What a wonderful time we had last week at our ice cream fellowship and celebration. It was good to see friends and so many young people who came out to fellowship together. We are blessed to be a church family and I appreciate you coming. Special thanks to Keith and the family for providing the ice cream and for serving. Thanks also to the hospitality committee and those who provided wonderful desserts. It was a wonderful time and the spirit was sweet.
Kathy and I have been watching a television show this past week entitled “Timeless”. It’s a sci-fi type of show. It’s about three people who travel back in time to try to stop something from happening that might change history. It’s an enjoyable show and I think I enjoy it because it does talk about things that happened in our history. One of the characters in the story said, “we can’t do something that would change history.” I know you can’t do that, but it does cause me to think, “what would l change if I could go back to a certain time?”
There’s a story in Luke 16:19-31 about a man who was called “the Rich man”. The rich man had everything he could want, but was not a follower. When he died, he went to his eternal punishment in Hades. While there, he looked up at Abraham and called out to him to send Lazarus down and give him some cool water because he was in torment and agony in the fire. If only he could go back and change time, I am sure he would. In verses 27-28, he actually asks that Lazarus be able to go and warn his family so they will not have to endure the pain he is having to endure. He wants them to be warned. He is told that Moses and the prophets will be able to warn them, if they will only listen.
It is the story of reward and consequence. It is the story of eternal life and eternal death. It is the story of a choice we all must make in our lives. We can choose to accept Christ and have the promise of eternal life, or reject Christ and be eternally separated from Christ. God wants us to choose life. He wants us to make the decision to live for Him and allow Him to lead us and guide us as we live each day. Some people don’t want to choose to follow Christ because they feel they have to stop enjoying living. But that’s not what Christ said. He said he came so we could have life, abundant life. More importantly, He came so we could have eternal life.
My prayer is that one day, when we are no longer on this earth, people will not look back and say, “I wish I could go back and change the decisions they made.” There are no do overs once we die. We must make the decisions while we are alive to accept Christ and live for Him. Until next week…
Peace and Blessings,
Johnny
