All of us, me included, make billions if not trillions of decisions in our life time about our future.

Have you ever thought about the number of decisions we make in one day related to our future? We get up in the morning and decide what we are going to wear to the workplace. We decide where we will have lunch. We decide to stop for a few grocery items returning home that evening. We decide what we will do between arriving home and bedtime. Between these few decisions are perhaps thousands I haven’t even mentioned.

Any decision that extends beyond the time it takes to breathe our next breath is a decision of the future, and we have no guarantee of our next breath.

We buy items on credit, such as homes and automobiles, expecting to be around to make the payments. We plan for retirement and purchase life insurance for the “distant future.”

We make plans for college and a business career. We marry and have children. We plan our vacation which is only months away. We plan to take the children to the zoo the next week-end, which is only two days away. We plan to dine out with our spouse this very evening.

All the plans you and I make are taken for granted most of the time. We never really think about them not being fulfilled. However, before I take a drink of the coffee I just made, I could be dead. Before I get my leg in my pants in the morning, I could be in the next life, either in Heaven or hell. How many have gone to work in the morning and never returned in the evening? How many have gone to the concert, and not returned in the evening? How many have opened their car door and gotten in for the last time?

There was a man Jesus spoke of who believed he would be around to build bigger and better barns,

“But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 2:20)

That brings up another point. All of us have those “things” we like to hang on to. Think about this though, once we are gone, someone else will own them or they will be discarded. It won’t be our house anymore. Another family will live in it. It won’t be our fishing pole; someone else will be fishing with it. Others will be wearing our jewelry. Our money will be spent by someone who didn’t earn it. As with Solomon we concur,

“18Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. 19And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:18-19)

Billions of dollars are spent yearly on the upkeep of our bodies. Likewise, much time is spent to satisfy the body’s needs and pleasures. How much thought is given concerning our souls? The life expectancy of our bodies is less than a flash of time, in comparison to the eternity of our souls.  Jesus said,

“26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. 28Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:26-28)

Six days later Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain, and they witnessed a preview of Jesus as He would come in His glory. When the Church joins Him at the Rapture, we will see the same transfigured body of Christ. When He comes at the end of the Tribulation, the second coming, the world will see Him transfigured as the Son of God.

There is the absolute guarantee of every believer in Jesus Christ seeing Him in His glory and being with Him for eternity. However, there is no guarantee of our next breath for any of us. Those who do not know Jesus as their own personal Savior are playing Russian roulette with their eternal soul.

I’m at the age where I actually read the obituaries. For you young ones, your time will come. Old people whose bodies have finally worn out are not the only ones in the obituaries. Many of the young, more and more it appears, are included.

The younger we are the more death is taken lightly. I am of the opinion that God has placed within each of us a mental attitude that we won’t die for a long time. It will happen to someone else, but not us. Death is the furthest thing from our minds. I think it is fantastic that He has done this, because if He had not, we would all be a basket case, worrying about our time to die. We would be afraid to get up in the morning or even go to bed at night. Thank God, His grace has provided this for us.

However, He still wants us to be aware that we don’t know our time of death. We don’t know if it is years, months, weeks, days, minutes, or seconds away. As a Christian, there is no reason for me to fear death, and I don’t. I’m not too keen on dying however, but even in that, He promises to be with me.

The Lord also wants us to know that He will come for His Church, his bride, in an event called the Rapture prior to the period commonly called the Tribulation. None of us know when this will occur, no more than we know when we are going to die. It could be at our next breath. We don’t know. It will happen so fast, we will be here one second and gone the next.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:52)

The Christian, whether by death or the Rapture, has God’s full assurance that we will be with the Lord Jesus. We are insured by the best insurance company there is, The Eternal Life Insurance Company of Almighty God. The premiums have all been paid by the Son of God, and it will pay out in full upon our death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first.

To the contrary, those who refuse God’s Son Jesus Christ, have no hope. There is no guarantee of eternal life, only a guarantee of judgment and eternal damnation.

Those who disclaim Jesus claim hell. One of two things is going to happen soon, and I have no idea which will come first. Will it be the death of the body, or the return of Jesus to retrieve His own? Either way, prepare for eternity. Make sure your eternal destiny is guaranteed.

Grant Phillips

Why do so many people find it so hard to believe God? For example, He tells us in His Word that He led the children of Israel through the Red Sea by parting the waters. Once they were on the other side, He drowned their pursuers, the Egyptian army, by returning the waters upon them. Every excuse imaginable has been offered to annul any authenticity in this account, primarily that they actually went a different route that took them through a shallow area, perhaps ankle to knee deep.

We find this documentation of God in Exodus 15, but let’s read what God said through the prophet Nehemiah.

“And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.” (Nehemiah 9:11)

If that isn’t clear enough, and it certainly should be, let’s read the same passage in another very easy to understand, and accurate translation.

“You divided the sea for your people so they could walk through on dry land! And then you hurled their enemies into the depths of the sea. They sank like stones beneath the mighty waters.” (Nehemiah 9:11 NLT)

·        How can anyone deduce from that that Israel walked across via a shallow area?

·        What would be the point in “dividing the sea” if it were shallow?

·        How do you hurl your enemies in the shallows? Maybe you trip them. They were thrown or hurled into the deeps or depths of the sea. That ain’t shallow folks.

·        How do you drown an army in shallow water? It says they sank like a stone in mighty water. That’s a heck of a lot of water. No shallows here.

·        To top it off, God also blew the ground dry with a wind in order that they could cross on dry ground and not get stuck in the mud.

There are thousands of instances like this in the Bible that many people just cannot get to the point of believing.

Here’s the way I see it. If there is one instance in the Bible that is not true, why should I trust any of it? Also, should it not be true that God can do anything He chooses? Think about this now, it might slip by you. Doesn’t the fact that He is God make Him much greater than we could ever comprehend? You and I could never perform this feat mentioned in Nehemiah 9:11, but we are not God. We are mere humans. So, why do so many put our human limitations upon God?

It is understandable that those who do not know God are blind to the Truth. What isn’t understandable is that many of those who say they do know God are blind to the Truth. How can one who says they know God not believe His Word in its entirety, such as Nehemiah 9:11?

We have been in the last days for nearly 2,000 years, and are now in the last of the last days. We are, in these final days of the Church age, certainly blessed with religious people who are just as blind as the scribes and Pharisees of the first century. The Laodicean church is in full swing, and Jesus said to them, in part,

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind [emphasis mine], and naked:” (Revelation 3:17)

Jesus healed the sick, caused the blind to see, raised the dead, etc. He closed the mouths of lions against Daniel. He caused a flood that destroyed all people except Noah and his family. He died on the cross and rose from the dead. He says He is returning for His Church. He has given us signs, that abound by the way, to usher in the Tribulation. He has told us of Heaven, hell, the lake of fire, judgment, rewards, and much more. He has told us about sin and its consequences. How can it be that religious people, leaders no less, do not believe? They are blind. Why do they pick and choose what they will accept? They are blind. Are they truly saved?

Notice that I called them religious people. Religion and Christianity are not the same. Religion is the act of man doing it his way. Christianity is the act of man doing it God’s way. Religion seeks its own god, usually man himself. Christianity accepts God as God and accepts all that He is and says. Religion is man’s way to satisfy man. Christianity is a relationship with Almighty God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

It can be most irritating when we think of the religious leaders of our day who are leading others away from Christ instead of toward Him. As I type, I see the faces of those I am familiar with in my mind. One part of me would like to smack some sense into them, but another, wiser part, says they are lost and need our prayers. That is the part we all need to listen to. Some of us who rant and rave over the lunacy of today’s false teachers should certainly continue to do so, but they still need our prayers. Jesus said,

“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” (Matthew 15:14)

One person teaching falsehoods can lead many away from Christ. They instill doubts in innocent minds that trust them for the Truth, but instead are led toward the broad road of destruction. Perhaps if just one of these false teachers could be led to the Truth by prayer, the innocent victims who they would have led to destruction will instead be led to Jesus Christ.

If just one Truth-filled Christian, who has not spoken out before, would do so now, perhaps hundreds or thousands could be saved from the false teachings of false prophets.

Satan wants to place just the slightest doubt in our minds concerning God. Read the account of Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal beginning at 1 Kings 18:20. The doubters will say that Elijah actually poured four gallons of gasoline or some other ignitable fluid on the altar instead of water. Which do you believe? Elijah told the people in verse 21,

“And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”

Do you believe it or not? Is God really God, or is it all a lie? There is no middle ground. I will go so far to say that if we cannot believe these accounts that God has placed in His Word, I cannot see how we can possibly claim to be a child of God, saved by grace through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

If we cannot believe that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead for example, how can we believe anything God has said? We cannot. The only conclusion must be that no faith exists, and it is through faith in Him that we are saved by His grace.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

If we cannot accept every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, but instead pick and choose what we will believe, we are not of God. If we cannot believe the Bible’s condemnation concerning homosexuality, abortion, evolution, etc. we are not of God. Believe it or not, the Bible is that which proceeds from the mouth of God for us to accept as Truth. To do otherwise is to call God a liar.

“God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” (Romans 3:4)

“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” (1 John 5:10)

Grant Phillips