We here on the East Coast have been preparing for the days leading up to the landfall of Hurricane Sandy.\u00a0 Yesterday here in Virginia the grocery stores were packed looking like when the weather channel calls for snow in the area.\u00a0 All along the eastern seaboard people have been getting batteries, candles, lanterns, boarding up businesses and houses, and making sure they have the necessary supplies to get through several days of horrible weather and potential power outages.\u00a0 But all this got me to thinking, are we as diligent about preparing for eternity as we are a storm?\u00a0 The Weather Channel and other media outlets have been good about warning those in the path of this storm of the potential destructiveness that is coming with this storm.\u00a0 Yet as I woke up this morning there are people in the northeast and other parts of the east coast that decided they could ride it out and are now in need of being rescued.<\/p>\n
Believe it or not there are a lot of people who try to “ride” life out despite the numerous warnings that life is going to end, and sometimes it will end unexpectedly.\u00a0 All you have to do is read the newspaper or read online, not all the people who are dying each day have lived a “long” life.\u00a0 And yet many people feel that they are bigger than life and that there is not an eternity to prepare for, just like those who think despite the warnings of an approaching storm, they decide they can ride it out and will be fine.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is this, the Bible speaks very candidly about eternity.\u00a0 James 4:14 says, “. . .For what is your life?\u00a0 It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”\u00a0 Hebrews 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”\u00a0 These are just two verses that speak to the certainty of not only death, but an afterlife as well.\u00a0 For those who believe they can “ride” out life and that since God is loving He would not send them to hell or you don’t believe in a literal hell.\u00a0 It should be noted that Jesus spoke of hell and its literal existence three times more often than He spoke of heaven.<\/p>\n
The best method concerning an approaching storm or your death is to be prepared.\u00a0 The best time to prepare for a storm is when it is several days away.\u00a0 The best time to prepare for eternity is now.\u00a0 Don’t be like the people who wait until the last possible second to go to the store to prepare for the storm, because you just might miscalculate when the “storm” (death) is going to happen and you may be stranded.\u00a0 The biggest difference between riding out a storm and not planning for eternity.\u00a0 If you get stranded in a storm, rescuers might be able to get to you in time, if you die without being prepared for eternity, there will be no one to save you.\u00a0 Make the necessary preparations for eternity now, trust Jesus Christ, believe that He died on the cross for your sins, He was buried, and on the third day He rose from the grave.\u00a0 That and that alone will save you and prepare you for your eternity.<\/p>\n
P.S.-eternity is a lot closer than you think!<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We here on the East Coast have been preparing for the days leading up to the landfall of Hurricane Sandy.\u00a0 Yesterday here in Virginia the grocery stores were packed looking like when the weather channel calls for snow in the … Read More