Listen carefully to your soul as you read this. My hope is to ring your bell, so that you listen to the excited knocking at your heart. Who is knocking at your tell-tale heart? It is not your heart but Jesus who you hear a knockin’.
While you await death, if you are
blessed enough to have a deathbed, you will turn to God. Why so? There is
nothing that can save you from death. Life may be prolonged but when the bell
tolls the last time, it is you alone for whom the bell tolls.
When death enters your space,
there is but two choices: (1) suffer death over and over or (2) your soul lives
on forever. The soul is immortal; it will live on after your death whether it
be good or evil. Most rational people fear death because dying is often
lonesome and painful. However, many fear eternity as well because they know
their faith is deficient. Almost everyone knows that we deserve death, but few
understand that grace is God ignoring what we deserve.
Some, however, hang onto the
thought that they don’t deserve to die.
Those who say boldly while alive,
“I know that I know that I know I am saved,” will have their doubts when the
death clock chimes. Paul wrote, “What if some did not believe? shall their
unbelief make the faith(fulness) of God without effect?” (Rom 3:3).
God is faithful to do what He
says. Jesus, referring to any person, said, “These will go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Mat 25:46). Jesus
provided the two choices on your behalf, and He is certain that there
are only two choices.
It is up to you where your
immortal soul goes; choose wisely, even on your deathbed. The only two choices
are everlasting punishment or eternal life, ostensibly in Hell and Paradise,
respectively.
“The Monty Hall Problem” on the
game show, Let’s Make a Deal, is which door to choose. Eternal life is the ultimate deal, but the
door chosen most often leads to death. However, Jesus provides a clue if you
listen closely; “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My Voice
and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Rev
3:20).
To make it easy for the most
resistant, the doors are even labeled: “eternal life” and “eternal death.”
“Grace” is God allowing everyone
to understand what lies beyond doors number one and two.
Note that you are merely a
participant. You have no choice in providing what is beyond each door, in a
sense, you get to choose either good or evil, but the decision is not just for
a joy ride but forever and ever.
On door #1 are things that
entice. God knows your heart, and the picture on that door are things that you
favor, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John
2:16). Perhaps the door front will have a picture of you doing whatever you
please when you please to convince you that on the other side of the door you
will be king and a god.
On door #2 there is only a
picture of Jesus on the Cross instead of you. God died so that you need not.
You too may get an idea what lies beyond the door on which Jesus knocks. Whereas
pleasure lies behind door #1, joy lies behind door #2. Joy is life itself
wherein there is no pride. To go through that door, you will leave self-esteem
behind in favor of Christ-esteem.
Each door has an environment.
Behind door #1 it is either hot or cold, but never just right. It is always
uncomfortable behind door #1. There may be carnal things there, but they will
no longer have any attraction. Your only wish is that lustful things will just
go away, so that the pain will go away. You will be tormented by your own thoughts
every moment that your soul exists. What if I had chosen the door on which
Jesus knocked?
Now think of the Monty decision.
The contestant has chosen the door with a token prize rather than the door with
a reward that would last forever. Forever, you would think, Why did I not
choose the other door?
Some have been there and done that. My most
atrocious sin still haunts me. In my youth, I chose door #1 and it that it was the
wrong choice still haunts me. I must live with that wrong choice forever and
what was done cannot be undone.
However, by grace, so long as we
are a living soul, we can undo what has been done, and the cycle of bad
memories will cease. However, once the door to another realm is chosen, we are
left with our choices. Those who choose door #1, the way most chosen, will find
that Hell is not as it was portrayed to be, and there is no turning back! You
will live with that wrong choice for eternity and in your mind, it will be
repeated infinite times. Indeed, that is just one of the torments.
Albeit Satan posted beautiful
things for which he knows you will lust, the things on the other side are not
what they are portrayed to be. Although you might lust for the things on the
picture on door #1, behind the door, are very ugly and distasteful things. You
will not want to hug “Monty” but despise him forever. Monty is not who he seems
to be and the “full Monty,” although an attractive angel on the outside,
inwardly he is a Satan — an ugly Beast.
Door #2 is the best and only good
choice. The picture you should get when Jesus knocks is only a picture of Him
hanging on the Cross instead of you. His flesh bares the scars of your sins and
all the sins of collective mankind. Rather than see only an angel, you see a
Shepherd to lead you the Way to the Tree of Life (Gen 3:24).
The Tree of Life is where Jesus fixes
all the things wrong with you and make the wrongs right. He will take the
broken you and make you whole again, whereas demons behind door #1 will
continually tear your apart piece by peace and eat your flesh like a lion would
do (1 Pet 5:8); and eat the flesh that you cherish so much! That is death but
you will never die! You will be continually dying with death never consummated.
Eternity is a long time and never ending and all the while you will be taunted
by making one bad choice: to go the way of the Devil.
So, you do not believe in Jesus
or the Devil? That makes you the “god” (Gen 3:5). So, as “God” what can you do
to save yourself from perishing? Because you are not God who has the Power to create
and save, then you are helpless and no god at all.
On your deathbed that thought
will probably sink in if God’s grace is still available. He may quit knocking.
He leads you to Paradise in heaven; not drag you through either of the
two doors. You must enter in of your own volition to have either eternal life
or eternally dying.
By grace you may hear Jesus come
a knocking on door #2, but He tires of knocking when the door is not answered,
just as you might do, thinking there is nobody within. He remains at the door
and knocks, but you may not want to hear His knocking because you know that you
are not welcome behind His door.
Christians should understand that
we do not deserve door #2. The reward behind the door is free. You never worked
for it, so it is undeserved. That is the grace of God, and since He is Sovereign,
only His gift is the key to the door to Paradise. You can say nothing to
convince Jesus that you deserve the prize because He saw the race than you have
run throughout life.
Chances are that when you give up
the race, then it is silly to think that at the end of the race, you can suddenly
appear out of nowhere for the prize.
I thought about cheating in a 10k
race by taking a shortcut. Nobody would notice, I thought. God notices.
You just can’t jump out on the Way as if you run the race all the time since
you entered. God is not stupid, but all-knowing.
At death, you may be blessed, and
you may not be. How serious you are is only known by God. You can’t fake Him
out like in a basketball game for he knows the real you and all your cunning
moves. You are what you have been since Jesus went a knockin’.
Now is the time for salvation,
and you know it, to wit:
For He says: “In an acceptable time I have
heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2)
Now is indefinite. It is
the present whether today, tomorrow, or the future. Jesus has listened and
heard you all the “nows” of your life. He knows who you are all the time. You
cannot wait until an acceptable time for you, but an acceptable time for Jesus.
Now is an acceptable time for Him whether you are in sin or not, or whether you
are living high or on your deathbed.
The deathbed may be too late for His
time for you is right now wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Waiting
to open the right door may not get you there before the Director removes the
prize and you are by default left with door #1. Now is the time to choose the
correct door because what is behind either door will not change. However, door
#2 may be nailed shut before it is selected.
If you are reading this now, you may put off the decision, but the same decision will be there at the end. Some may take a chance and select door #2 because for the moment, it offers more. The knocking will cease, and Jesus will check your credentials; Did you enter the race too late? If so, you may be disqualified:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,”
shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in
heaven. (Mat 7:21)
And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Mat 17:23)
That would be a terrible day for
you. Imagine God not welcoming you into His Garden because you never wanted in
there all your life. You certainly are not welcome where you do not really want
to be!
You can either deal with the door
now or later, but later it may be sealed, or even nailed shut to you.
On your deathbed, if you have
read this and have not made a decision by then, my bet is that you will
remember my words and that what Jesus said is true. There are only two ways and
an eternity with no Heaven and no Hell is not one of the choices.
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