Backpacks readied with gym clothes, completed homework, lunch box and . . . oh, don’t forget the music book for lessons after school. Getting the kids ready for school each day means staying on top of things that have to be done before heading out the door. And that requires a bit of purposeful planning.
Suitcase packed, mail stopped, plants watered, doors locked, and hopefully there’s plenty of gas in the tank. Where’s the map or GPS? Getting ready for a trip takes a bit more planning than just the day-to-day steps you go through for a run across town.
And then there’s the ultimate trip—the one we’ll all eventually take, from this life into the next. How do you prepare for that destination?
Well for some people, there isn’t much, if any preparation. No thought of the life after this present one, it’s just live for today, in this moment, as you please. Then it’s over, right?
For others, it’s a last minute thing. The plan is, well, to just wing it until the end of your life, provided you can predict when that will happen. Amends can be made later. Certainly a God of love would make heaven for almost everyone, wouldn’t He?
But in this one area of your existence, with so much riding on getting it right, you need to be sure. And God has done something amazing: He has revealed the Truth for everyone, so that instead of question marks and uncertainty, you can know His plan!
The Bible says our selfish rebellion against His Love caused us to be separated, disconnected from our future with Him. It’s like we have no passport, visa, or traveling papers. We’re born that way, spiritually dead.
God stepped in, knowing we would need another chance. He sent Jesus to earth to die for our wrong doing; to take the spiritual punishment we deserve on our behalf. From John 3:16, “so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus himself says, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). So God has actually done the preparation for us. It’s complete. What we need to do is respond to God’s offer of love and forgiveness through Jesus.
From John 3:7 Jesus says “you must be born from above”. The broken relationship between us and the Father needs to be restored. God’s grace already did the work, so our repentance or turning from our rebellion and expressing faith in him personalizes it and stamps the paperwork, so to speak. Our name is written in the “book of life” (Revelation 21:27). The working of Jesus in our spiritual life brings spiritual rebirth. And that spiritual rebirth along with a changed heart and new way of living brings us eternal life and is our passport to heaven.
It’s a great plan. In fact, the Bible says it’s the only plan. And the best part is that God has done the work for us!
You and I don’t know when we will take our last breath. It’s so important to take time and think about what will happen to your soul for eternity. Are you living ready to leave?
