When you came into this world one day as a helpless little child, your first reaction was to the change of environment from a peaceful environment to a world full of violence. The first sound you made to assure the people you met that you have come to join them in their anguish, sorrow, joy, failure, sin, disappointments, etc, was a big cry. The reaction of the world to your cry was to rejoice and celebrate [while you cry]. They were in effect telling you that the life you have come into is full of sadism. Hate and wickedness is demonstrated with a sharp object is used, in a most brutal way in some cases, to cut this loving tender body of yours open at any particular part or parts for various reasons. Again, you cry but who cares. [However, by God's law, except to circumcise a boy, one ought not to punish that poor soul.] As a child, you cry at birth because you have come to face an uncertain future—hunger, starvation, pestilence, abundance or whatever.
You grow up [in affluence or penury], go to school, graduate, work, or beg from cradle to grave, farm from age one to age one hundred, marry, reproduce generations to take over your poverty or wealth and pass on to the Great Beyond. You cried when he came into the world because you knew not what joy or sorrow you were born into, but when you die, those that laughed when you were born do the crying because they know not where you have gone to. Joy-Sorrow-Joy-Sorrow, that is how our stay here is characterized. Rich, poor, literate, illiterate, holy, ungodly, wicked, kind-hearted, robber/criminal, saint, Bishop, Imam, Right Reverend, Beauty Queen, "monkey", angelic, devilish, all have to pass this route, Live-Die-Live. "But why did he/she die?" they question. "Why must it be he/she? So dear, so loving, why not that witch of a woman?" But who art thou that question the Creator? Can the clay question the potter? No sir.
The important things to note are that God will have no purpose in creating man at all if only for him to be born, reproduce and die and it ends there. If there is no life hereafter, if there is no heaven or hell hereafter, then all that ever lived a righteous life and all who live righteously today are of all men most miserable. We could as well all kill, steal, and defraud to "make it". If God is not going to punish the wicked/sinner then legally, we can rule Him off as an unjust judge or what will you say of a judge who discharges and acquits a murderer, a thief or a robber who was so proved. This is what the Scripture says, "It is appointed unto man once to die and after that judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). If you have taken Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, then He has paid the price of your judgment in which case you will pass from death unto life because according to the Scripture, "He that believeth on Him [Jesus Christ, the Lord] is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God [NOTE: not just because of being a sinner, but for not accepting Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord]" (John 3:16-18).
As we have seen, the person who repents [confesses and forsakes ALL his/her sins] and receives the Lord Jesus Christ into his/her life is now a child of God (John 1:12). He/she is now the Christian within the Bible context—the Lord's standard. But every other person who has never knelt before God in prayer and confessed, forsaken all his/her sins and accepted Jesus into his/her life remains a SINNER in the context of God's word. Only that man/woman who has had a personal encounter with his/her Creator—the Lord Jesus Christ—that resulted in a radical or gradual inward transformation of his/her life that reflected outwardly, could be said to be a Christian [once a sinner but now a saint by God's judgment] (John 1:1-14).
Whether you are now or intend to be a Bishop, Pope, Cardinal, Prophet, Apostle, Deacon, Prophetess, Imam, Most Reverend or whatever, if you have never FULLY repented of your sins [confessed, forsaken them] and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your life to save and transform you, you are in the category of a sinner in God's context and in this context. You may say these statements are foolish then what do you say about John 3:18? The time of ignorance, God winked at, but now commands ALL to repent. Repent and accept Jesus TODAY AND YOU WILL BE SURE OF HEAVEN, FOR HEAVEN IS REAL (Luke 16:19-31).
AFTER DEATH WHAT NEXT AND WHERE DOES THE CHRISTIAN AND THE SINNER GO AT DEATH?
The answers here are perfect:
• The forces that ruled the life of the departed soul, whether of the Lord Jesus Christ unto a holy living or the devil unto an unholy living, will push that soul to where sin or righteousness reigns, depending on how he/she lived.
• After the soul has taken its flight [when you are certified dead], it becomes ABSOLUTELY impossible to change destination. Consequently, prayer like "may his/her soul rest in peace" [when and if the departed did not have the Prince of Peace—Jesus Christ before death], can never be answered. Praying for a dead person itself is a sin.
THE SAINTS DEPARTURE
At death, the flesh [body] of the Christian that died in the Lord Jesus is in the grave, but the real you, the spiritual personality "form", is in a beautiful waiting place prepared for such souls just below the Third Heaven [paradise] (2 Corinthians 12:1-4) until Rapture time when they will unite with their bodies which will become glorified then (1 Corinthians 15:19-55). This is how the Scripture describes this blessed hope, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [our body] were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1)
THE SINNER DEPARTURE
He who dies in sin [dies without Jesus, the Saviour], is escorted to a place near the final hell until they also unite with their corrupted body [embalmed, in ashes or in dust] to appear for judgment (1 Corinthians 3:13-14; Revelation 21:11-15). Afterwards, the sinner finally goes to the dark abode—hell. Both places were created by God: heaven for the saints of God and hell for satan and his angels. However, since you the sinner choose to follow and obey the lust of satan till you die, you will go with him [satan] to hell—a place of everlasting torment. Get it straight! HEAVEN IS REAL AND HELL IS REAL—a place where one can still see, speak, feel pain, feel thirsty, remember and even have desires (Luke 16:19-31).
Jesus never lied. We have the evidence in addition to god's word. The saint is fully rewarded; the sinner pays the price of sin (rejecting Jesus). Oh sinner friend, oh that God might open your eyes to the reality of what I am saying. It is not your self-righteousness, good works or religiosity that qualifies you for heaven, but your acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as atonement for your sin. This is the blessed hope.
Jesus is calling you to repentance now. Today is the day of salvation. Before the Saviour calls again, your little walls [the body you now inhabit and boast with] may have crumbled. Before He calls again, you may cry and never be heard; you may have wasted precious years; you may have suffered needless pains/ sorrows. Why not get to your knees and say:
"Oh Lord, have mercy on me. Forgive me all my sins. Come into my life and change me. I don't want to go to that dark abode called hell. Save me and let me go to heaven when I finish with this world. All my pride, all my excuses, I cast them away now. It does not matter what I am now or what I have. I know that after this life is over [which time I do not know] all I am and all I have will be useless. I count them as nothing that I may have life, a new life in Jesus. Lord Jesus, Your blood, I plead for the cleansing of my sins now. Give me the power to go and sin no more in the name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST I Pray, amen."
May the Lord have mercy on you, hear your prayer and give you a new life TODAY! See you in Heaven!
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