Monday, September 8, 2008
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When our older son was little, he would sometimes wander into the living room, crawl into my lap, and snuggle up so close I wasn't sure how he could breathe. One night he looked up at me with those big blue eyes of his and he told me something I've never forgotten. He said, "Daddy, when I'm in your arms, I feel so safe."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knowing You're Safe."
No matter how old we get, we're still looking for arms where we can feel totally safe, especially when we think about eternity.
For many years, my wife has wanted to find her grandfather's grave. So recently when my work took me near the area where Bill Harrison was buried, she checked out all the local cemeteries hoping to find that grave. Granddad Harrison had been an alcoholic since he was 12, but on the night he was planning to kill himself, he was attracted into a rescue mission by a song his mother used to sing. And that night he committed himself to Jesus Christ, and he never touched alcohol again. He spent the rest of his life traveling the country telling about the power that had changed him.
My wife never got to meet him; he died before she was born. And no one is alive today who could tell her exactly where he was buried. Sadly, she couldn't find a grave with his name on it. But she finally called and told me a little tearfully, The last grave we looked at had no name on it, but the same words we had inscribed on my mother's grave were on that gravestone, 'In the arms of Jesus.'"
Whatever they put on our tombstone some day, I hope those words will accurately describe where you'll be the moment after you die - safe in Jesus' arms. The Bible lets us know that this hope is more than just a nice epitaph. It says of those who belong to Jesus Christ, that they will be "away from the body and at home with the Lord" (1 Corinthians 5:8). Or, to put it simply, safe forever.
In our word for today from the Word of God, Revelation 21 beginning at verse 3, the Lord gives us a peek at what heaven will be like. It says, "God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain ... The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it ... there will be no night there." Of course, the most important question for you and me is, "Who will be there in heaven? Who goes to be 'in the arms of Jesus' when they die?"
Well, Revelation 21:27 says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it ... but only those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life." Earlier in the same book, God says, "If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
The Bible makes it clear that God gave His only Son for us that "whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). That's who's in that Book of Life. Bill Harrison, my wife's mom, you or me, we end up "in the arms of Jesus" not because God accepts what we have done, but because we accept what God has done when Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins. Nobody will make it to heaven because of the good they've done. The Bible says, "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). And no one with sin can enter heaven. That's why Jesus had to die to pay a death penalty we could never pay, to remove the only thing that will keep you out of heaven when you die - your sin.
To end up in the arms of Jesus the moment you die, you have to put yourself in His arms before you die. And that's what He's inviting you to do right now; to walk into His open arms and let Him rescue you from a sin penalty you could never rescue yourself from. If you do that, you can know from this day on what will happen when you die. You will be in heaven with your Savior. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I hope you'll visit our website, because there's a lot of practical help there in knowing that you have actually given your life to Jesus Christ and how to begin that relationship. It's YoursForLife.net.
There is one safe place, today and forever. It is in the arms of Jesus.