If you died tonight….

Where would you go?

Several people I know or know of have died suddenly in the last few months. One was a young grandmother who was killed in a car accident. Another a young woman just engaged to be married. She had a heart attack (I think she was 23). There isn’t one of us that has a guarantee of taking one more breath.

What would happen to you? I know many believe life just ends. That is it. No afterlife at all. You know, you would have to die to prove that to be true. It would be so sad to die and discover that there is more and you weren’t ready for it.

We are all human. What does that mean? It universally means we all make mistakes. The bible words it “There is none righteous, no, not one.” And ”All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Every human who has ever lived has sinned. EVERYONE. No exceptions.

There are two places to spend eternity: heaven and hell. Heaven is the total presence of God (we have a part of His presence now, but not the whole thing). Hell is the total absence of God. all the good things about this world are because of God’s presence; all the bad because of where He is absent (through human being’s refusal to let Him in). imagine a place with NO bad whatsoever. Man! What a party! Now imagine a place with no good at all (no pretty clouds, flowers, friends, puppies, chocolate). Yuck!

God is so pure and so good that sin can not exists in his pure presence. Thus anyone who has sinned cannot be with God. This means no one can be with God. the wages- the payment- that would be required for us to be able to go to God would be death by torturous execution- hell.

However, God loves us. He loves us so much He left His divinity behind, put on a robe of flesh, walked this earth for thirty-three and a half years making sure to never sin so He would not be tainted Himself…..and gave Himself as the payment for our sins. He paid the price for our disobedience, self-righteousness, dishonesty, pride, greed, laziness. He CHOSE to do this for us, even though we are dirty awful sinners. He gave this gift to us; a free present. All we have to do is take it, accept it.

If I take $1,000,000 and wrap it up all pretty and place it on your doorstep, can you spend that money? No, you can’t. not until you accept the gift; pick it up and open the box.

God has given you this beautiful gift of His salvation. But you have to accept it.

“Jesus, I know I have sinned. I deserve to go to hell. But I know, too, that you paid that price so I wouldn’t have to. I accept that gift now and ask you to come into my heart and guide my life.”