Eternity

I was reminded again today that eternity is just a heartbeat away for any of us.

We met Wyatt and his family at an event in May--we saw them again at the WSA national conference in St. Louis. Wyatt was their WS son and had been through quite a lot in his young life. Today he was admitted to the hospital for an operation and went into cardiac arrest during the operation (as an aside, there's a known risk--as a result of "unexplained deaths"--in putting children with WS under general anethesia). He died while being air-lifted to another hospital. We're grieving along with our friends.

Although I have a link to the "good news" about eternity on the side of the blog, I would be remiss and unloving if I didn't ask you directly: Do you know for certain that you will go to heaven when you die? There are no "if I dies"--only "when." And, despite what you may have heard, eternity does wait for you after death--what you choose on this side of death determines whether you will spend it in heaven or in hell.

I would be even further remiss and unloving if I didn't share with you how you can know for certain that you will go to heaven when you die. I'll do so by pasting a section from a new children's booklet I'm working on:

In the beginning, God made a “very good” world (Genesis 1:31). He made Adam, Eve, and the animals, and gave them plants to eat. But God said they couldn’t eat from one special tree. God said the punishment for disobedience was death (Genesis 2:17).

Instead of obeying God, Adam and Eve sinned. They disobeyed God’s command and ate from the forbidden tree (Genesis 3). Since that time, each person is born a sinner and disobeys God (Romans 3:23). We all deserve to be eternally separated from God in a terrible place called hell when we die (Romans 6:23). But God offers us a wonderful gift—life with Him in heaven forever!

God sent His son, Jesus Christ, to earth. Jesus lived a perfect life. But He was put to death on the Cross, paying the penalty for sin on behalf of mankind. He rose again three days later, showing that God had accepted His sacrifice. When we repent of our sins and believe that Jesus died in our place, we receive the gift of salvation from our sin (Acts 20:21; Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 10:9–10). We become a child of God forever!

Make no mistake, all roads do not lead to heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Faith in Jesus alone provides the way to eternal life. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

I know for certain that I'll be spending eternity with God in heaven--not because of anything I've done or any inherent goodness in me--my salvation rests in the finished work of Christ on the cross on my behalf.

What's your choice?