Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Job 14:5-6 A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Hebrews 9:26-28 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
I don’t know about you Peeps, but this old gal here has been thinking a lot about heaven lately. I listened to a sermon series last month regarding heaven, and y’all, I just can’t wait to get there! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not ready to die, but I look around this crazy place we are currently calling our temporary home, and I can’t help put plead, “Jesus, come soon!” This place is a mess, and it’s getting worse every day. It makes me keep thinking about one of our rentals. A couple moved out in January, and they left our rental house in a great big old mess. We had to rip out the carpets, resurface the wood floors, change out the counter tops, put new vinyl plank flooring in all of the other rooms, change the tile ceilings to sheet rock, completely change out the toilet, bathtub, and bathroom sink. We had to basically gut the house, and start over. We are nearing completion now, and I just can’t believe the transformation. We went from a mess to a blessing. The rental is so cute and cozy now.
When I think of heaven, I think about how awesome it’s going to be to get out of this mess, and go to that wonderful home that Jesus has been preparing for us. It’s going to be so much better than cute and cozy though! I think of that song “I Can Only Imagine,” because really, I can’t even imagine in the deepest recesses of my mind what it will look like. Oh, I’ve read the scripture. I’ve listened to the sermons. But really, I can’t even picture the immensity, the beauty, and the glory of it. It’s beyond the comprehension of this human mind. Even still, I love to think about it. I can’t wait to be reunited with Christ, loved ones who have gone on before me, and oh, I can’t wait to talk to all those biblical people that I have read about through the years. I’ve often said that I couldn’t wait to sit down with Adam and Eve and discuss that eating of the forbidden fruit. Every year as I fight the thorns and thistles in my garden, I picture the conversation that I want to have with them.
Of all the conversations that we will have when we get there, the first and foremost chat that should be on our minds is the chat we are going to have with Jesus. We can’t wait to get there and praise His name for all eternity, but before we do that, there will be this thing called the Judgment Seat of Christ. Believers will come before Christ for the final judgment. As believers, eternity with Christ is already secured, but at this judgment, we are going to stand before our Savior and have a little chat. What if we finally reach heaven, and Jesus says, “Let’s have a chat you and I. Before I even created the heavens and the earth, you were on my mind. I decided what you would look like, I knew exactly how many hairs would be on your head, and I determined exactly how many days you would walk the earth…not one day more…not one day less. I planned in advance who would surround you. I planned the people that I would place in your life to teach you about Me, and people that I would place around you later so that you could teach them about Me. I put you in the neighborhood that I wanted you to reside, and I sent you to the church in which I knew you could obtain the spiritual nourishment that you craved. I sent you to the schools where you could obtain book knowledge, and I provide jobs for you to meet your physical needs. I gave you exactly enough days to complete all of the good works that I purposed just for you. I even equipped you with everything that you would need to accomplish these things. I filled you with the Holy Spirit to guide you, encourage you, and to even help redirect you when you got of course. I gave you a very detailed instruction manual which you lovingly refer to as The Holy Bible. My Word was preserved all of these years so that you could know me and learn my ways and understand righteous ways and righteous living. I put many lost people in your path to give you opportunities to share about me. I provided ample opportunities for you to do my work on earth. Let’s chat about that. How did all of that go for you?’
Whoa….although heaven has been on the forefront of my mind recently, I’m not sure that I’m ready for that conversation. I’m not sure that I ever will be. I know that I have not done enough, and I fear that I will never be able to do everything that I am purposed to do. I know that I have failed miserably so many times. But, I also know that I can rejoice in the fact that I am a child of God. I am redeemed. I am free. Heaven is my eternal home because I know that I have accepted Christ as my Savior, and I do not have a shadow of a doubt about that. However, I know that God didn’t create me and put me here in the midst of this beautiful life just so that I could learn to survive. He put me here so that I could thrive…thrive for Him! He created each of us to live life and live it abundantly with Him. We are created in His image to glorify Him. Are we fulfilling our purpose today? Are we completing the good works that Christ has purposed just for us? He’s only going to give us a certain number of days to get our jobs done. From the looks of things, I think we better get busy trying to accomplish those good works and share the Good News with as many people as we can! Time is running out!
Are you ready to chat with Jesus if today were that final day?
Inspirations from the Funny Farm 