Are You Prepared?

Next week I plan to head down with a friend to Jindabyne.  It will be our first time ever visiting the snowy mountains.  While I am not too interested in the "snowy" bit, I am looking forward to fishing and having a little break from the normal routine.  It's amazing how much preparation goes into planning even a short trip to be a success:  accommodation must be booked, fishing gear prepared, planning for the weather conditions with clothing and boots, buying food, sorting out activities, and on.  It's like a full-time job trying to prepare yourself to not be on the job!  Perhaps a little bit of my American self is showing through:  planning a getaway is so much work it is a relaxing thought to stay at home, go back to work Monday, and forget the whole thing!

All this preparation has me thinking:  with all the prior planning necessary for a short holiday or vacation, how can it be that people think no preparation is necessary for eternity?  It is planning of a different kind.  Where we are going no one else can come, and we can bring nothing with us.  Naked we were born, and naked we return to the dust.  There are two potential eternal destinations:  heaven or hell.  The Bible says that it is appointed for man once to die and after the judgment.  We will all stand before the Living God - whether you want to or not - and every thought, word, deed, attitudes, and even sins of omission will be judged according to God's perfect law.  There is no one who will be innocent on that Day when judged according to our works.  The wages of sin is death.

Thankfully, Romans 6:23 doesn't stop there. Paul continues:  "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD."  Jesus is the Way to heaven, and we can prepare ourselves by making a heavenly booking through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  No long distance telephone call is required, and no details must be entered in a top-secret website.  We must simply humble ourselves before God, admitting that we have terribly broken His laws and are without excuse.  We must affirm we deserve hell for our great sins against Him and others.  Then we must repent, meaning that He has changed our mind concerning sin.  We decide to agree with God, committing to turn from our sin and follow after Jesus Christ in faith.  Our reliance is no longer in ourselves, but upon Jesus Christ our Saviour and Messiah.  He is God-Made-Flesh who died for the sins of the whole world so we too might be saved.  Romans 10:9 says, "...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  No man knows the day of his death, but everyone knows it is only getting closer.

You prepare for your holidays and vacations:  are your prepared for eternity?  What arrangements have you made?  If you neglect this most important calling of every person born in sin, you are planning for eternal disaster and damnation.  God implores all people through His Word in Ezekiel 18:30-32:  "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord GOD. "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"  Take to heart the words spoken by Christ in John 3:16-17:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."