ART & POETRY BY PAUL & KATHY BOECHER

Are you ready to reveal yourself to God?

Do you know what that means?

Have you given thought to the future, beyond death?

Where do you think you will spend eternity?

Does it all end when we die?

Is all that we’ve learned about eternal life just a fantasy created to keep us in line?

When you have faith that Jesus died to pay the ransom for our freedom from sin and guilt, we can answer these questions boldly.  God expects perfection for those who enter heaven.  None of us is perfect.  We need a rescuer.  God provided the way out for those who return to Him.  Through the sacrifice of His own Son, we’ve been made clean in God’s eyes.  When we die, we will see the face of God, not by what we’ve done, but what He’s done.

It takes a childlike faith to believe this.  We cannot be influenced by rational or scientific thought, even though it includes both those things. There were and are those who’ve rejected everything about God and His plan of salvation for all.  Because God created each person with a free will, we have a choice in the matter.  If we trust and believe in God, His Word and the power of His Spirit and the One who shed blood for us, it’s a done deal.  If we don’t, the blackness of our souls will convict us to an eternity in hell, with the devil and all his miserable minions.  Sounds like a no brainer to me.

When God comes again to judge the world, what will your close up reveal about you?

Will He determine your destiny by the works you have done for others?

Will He see how generous you were in your giving?

Will He declare you entrance into heaven, because your faith or because of His love for you?

Will He throw you into the eternal pit of Satan’s domain?

God wants all of us to repent of our sins and accept the gift He’s given us.  He gives us eternal life, not by what we do, but by what has already been done for us, through Jesus.  God created the world and all that is in it.  He formed man out of the earth and woman out of man.  He placed them in a perfect environment where there was no fear, no shame, no guilt, no hate, no evil, no tears and no death.

What kind of love is it when the One who made you, gives up His own flesh and blood to redeem you and gives you the assurance of eternal life?

I call it unconditional.

I call it the best kind of love – perfect, sacrificial, putting others first.

His love is incomprehensible because only He possesses it.

His love is unending. It will endure forever.

His love saves us.

His love reminds us of how much we are loved.

His love is an example of how we should love.

Are you ready?

I am!