|
"This Was Your Life"
REV 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and
small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.
The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
I remember when I was younger reading a little booklet that someone left lying
around called "This Was Your Life" about some guy that supposedly died and went to heaven to face God concerning
the life that he lived here on earth. It was made kind of like a cartoon, so part of me thought it was a bit contrived
and silly, but there was also another part of me warning me that maybe some of this was true and that I should listen
to what it was saying. After I had become a Christian later on I did have more peace, but I still struggled with many major addictions
in my life. Even as a Christian I worried about what would happen should I die in that state, and even though part of me just
wanted to have life over with, part of me also knew that I was in grave danger and I needed to stay here and work
things out first.
2CO 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
There was one time in particular when I was river rafting in Montana and we hit a log
jam in the middle of the river and I was thrown out of the boat and sucked under this massive pile of logs. Underneath that
jam I had run out of air and could not breathe, so I figured that I was probably going to die. All I could think
about was all the things I had done here connected to addiction and I thought "I am not ready to meet God this way".
I knew very well from reading the bible that I would have to give an account for my life and I also knew that things probably
would not go in my favor. Right when I was about to start sucking water into my lungs it was like some unseen force
literally pushed me to the surface through a small hole in the middle of the jam. The first thing I said with my first breath
was "Thank you God". I never forgot that.
GE 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not
be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master
it."
God is a caring gentle Father that loves us no matter what we do, and He
always seeks to help us and to be merciful, but He must also live by His own rules. We have a responsibility to master our
impossible addictions by crying out to Him for His help. We have two choices, we can either choose to go our own
way and bump along in life, die, and then face Him with a very uncertain future. Or we can ask Jesus Christ to come into out
hearts and lives, save us, and to help us to overcome those things which would destroy us. Everything we do here in life is
being constantly recorded and will be shown later on in front of us and God, but we can change what is on that
tape by the choices that we make here. Ask God to come into your life today and to forgive and help you. It's your future,
so choose God and find freedom.
REV 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them,
be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father
and his angels.
|
