Do you know where you are going after you take your last breath? Have you ever thought about that? It sure does help to know where you are going.
Joe was trying to return his rental car, and he managed to find the ramp that pointed to "rental car returns." The sign he came to didn’t list the company he rented the car from, but at that moment, the van from his rental company went by. Joe took off behind him. It's a good thing he did because the roads and ramps took him on a chase all around the airport and beyond the airport. He would have never figured out how to get there because he didn’t know where he was going!
An article in USA Today talked about the rush of movies and books that are coming out recently that deal with death and dying. We're thinking a lot more about our mortality and immortality. In this age where people are taking a little helping of everything that's on the spirituality buffet, we have all kinds of theories and hopes about what might await us on the other side of our last heartbeat.
And like Joe, looking for the right destination at the airport, we're scanning the various signs and following our instincts to get to where we want to end up. Every time we go to a funeral and every time we hear about the death of someone our age, we remember it will be us in the casket some day and we want to know where the life is beyond our time on earth.
There are a lot of ideas floating around today about what's out there, but after all is said and done, everybody is guessing! We're like Joe at the airport; we're trying to find the way by reading the signs posted by various religions and theorists. We're trying to figure out the way through our own instincts and speculation. Our only hope is what got Joe to his destination that night. We need someone who has been there and back! Without that, it's just too easy to get lost, to make a wrong turn, to be wrong - dead wrong. Eternity is too important. It's too long to risk being wrong about.
There is one Person who has been all the way there and back, and He is the final word on death and on eternity. He speaks to us about it in Revelation 1:17-18 where Jesus' disciple, John, is allowed to see Jesus, as He is today, in heaven. John says, "Then He placed His right hand on me and said: 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.'"
According to the record of six historians, three days after He died, Jesus Christ walked out of His grave under His own power. He's been there and back, and He is the only One who isn't guessing about death and eternity. He told us there's a heaven for those who have had their sins forgiven, there's a hell for those who have not claimed God's forgiveness, that we die once and don't come back, and that our eternal destination is settled here, in this life, by whether or not we grab hold of the One who died to forgive our sins and take us to heaven.
You could literally go to sleep tonight, not wondering about your eternity, but knowing you will go to heaven when you die because the sin that would keep you from heaven is gone forever. The Bible says, "He who has the Son (of God) has life" (1 John 5:12). You can have the Son of God right now by putting your trust in Him to be your eternal Rescuer based on His death for you on the cross.
If you want to know for sure you're going to heaven, if you want to belong to the only One who can take you there, if you want to begin your relationship with Him today, just say to Him, "Jesus I'm Yours." To pursue a personal love-relationship with Jesus, please visit Yours For Life or call 1-888-966-7325 (toll-free).
The One who can take you to heaven is near you right now. Don't miss Him!