected God, and who have made torturing souls the whole purpose of their existence. Demons already know their punishment; the only thing they can do now is to take as many people as they can with them. That's their ultimate attack on God.
The tragic lie of hell being a big party could not be further from the truth. All good things come from God - that includes pleasure, love and fun. Hell is as far from God as you can get. There, you can try all the naughty things that brought pleasure on earth and find with an eternal despair that there is no pleasure available there - because God is not there. The experience of hell is not called the second death for nothing. Please, choose Life! Jesus is the only way out of the slippery slope to that second death. And none of us know for sure how much time we really have left.
If you want to know more, I encourage you to check out http://www.allaboutgod.com/ and if you like, you could contact my church by email via the prayer request form at www.covenantchurch.org.au. We'd love to hear from you and help you answer your questions. We might not have all the answers, but we can tell you our own experiences, and the experiences of millions around the world who have found that this God is no myth, but alive, and better than you could have ever imagined.
But I digress.
Jesus warned that natural disasters, wars and civil unrest would become a prominent feature in the last days. If ever those things have become a prominent feature in a generation, it is ours. Just today, as a colleague counted off on his fingers the mysterious way all the wars, riots, earthquakes, floods and cyclones have coincided, he commented, "It makes you wonder what is happening." He's not the first I know of who has put it that way. We all sense something strange and significant in these happenings. The Bible has already told us what will happen...
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.
For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24: 3-14
The good news is that the good guys win. Satan will be relegated to his appointed punishment in hell along with his minions, never to bother us again. Those who have chosen Life as God defines it will receive a majestic reward that lasts all eternity. The sad thing is that many who thought rejecting God was freedom will find that they were deceived.
If you're reading this now, you still have time to make the right choices. How will you choose to live - both now and in Eternity?
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