Every person in this life, who has reached the age of accountability, must make a multitude of choices during his or her lifetime.  The most important choice you will ever make is whether you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior or not.  There is no middle ground; you either choose one or the other path to take. If you do not stand with Jesus Christ, then you are against Jesus Christ.  When it comes to salvation, there is no wishy-washy alternative way to enter into God’s Heaven.

You can choose to take the narrow path of Faith, Hope, and Love in Jesus Christ, or else you can choose the dangerous wide road through this life, represented by Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, oh my!  (borrowing a famous line from the movie Wizard of Oz.)  If you take the wide road, which is sadly and unfortunately trod by a majority of people in this life, it will lead to your destruction and eternal separation from the God who created you, and Jesus Christ who saved us from all our sins by means of His shed blood, when He died for us on a cruel Roman cross.  Jesus is the Lamb of God (John 1:36). You merely need to believe Jesus endured that for you.

Belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the only way for us to be made righteous in the sight of God the Father and thereby allow us to gain eternal life in God’s heaven with Jesus when our earthly life ends.  We will then live eternally in our glorious, resurrected bodies fit for heaven and made possible by Jesus’s resurrection from the dead and His victory over death.  Jesus himself told us, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father, except through Me” (John 14:6).

Remember the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans song ‘Faith, Hope, and Charity’?  They sang, “faith, hope and charity (love), that’s the way to live successfully. How do I know? The Bible tells me so” (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is important to read the Word of God to learn all the truths and promises God and Jesus left for us to discover in the Holy Bible. It provides us with words of wisdom to help lead us down the ‘straight and narrow path’ in this life (Proverbs 3:6).

Becoming a believer in Jesus Christ (a Christian) does not mean an easier life on earth.  Most likely just the opposite.  Being a Christian cannot help us escape the evil and chaos in this world because Satan goes about like a ‘roaring lion’ seeking to devour all the people he can, and Christians are his favorite targets (1 Peter 5:8). However, being a Christian certainly helps us know and rest in “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

I penned the following poem, which has helped me know the ‘peace of God.’

God is in control; He’s got things well in hand. He’s doing all that is best for His eternal plan.  God is in control; I pray for His Will to be done. I put my trust in Him, God the Three in One. (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit)

I also penned these words to a song I wrote.

Give your heart to Jesus; give Him all of your heart today. Give your heart to Jesus; He will wash your sins away.  Trust Jesus as your Savior; He is the Life, the Truth, and the Way. Give your heart to Jesus; give Him all of your heart today.  Jesus knows your darkest secrets; He still loves you anyway. Ask Jesus to be your Savior, and He will wash your sins away.  Give your heart to Jesus; He will hear you when you pray, “Forgive my sins, Lord Jesus; I give you all of my heart today.

Romans 10:9-10 states, “if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with your heart, you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.”

My prayer is that you will give your heart to Jesus today and confess Jesus as your Savior!  You will never regret doing so, once you experience the liberating feelings of God’s ‘mercy and grace’ in your life.

Dion & The Belmonts had a hit song in 1960 titled ‘Where or When,’ and one verse says, “but who knows where or when?” The song had nothing to do with Christianity, but the title and lyrical question could certainly be applied when considering the topics of our physical death and the Rapture of the Church (Christians) from the earth by Jesus Christ.  The Rapture is the event that precipitates the horrible seven-year great tribulation period on the earth, which will be dominated by the anti-Christ. None of us should want to experience those awful seven years.

We do not know where or when we will face our physical death, so that should create a sense of urgency in every person to become a believer in Jesus Christ and thereby avoid an eternal spiritual death, separated from God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, forever.  So, the sooner you believe in the scripture words found in verse John 3:16 of the Holy Bible, the better for you! “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).

You could die tomorrow in any place, at any time.  We are all God’s children, but each of us must personally choose to accept the free gift of salvation made possible through your belief in Jesus Christ and what He did for you on the crucifixion cross.  Your belief in Jesus’s death as the sacrificial Lamb of God is the only way to have your sins redeemed and thereby be made righteous in the sight of God the Father, and thus enable you to enter eternal life in heaven (Hebrews 9:28).

Entering heaven can only happen by your belief in the shedding of Christ’s blood for you, His death upon the cross for you, and then His victory over death by His Resurrection.  Jesus is the ONLY way to eternal life.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

To be a Christian means you chose to enter the narrow gate that leads to heaven, through your faith in Jesus, rather than choose to enter the wide gate of unbelief that leads to damnation (Matthew 7:13).

Now, for those Christians who are still alive on the earth when the Rapture takes place, we still need to ponder the question of where or when will this event take place.  We do know that Jesus will appear in the air above the earth and snatch away believers in Him, all in the twinkling of an eye, with a shout and a trumpet sound, to join Him in the clouds of His glory in the air, and we will be taken to heaven with Him in our new resurrection bodies.  The Bible does not give us all the precise details about the Rapture, but it would seem it occurs all around the earth at the same time (Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

Some fortunate Christians are going to experience the trip of a lifetime without physically dying when the Rapture takes place, but all Christians, dead or alive, will receive their resurrection bodies and be taken to heaven.  Not to exist as just some spirit floating around without a body for all eternity, but we will have a real touchable body, capable of the enjoyment of eating and much more, just as Jesus did during the 40 days He spent on Earth after his resurrection, and before His ascension to Heaven (John 21:12-13).

Now, as to the ‘when’ question about the Rapture, the answer is easy.  We do not know when.  The Bible states clearly that only God the Father knows the precise time (Mark 13:32-33).

However, the Bible does share some details as to the ‘signs of the end-times’ which will take place prior to the Rapture.  These signs give us a general indication on when the Rapture and the following Great Tribulation period will occur.  By noting and seeing with our own eyes the increasing severity and frequency of the signs, as listed in the Bible (which scripture compares to childbirth pains), it appears the Rapture is rapidly getting closer by the day because the signs are falling into place and beginning to happen all at the same time today.  Therefore, it seems the time of the Rapture is imminent (Matthew 24:3-14; Romans 1:21-32; 2 Timothy 3:2-4; Matthew 15:19; 2 Peter 3:3; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 4:18-19; Revelation 3:10).

There is nothing left to be done, as recorded in Bible prophecy, to prevent the Rapture from taking place at anytime now.  So again, there is urgency in your decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, because you don’t want to be ‘left behind’ to contend with the ugly hardships of the seven-year tribulation period.  Make your decision for Christ right now because no one knows exactly ‘where or when’ our death, or the Rapture, will take place.  But your choice is a matter of your eternal life or death.  Don’t gamble on this most important decision of your life.