Dear Friends,
I am writing you to tell
you one thing: The world, including you and me, needs Jesus now more than ever
before. It doesn’t matter what situation we are living in, this fact remains
the same for one and all.
If a person is wealthy and
able to buy anything that his heart desires, he may think he does not need anybody.
Nevertheless he needs to know that he may not need anybody but he does need
Jesus; because Jesus has what he doesn’t have.
He has money and he can buy with it anything that money can buy. But there are things that cannot be bought with money. We cannot buy peace, joy, health, and, above all, life. But please allow me to briefly discuss the higher levels of life (the emotional and intellectual) before I turn to the truth of our material possessions.
He has money and he can buy with it anything that money can buy. But there are things that cannot be bought with money. We cannot buy peace, joy, health, and, above all, life. But please allow me to briefly discuss the higher levels of life (the emotional and intellectual) before I turn to the truth of our material possessions.
Just consider how often we
read in newspapers about break-ups of celebrity relationships! We read about
them almost every day. There is terrible barrenness that marks the landscape of
their emotional life.
Let alone celebrity
relations, falling apart of all relationships are nowadays common in all social
strata world over. Our business culture has such a spill-over effect on our
social interactions that it is a tall order now to look for genuinely social
relationship. Social interactions are reduced to bargain driven by the purpose
to get the most out of it. In such a world selfishness is now considered as
virtue. Small wonder to see the social order collapsing.
The same situation marks
our intellectual life. We describe this age as an age of information and it is
true. All branches of knowledge are progressing with mind-boggling rapidity.
The problem with it is that there is a limit beyond which our intellect cannot
go. This is best illustrated in the case of Prof. Stephen Hawking losing the
black hole bet.
Of course, it is not going
to take away anything from his achievements. The point I am making is that
there IS a point beyond which our mind cannot be stretched. What is even worse
with our mind is that it has turned into a weapon that is wielded for
establishing power over others. That’s how it loses purposes of life.
Nuclear energy is going to
help us less in fulfilling our demand for electricity than to harm us
irreparably through the weapons of mass destruction. The world IS, in fact,
preparing for nuclear confrontation which cannot be avoided. It is just a
matter of time.
Finally, we come to our material
possessions. If riding a BMW or Mercedes or Audi gives us joy, the taste of
jolly ride will last as long as the taste of our favorite dish that we ate
yesterday lasts. By the way, do we remember what we ate yesterday? J
In Gujarati language there
is a well-known saying that novelty lasts for nine days. In other words, it
wears out in nine days. This is a chronic problem with fulfillment of our
desires. After having everything, there still remains a vacuum within to reckon
with. This problem is so serious that people have chosen to commit suicide
instead of living a life riddled with it.
Another problem with our
material possessions is that their relevance in our life is time-bound. What we
exhilarate in during our childhood, dies with our childhood. What gives us joy
during our youth ceases to do so the day our youth dies. Then comes old age in
which both our capacity to desire and have fulfillment reaches the end of their
tether. Then we die.
Death...It
is the thing that renders meaningless all that we are, all that we have, and
all that we accomplish. It is life that lends meaning to all our thoughts,
actions, achievements and possessions.
But it is a fact that life
is so miserable for many that the thought of death brings them relief. In spite
of their personal situation and feelings associated with it, the fact remains
that death is no solution. It is the greatest problem that the world has faced
at all times, and will continue to face till it comes to an end one day. All
other problems in life smack of death that is working itself out in our life.
It is written in the Book
of Ecclesiastes in the Bible that a living dog is better than a dead lion. It
explains why it is so in the following passage:
For the living know that
they will die;
But the dead know nothing,
And they have no more
reward,
For the memory of them is
forgotten.
Also their love, their
hatred, and their envy have now perished;
Nevermore will they have a
share
In anything done under the
sun.”
This passage makes few
points that beg serious attention from us:
1. It
is important to know what is going to happen to us.
Only people who are alive can know what is going to happen to them.
2. The
living know that they will die but they cannot do anything about it. However,
there is God in Whose hands it is to do all that can be done with life and
death. It is written thus in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:
Now
all has been heard;
Here
is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear
God and keep His commandments,
For
this is the duty of all mankind.
For
God will bring every deed into judgment,
Including
every hidden thing,
Whether
it is good or evil.
3. There
is no knowledge in death. Bible considers knowledge to be important
since it is related to the fear of God. Bible says that the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is rooted in the knowledge of
God which is the ultimate knowledge. Knowledge comes from the mouth of God.
Proverbs 2:1-5 tell us what comes straight from God:
“My
son, if you accept my words
and
store up my commands within you,
turning
your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
indeed,
if you call out for insight
and
cry aloud for understanding,
and
if you look for it as for silver
and
search for it as for hidden treasure,
then
you will understand the fear of the Lord
and
find the knowledge of God.”
Wisdom
and understanding are contained in the words and commands that come from God.
Only through this wisdom and understanding we can have knowledge of God. In the
Book of John, chapter 17, verse 3, Jesus Himself tells us why it is necessary
for the humanity to have the knowledge of God:
“Now
this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom You have sent.”
When
Ecclesiastes 9:5 says that the dead know nothing, it means death does not have
knowledge of God. Knowledge of God has to do with life – true life. They are
not dead who know God when they die physically; because this knowledge totally
transforms them and transports them into another realm of being, that is, life
that is promised in Jesus.
4. Reward
is important. The dead cannot have it. The dead cannot
have it because it is meant for action of which they are not capable. And when
we talk about action it invariably means living life. In other words, to live
life means to act. And the meaning of all actions is essentially
moral-spiritual. Action is either good or bad and the reward for it measures up
to it, good for good, bad for bad. God has appointed a Day of Judgment on which
each and every deed will be taken into account. Therefore, the fact that all
our deeds – good or bad – vanish with a person from under the sun when he dies,
it pertains to this life, a physical life, not to the spiritual life.
5. Name
does count. In the Gospel according to John, chapter
10, verse 3, it is written:
“He
(Jesus) calls His own sheep (His people) by name and leads them out.”
God
knows His people by name! God does not know anyone by name if He does not know
him or her as His own! And the names of all that He knows are found in the Book
of Life, that is, the Book of Jesus. Death has no claim on people whose names
are found in the Book of Life. Therefore, God’s people do not die and their
name is not forgotten.
Please
note that when we say death, it means spiritual death. Physical death is no
real death. Because people who die believing in Jesus, are holding the promise
of resurrection which will be fulfilled ‘one’ day.
This
promise is true and believable because Jesus Himself returned to life on the
third day after His death. If God did not allow Him to be lost in death
forever, He is not going to allow Christians to die forever. Therefore, when
Christians die, Bible calls them people who have fallen asleep. Their sleep
will be over one day, and they will awake to eternal life in Heaven. It is the
place where no name will be forgotten; because, as it is already stated, it
will be the name by which God will know the person having it.
On
the other hand, name is important on earth too but on earth it is forgotten, no
matter how big it is. It is the work of death. Death can claim a name if a
person known by it does not receive Jesus who is Life. Because Jesus is the
Life, all who reject Jesus are not found in the Book of Life. And whose names
are not found in the Book of Life, end up in Hell to live there for eternity.
To live eternally in Hell is called the Second Death. People who die the Second
Death are spiritually dead and they are separated forever from God with
finality. Never again God will remember them. Therefore, their names will be
forgotten.
6. Dead
people (people who die without accepting Jesus) will never have a part in
anything that happens under the sun. This is because they do
not hold the promise of resurrection which is in Jesus. Only Christians have
that promise which will be fulfilled when Jesus returns to gather His people
together to take them out of this world to the place He has prepared for them
in Heaven. This event of His gathering together His people from the world and
taking them to live in Heaven is called the Rapture. At the time of Rapture,
those believers in Jesus who are alive will be transformed in an instant so
that they will have ‘glorified self’ like that of Jesus. These transformed
believers and the resurrected believers will together meet up with Jesus who
will lead them to Heaven.
Please
note that at the time of the Rapture, Jesus will not literally descend on
earth. He will appear in the sky and all who are His will ascend from the earth
up into the sky to meet up with Him there. It is seven years after the Rapture
that Jesus will literally return to the earth to inaugurate His 1000-year
kingdom on it. When He will return to the earth to establish His millennial
kingdom, He will return with all the believers whom He gathered to Himself in
Rapture. At this time Christians will again have part in whatever happens under
the sun.
It
is remarkable what will happen under the sun during the millennial kingdom of
Jesus on earth. We have a glimpse of it in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 11:
“The
wolf will live with the lamb,
the
leopard will lie down with the goat,
the
calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and
a little child will lead them.
The
cow will feed with the bear,
their
young will lie down together,
and
the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The
infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and
the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They
will neither harm nor destroy
on
all My holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the
Lord
as
the waters cover the sea.”
It
is difficult to imagine how wonderful will be the life of believers during the
millennial kingdom of Jesus on earth. The difference between the human
dispensation that we see today on earth and the divine dispensation that will
be seen on earth during Jesus’ millennial kingdom will be clear as daylight.
The
millennial kingdom on earth is introduced by God in order to give the world the
last chance to accept Him and His Son Jesus. It should not be difficult for the
world to accept God the Father and God the Son; because the millennial kingdom
of Jesus would be preceded by the 7-year hellish rule of the Devil on earth.
So, the world would be in a position to compare the divine and the diabolical
dispensations and avail itself of the last chance to make the right choice.
After
the millennial kingdom the last chance of making the right choice will come
before the world when God will loose Satan for a short time so that he may
invite the world to join his side in the final battle against God. Because God
is God, He would not force people to accept Him. He wants people to willingly
accept Him.
As
it is, there will be people who will join force with the Devil against God. It
is the measure of how very wicked the ungodly are. Therefore, there will be
final show-down of strength between God and His opponents. God will defeat
Satan and his people and assign them to Hell for eternity of torment. With this
the battle of good and evil will be over. Only God and the good remain in
Heaven forever.
At last, there will be ideal life for the people who opted for Life. They will see the face of God forever and bask in His glory and abundance of unadulterated happiness. Jesus promises us exactly this.
For
your sake, do not say ‘no’ to Him. Today is the day for you to say ‘yes’ to
Him. Do not delay your decision. It may be too late. We can never be sure of
life in this world. It is fickle and can betray us at any time. And this
important decision we have to take in this very life.
In
fact, the very purpose of this life is to make this choice. Once this life is
gone, a person never has the second chance to make it. So make it now. The Book
of 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, in the Bible says,
“…now
is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”
Please
do not take for granted God’s favor and His salvation. Time is fixed for them
and we don’t know when God will say, “Time’s up.” I pray that God gives you
wisdom and understanding to make the right choice NOW. God bless you.
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