CREDIT: Faithlife on Logos
Dear Saints and Sinners,
We’re coming up on the year’s scariest night! At least that’s what the marketeers tell us. Horror movies with psychotic chainsaw killers. Costumes to make us look like zombies. Haunted houses. Even our local carwash and peaceful cornfields become places of horror. It’s a scary time!
Fortunately, these scary things are not, for the most part, real. They’re part of a fantasy world designed to stimulate the weird desire many have to be scared. But there IS something truly scary, something real, something I don’t think many give thought to. But when they do, it can be a frightful thought – the hour of God’s judgment. It’s scary because people fear the unknown. What happens next? Where will I be? How will it feel? When will it come? The hour of God’s judgment is unknown to us, but God has tried to help us rejoice and be glad for that hour rather than be scared at its inevitability.
Many are scared because they lack understanding about what happens when they die. Death is after all certain. But it’s nothing to be afraid of. God has sent His messengers into His creation - to all nations and tribes and languages and people - to help alleviate our fears through the gospel (Revelation 14:6).
Paul reminds us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God …” (Romans 3:23) If that were the end of story, God’s judgment would be terrifying! But it’s not the end because “…(all) are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24) All who believe and trust in Jesus, His sacrificial shedding of His blood on the cross for the sins of all mankind, receive forgiveness of their sins – all of them – and eternal life. What happens next? Where will you be? How will it feel? The answers - a) eternal life, b) in heaven, c) unbelievably good, d) all of the above. Don’t fear, it’s answer d). It will happen in God’s perfect timing.
Your Fellow Saint and Sinner,
Pastor Jim