Home-going or Hell-going

Wow!
What a title!
I can't believe you are reading this!

Well, here it goes.

Funerals make you think; especially funerals of family members. That is where I was the first day of this week. I was at a funeral of a family member. I was listening to the preacher talk about giving encouragement to the family because that family member who had died was saved and assuredly going to heaven. The family, like any family, was upset. The kicker was that the family could rest assured that their family member would be in heaven.

Here is the second, and more disturbing, part of my thinking. What happens when the family does not know whether or not their loved one is going to heaven? Another real tragedy was the thought of a family who knows "without a shadow of a doubt" that their family member did not make it. There is no hope anymore of seeing their loved one again. There is some assurance; the assurance of knowing their family member is in a real hell. How said this must be!

Let us take this to a more personal level. What about your family?! What about your brother, sister, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, cousin, nephew, niece, etc. What about them? Do you know "without a shadow of a doubt" where they will spend eternity? I ponder this question now because if you wait any longer, it may be too late! Luke 12:40 (NIV) says, "You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." We are not guaranteed tomorrow, and we are not guaranteed the rest of today.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, and says, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." Verse 18 reminds us that these words should be used to comfort each other, but these words can also make us tremble. What happens when your family member is not saved when the Lord comes for His people?

Today, take a moment and reach out to someone who you know is not saved.

It's a matter of eternal life or death!