(Excerpt from Beyond Pretend © 2010 David Lee Scott pp.60-62.)
Our predicament: Leave this planet with no changes from where we began our journey and where we are now, and whoosh, next thing we know, we find ourselves in outer darkness, lost forever, a fragility of life that would and should terrify us if we grasp even a fraction of the significance of our vapor-like, God-defying experience here on Earth. Granted, that on average we have seventy years to work out our problem, but tomorrow is not guaranteed.
An anecdotal detour …
Our first home when I was a pastor was an old farm house in rural, northern Indiana. I got up in the middle of the night once to shut the back screen door as it was flapping in the brisk wind. This was not a storm door but a wood-framed screen door, as we called them back in the day, which allowed us to open up the enclosed porch/ dining room to the evening breeze. Stumbling to the back porch and opening the main door, I discovered not only a strong wind but also a significant snowfall. I reached for the handle just as a west wind caught the door, and the next thing I knew I was lying flat on my back in the snow; no pain suffered except the embarrassment of lying in the back yard in the snow at 2 a.m. in my pajamas. Reminiscent of a scene from “Gunsmoke,” I probably looked like I had been thrown through the swinging doors of Miss Kitty’s bar onto the streets of Dodge City, just waiting for Marshall Dillon and Festus to come around the corner of the house to cart me off to jail to sleep it off.
The transition … Whoosh!
One instant I was in the house; the next instant I was gone. Here, then gone! Whoosh!
And that is what the transition from this life to the next will be like. Whoosh, and next thing you know, life on the slippery slope of oblivion brings you to the edge of the dark valley with only yourself to consult, only your own strength to rely on. No help, no hope, no Savior here. You insisted on traveling the universe without God’s input, on doing what seemed right to you, making your own choices, life as you thought it should be, and now you have it.
But suddenly you now realize that the pictures in the brochure were very misleading. Now, completely alone, you discover that this isn’t at all what you wanted, but there is no God to help because that is what you insisted on your entire life. God gave you what you wanted; he gave you over to yourself and said, “Have it your way .”
- God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them – the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes (Romans 1:24-25 MSG)!
They chose their impression of God over the original portrait. But it doesn’t have to be that way. God sent his Son to save us. But the key is that access to this saving help for walking through the dark valley is only available on this side of the valley. God the Father sent Jesus his Son so that if you accept his help now, if you acknowledge your need and believe in Jesus the Savior now, then when you die, next thing you know … you are with God.
One day you will be in a situation entirely out of your control – you will be dead, and the only help available will have been determined through a decision prior to your death. Unless your help was prearranged with God before your death, then no one can or will help you. It is too late. All the good options needed to be exercised before you died. Let me help you sort through them. This is really pretty easy, takes about a minute as there is only one option for heaven, only one person who can help, only one name – Jesus Christ – which you can depend on to keep you from this untenable crisis. Believe now in Jesus Christ and be saved.
- For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17 ESV).
Let that sink in.
A father and son cared enough for you to come up with a plan. The son would come to our world and die for us so that we might have eternal life, that we might be saved. That’s a lotta’ love, baby. Someone cared enough to die for you, and his father cared enough to send him to do it.
And maybe you have already done this.
You chose life with God over weeping and gnashing of teeth in outer darkness. You realized that you had begun like everyone else – displaced, hiding, lost, damned and depraved, and somewhere along the way your status changed to “saved.” You recognized what this father and son had done, and you accepted the gracious offer from Heaven.
And now you are different.
You abandoned the path of the damned for the path of God. Under God’s advisement, you left the smooth, easy, familiar road for the Way. You caught a glimpse of the narrow road and squeezed through the gate leaving everything behind. Yes, you lost everything and gained everything at the same time.
