Your Deadline Is Coming
I had a dream. Actually, it was a nightmare. Worse yet, I had two nightmares about the same exact thing last night. It’s even worse than that! These two nightmares were of the same theme of recurring nightmares that I have had before. Fortunately for you, it is not bloody or violent and you might learn from it. So, here it goes.
I was supposed to preach soon and I thought I was prepared. But then I looked in the Bible to find the verse I intended to preach, but it was not there! The verse was in the Psalms and at first I found the Psalm, but I could not find the verse I had intended. As I continued to read the verses in that Psalm, I realized the verses I was looking for were in a different Psalm. So, I frantically started glancing through the Psalms looking for the passage I intended. But the more I looked, the more confused I became. Eventually, I could not even find the book of Psalms. As the deadline to start preaching approached, I started to turn back and forth through the pages in my Bible, desperately looking for the book of Psalms, but all I came across were technical notes, apocryphal works, and charts. And then I woke up. After that I fell back asleep and had another dream about another time to preach, and again, I could not find the passage I was searching for as the deadline approached.
Have you ever had a nightmare like that? Maybe you had a deadline or some task you had to complete and the closer you came to the deadline, the more you failed and the more you panicked because time was running out.
This dream scenario makes me think of our life here on earth. There is a lifetime deadline coming that we all must be ready for. When our time runs out on earth and it is time for us to die, we must be ready to go before God to be judged. There are two options for us to take in that judgment. Our first option is to have nothing to do with Jesus and wait to be judged according to all of our works. I can imagine these poor, unprepared people, waiting in line to speak with God. They are frantically trying to remember some good deed they did to earn a place in heaven, only to fall further and further away. That would be worse than a nightmare because they will all fall short and be cast into a literal lake of fire to be punished forever. Our second option is to believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, and be judged according to the righteousness of God’s only begotten Son. If that is our choice, we will partake in the first resurrection and enjoy worshipping God almighty forever and ever.
Are you ready for your lifetime deadline or are you going to panic on judgment day? Do you believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ? If you do not, here is some advice. Find that Gideons Bible that somebody gave to you and start reading God’s word. Look again at that gospel tract that somebody handed to you on your last vacation and reconsider. Stop into a Bible teaching church and hear the good news. Call up the pastor or that friend who wanted to talk to you about Jesus and have one more conversation. There is no need to panic. Believe on Jesus Christ today because your deadline is coming.
“Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Revelation 20:14-15