While on a walk just now, I saw the strangest sight:  a guy riding bicycle … while smoking a cigarette.

And the thought that immediately hit me was “Man, that DOESN’T FIT!”  Smoking a cigarette and riding a bike just don’t seem to go together, to put it mildly.

Likewise, sin DOESN’T “FIT” in a Christian’s life.

Because the reason Christ came in the first place was to save and rescue us from that very thing:  sin.

• “… the devil has sinned from the beginning.  The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8b)
• “For the Son of Man [i.e., Jesus] has come to seek and to save” the lost (Luke 19:10)
• “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6)
• “instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:12-14)

So, here and now, I’m sending out a call to righteousness and purity in our daily living.  A call to recommit and “double-down” on the fruit of the Spirit in our day-to-day lives.  To restore the same focus on and passion and appreciation for such things which we experienced when first coming to Christ.

Because the very freedom He gave us in salvation is not the freedom to sin but rather the freedom from  sin.  Not the freedom to sin but rather the freedom to submit and obey.

And grow.  And worship.  And actively fellowship – with Him as well as our fellow believers.

What a wonderful way to walk and live, does it get any better than that?!

Consistent purity produces persistent pleasure – for God and man.
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I don’t think I’ve ever done a “(somewhat) deep dive” on something other than the Bible… but I’m doing so in this case (and likely others in the future) of a song because it’s so full of, so overflowing with biblical truths (as per the Bible verses in parentheses below), not just beautiful music and lyrics… if you haven’t yet listened to it, I encourage you to scroll down a few inches and do so, if you’re okay with certain contemporary Christian music (otherwise, please disregard these five videos).

Without further ado, in chronological order of the lyrics:

“I come on my knees… before You” (Ephesians 3:14)

“longing only to know You” (Psalm 42:1; Ephesians 1:17)

“seeking Your face, and not only  Your hand” (Psalm 27:8 & 105:4; 1 Timothy 6:17)

“I find You embracing me” (John 3:16, 6:37)

“just as I am” (Revelation 22:17)

“to You and You alone” (1 Peter 4:11)

“As I sing to You, in my praises make Your home” (Psalm 22:3)

“You are Father and You are Son” (John 10:30)

“as your Spirit flows free, let [Him] find within me a heart that beats to praise You” (Titus 3:5-7; Romans 8:13-17,26-27)

“just to know You more has become my great reward” (2 Peter 3:18)

“Your kingdom come and Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)

“I only desire to be Yours, Lord” (Matthew 6:24,33; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17)

“what could I bring to honor Your majesty” (Micah 6:6-8)

“all that I have is this life that You’ve given me” (Psalm 16:2,5)

“Lord, let me live for You my song with humility” (James 4:10 among countless others)

“as the love song of my life is played, I have one desire:  to bring glory to Your name” (1 Corinthians 10:31; Philippians 3:13-14)

I like this entire song, such a big blessing… but along with the title itself (and the violins, always) four of these phrases are especially precious to my heart:

• “seeking Your face and not only Your hand” – Personally I find this to be very convicting.  Because it’s so easy for us humans to let more of our focus be on God’s hand than His beautiful face, to focus more on what He can do and does do for us rather than who He is.  To be sure, we should be ever grateful for the former… but that should never, ever eclipse or come before or grow greater than the latter.  Because the former flows forth from  the latter.  I.e., what good would it be to know all of the wonderful things He can do for us, if we didn’t know of His boundless and deep desire  to do so.  In fact, the Bible specifically makes that distinction in telling us not to let our primary focus drift, “NOT to focus” on the provisions but the Provider, “but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.” (1 Timothy 6:17, emphasis added).
• “a heart that beats to praise You” – Indeed, because of what I just wrote, because of His overwhelming grace and goodness and generosity and patience and forbearance and kindness toward us in and through Christ, we should be more and more drawn to Him.  To know Him.  To worship Him.  To serve Him.  To love Him.  To obey Him.  “… the kindness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4, emphasis added).
• “what could I bring to honor Your majesty” – As discussed on the home and About pages of this website, this is exactly what I had been considering for years, trying to think of something I could do, of some way to SHOW the Lord how much I love and appreciate Him and all He has done for me, and on one such occasion not too long ago is when the thought, the calling “hit my heart” like a bolt of lightning, something that I KNEW He would absolutely LOVE:  for someone to MEMORIZE the ENTIRE Bible and then quote His own words back to Him, to recite back to Him the very love letter which He first wrote to us.  And I’ve dedicated my life to fulfilling this calling ever since and can hardly wait for the day when it is culminated even as the whole world watches thanks to BibleMemory.ORG and YouTube.com/BibleMemory … what a day of rejoicing that will be!  Not just for the Lord, not just for me personally, but for each and every person who supports this historic event in whatever ways they’re able… the spiritual “greeting card” which accompanies this “love gift” to Him will include ALL of our names, not just mine.
• “as the love song of my life is played” – What a beautiful picture this paints… as you might have noticed, on the BibleMemory.ORG home page I write that the Bible is God’s “love letter” to humanity.  And our lives should reciprocate and be our “love song” to Him.

But the entire song is full of lovely lyrics, wonderful words.  Because they come from the ultimate  Word, God’s Word, the beloved Bible.  Which is the only source of true beauty on earth.  Beauty and wisdom and soundness of mind (literally – see 1 Timothy 6:3).  So while I praise the Lord for the voice and musical talent He bestowed on Big Daddy Weave, that he was so willing and eager to utilize those gifts for God and His glory and His use (that’s literally what it’s all about!), my first and foremost praise and appreciation is for and to the Lord, the Giver  of those gifts, the Liver of love, “the author and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2), “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), “the Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 1:8), beginning and end… may Your name be praised forever, Lord, You truly are my Audience of One, my all-in-all and all I need (or could ever want), You’re (way, way, way, way) enough for me – You and You alone.

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I think that this fourth follow-up post in just the past few weeks alone will be sufficient to properly press the point and bring it home:  one never, ever knows for sure when one will cease to exist in this earthly realm and slip into eternity, into one’s eternal destination where he or she will stay forever and ever and evermore.

The latest example blaring in breaking-news headlines nationwide just last night were three people (as of this writing, with five others injured, two critically) who were out and about the campus of Michigan State University, as millions of students have done throughout the years but last night was different, due to an evildoer’s despicable decision to enter one of the buildings and open fire with a handgun, and then to do likewise at the student union building next door.

I G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E that if someone had asked those three fatalities yesterday morning if they thought their lives would end, that they’d enter eternity in Heaven or Hell that evening, that their reply would’ve been a funny facial expression followed by a firm “No, OF COURSE NOT… are you nuts?!”

Yet that’s exactly what happened.  As it usually does:  without notice.

That’s why in this recent series of posts I’ve put so much urgency on resolving where you’ll spend eternity when YOU slip into it – be that tomorrow, next week, or fifty years from now.  It’s the lack of notice which makes it IMPERATIVE for each person to address and confirm this most important of matters BEFORE it’s too late.

For those wondering HOW to do this, here’s what I wrote in a recent post, which itself was a follow-up to the original “While You Can” post:  as noted, to put this off until “some other time” is just human nature.  That’s why I’m blaring from the proverbial rooftops with a neon trumpet, as it were, that everyone  needs to confirm his or her eternal destination NOW, TODAY, BEFORE it’s too late.

• “behold, NOW is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, NOW is ‘the day of salvation'” (2 Corinthians 6:2b, emphasis added)

It’s often (and wittily) said that “I’ve never seen a U-HAUL being towed by a hearse.”  Because “you can’t take it with you,” you can’t take the material things of this life into the next one, into eternity.

But here’s a saying I invented and like even better (more poignant):  “I’ve never seen a hotel room confirmation  on the dashboard of a hearse.”

Because people who leave this life and slip into eternity won’t be needing material things or travel plans or a passport.

Yet let me ask you this:  Have you spent more time in the past year or decade making/confirming reservations for hotel rooms, or a “room” in Heaven, in eternity?

The reason this matter is so crucial, so imperative, so all-important is that nobody knows exactly WHEN they’ll leave this life and (instantly) enter the one to come, eternity, i.e., Heaven or Hell.  You needn’t take my word for it, take God’s:

• “… you do not know what a day may bring forth.” (Proverbs 27:1b)

And as I said in the previous post with the aid of a classic TV commercial, everyone will eventually (some today, others tomorrow, others many years from now, and many sometime in between) enter their eternal destination… but NOBODY will EVER “check out” of it.

Ergo, even just based on the stakes alone, this matter, this decision, this particular piece of planning is THE MOST IMPORTANT of a person’s entire life, is absolutely and utterly and infinitely crucial.

Oh and by the way, in this case to NOT make a decision is actually MAKING one, to make NO reservation is to MAKE ONE FOR HELL, humanity’s default  destination:

• “for ALL have sinned and FALL SHORT of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
• “For the wages [lit., stipend, pay, i.e., penalty, fine, default result] of SIN is DEATH…” (Romans 6:23a)

but I’ve got GREAT NEWS (er, better yet in this particular case, GOOD NEWS 🙂 ) for you:  that second verse doesn’t stop there, it keeps going!

• “but the FREE GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b)

And let me add one other thing:  in my view, in my perspective, if I can be saved from my sins and go from being headed for Hell to headed for Heaven for all eternity, ANYONE CAN.  If Christ can save me from my sins, He can save YOU from yours, and frankly ANYONE from theirs.

IF – and ONLY IF – you ask Him.  If and only if you put your faith in Him and Him ALONE.  Because He and He alone is WORTHY of your trust in this matter.

Because He and He alone among humans was conceived by the Holy Spirit versus a man (see Romans 5:12 for why this is so crucial).

Because He and He alone among humans has lived a perfect, flawless, sinless life.

Therefore, since He lived the human experience but without  sinning, He, through His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection which the “whole wide world” celebrates every spring, is able to take OUR wages/fine/penalty for OUR sins ONTO HIMSELF, onto His literal body, as foreshadowed thousands of years prior in the Old Testament.

• “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore draw near WITH CONFIDENCE to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16, emphasis added)
• “For you have been called [i.e., spiritually saved from sin] for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously [i.e., God the Father, see 4:19]; and He HIMSELF bore OUR SINS in HIS BODY on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.  For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have retturned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:21-25, emphasis added; see also 1 John 5:18 on that final point)
• “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your descendants shall be called.’  He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type.” (Hebrews 11:17-19)

But you might be thinking, “But DJ Bible, what if I’ve only committed very few  sins, do I still need to be saved through Jesus Christ?”

Even if that is the case, if that’s actually true, the answer is very clear, a resounding and unmitigated “Yes!”

• “For whoever keeps the WHOLE law and yet stumbles in ONE point, he has become GUILTY of ALL” of them.  “For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not commit murder.’  Now if you do NOT commit adultery, but DO commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.” (James 2:10-11, emphasis added)

I trust you’ll take THIS VERY MINUTE to contemplate and consider and confirm  YOUR eternal destination, i.e., to make a reservation for a “room” in Heaven!  (Not the no-checkout “roach motel” that is Hell, which, remember, is humanity’s default destination from conception.)  It’s as EASY as “A-B-C”:  Admit, Believe, Confess:

Please keep firmly in mind that I’ve also never known or even heard of anyone who has received an advance invitation  for a hearse, for death, from the “grim reaper”.  Because its exact timing is never truly known in advance – and it usually occurs without any  INKLING that such is imminent, that such is even a real possibility anytime soon.

Just ask my latest example in the news, the ten people who simply showed up at a ballroom dance hall on a Saturday night as usual.  It’s too late for them to do anything about their eternal destination (even just the thought that a number of them likely ended up in Hell – per Matthew 7:13-14‘s “many” and “few” – is heartbreaking) (and absolutely irreversible) … but it’s NOT too late for YOU!

All over the news today is the fact that night before last’s ballroom dance hall mass murderer was a 72-year-old Asian man.  What are the odds on that?!  Mass murderers have often been white or black or Hispanic, rarely Asian, just based on the stats, very unusual.  And for millennia Asians have been probably the most peaceful people, pacifists from birth by-and-large, compared to other ethnicities.  And when’s the last time a mass shooter has been SEVENTY-TWO years old?  Never?  Never ever?  Extremely rare.

Ergo, based on the “odds” those ten ballroom dancers would never, ever have even imagined that their life would come to a screeching halt at the hand of a 72-year-old Asian male long-time ballroom dance hall regular.

And yet it occurred, and yet that’s exactly what happened.

NEVER try to “time it” or “play the odds” when eternity is on the line.

Just ask this person who was driving near the Amazon HQ2 just this morning:

#caughtoncamera: One overturned after crash at Army Navy & S. Eads at 8:30 a.m. 2 people were trapped for about 20 mins. Injuries reported to be non-life threatening. @ArlingtonVaFD & @ArlingtonVaPD handled. @ARLnowDOTcom #firefighters #EMS #police #arlington #traffic #vatraffic pic.twitter.com/6WkDhJDG9l

— Dave Statter (@STATter911) January 21, 2023

Thankfully, like the Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin a few weeks ago, this driver escaped death.

This time.

But what about tomorrow?  Or next month or next year?  The point is that you just never know when your time will come, when you’ll leave this life and instantly enter the one to come, eternity.

I sincerely hope and pray that you’ll “choose wisely” in this most important and most urgent  of matters and confirm YOUR reservation in Heaven today!  Or wiser still, RIGHT NOW!

• “… behold, NOW is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, NOW is ‘the day of salvation'” (2 Corinthians 6:2b, emphasis added)

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In the “Follow-up #1” post published just a few days ago, I wrote this:  “In the previous post I mentioned the thousands of people who simply showed up to their office on September 11, 2001, and four college students in Idaho who simply went to sleep for the night and three in Virginia who simply boarded a bus for a class trip later that very same day, November 13, 2022, and the very near-miss of an NFL player in the middle of a Monday Night Football game a few weeks ago – and just last night it was ten people at a ball dance hall in Monterey Park, California.  But there will be many, many others in the coming months and years and probably days and even hours.  Which is why I put Follow-up “#1” in this post’s title.  Because there will absolutely be Follow-up examples “#2” and “#3” and so on.  Because just as the path of believers “shines brighter and brighter” throughout their lives on earth (Proverbs 4:18) so also unbelievers “will proceed from bad to worse” throughout theirs (2 Timothy 3:13).”

It’s unfortunate whenever people who don’t know the Lord slip into an eternity in hell (forever and ever and ever)… but fully predictable, based on what the Bible clearly teaches about human nature, the innate/default sinfulness of humanity, and its propensity to get progressively worse, even as the redeemed grow progressively better (more and more righteous and pure) like the sun which grows brighter and brighter each morning into the afternoon.  (To evoke another classic TV commercial which unintentionally proclaimed biblical truth, when it comes to the Bible and everything one may need or encounter in life, “it’s in there!”

… how overflowing with wisdom and truth and light and good guidance and all-sufficient it truly is!)

And surely enough, “within days or even hours” the national news headlines that evening and the next day brought word of several more mass murderers, of many more people who suddenly and unexpectedly left this life and slipped into eternity:  this time in Half Moon Bay, California (seven as of this writing) and Red Springs, North Carolina (three) – just on Monday alone.

Unfortunately for the victims and those who love them and all of us who value souls and understand the finality of one’s eternal destination, there will be more.  Many, many more in the years and months and days and, yes, even hours to come.  So please read the rest of this post which I’m pasting straight from Monday’s and “be all the more diligent to make CERTAIN” about where YOU will be spending all eternity when your life on earth ends, whether that ends up being fifty years from now or fifty minutes… once that happens it’s too late to do anything about it, but God has given us RIGHT NOW to take care of this most important of matters.  “Tomorrow” is guaranteed to nobody, only today and more accurately, the here and now.  May we use it wisely.

(The following is reprinted from the previous post… and definitely worth repeating…)

As near-impossible as it is for human nature to do, I strongly encourage YOU to “brand your brain” with the firm fact that YOUR final day (yes, YOU!) and MY final day could be today or tomorrow or even ten or twenty or fifty years from now but the main thing is to realize that it could be today so as to give the urgency due to such an all-important matter, in fact the ONLY thing that truly  matters in this entire life:  where one will spend the life to come.

James 4:14 comes to a crystal-clear conclusion:  compared to eternity, this current life is literally like a single breath on a cold morning.  And 2 Peter 3:8 confirms that in eternity “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  The fact is that one day in eternity is equal to infinity  days on earth, but omniscient God knows everything including the fact that our finite human minds, which He created and designed, can’t truly comprehend infinity so He put it in terms we can  understand and digest easily, to make the exact same (poignant) point.

And, in the words of an old TV ad, eternity is final:  each and every person will in one split-second check in but will never, ever, ever check out.

Which is why I always say that the ONLY thing that truly matters in THIS life is that which impacts the NEXT one.

Please don’t put off for another day, even another minute, taking the time and focus to CONFIRM, to “make certain about” where you’ll be spending it.

• “… be all the more diligent to make certain about” your salvation (2 Peter 1:10) – that you’ll be spending eternity in Heaven, not Hell.  In unquestionable freedom and pleasure, not unquenchable fire and pain.

Because like I said in the previous post, the clock is ticking.

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The previous post was titled “While You Can”, which listed several examples of people who thought they had much, much, much, much, much more time to live, to take care of their eternal destination, to confirm a “reservation” for Heaven or Hell forever and ever.

And just last night ten people simply went to their local ball dance hall as they do every Saturday night.  Or at least, did.  You see, while the thought or even the possibility almost certainly never crossed their mind, last night their lives on earth came to a sad, screeching halt and they entered into eternity.  Heaven or Hell.  A or B.  To put it in school terms, this matter is not “multiple choice”, it’s “true or false”.  The ultimate “binary choice” (to use a phrase we hear every election cycle, especially when a political party puts up a candidate unconducive to their constituents’, to the people’s primary preference).

In the previous post I mentioned the thousands of people who simply showed up to their office on September 11, 2001, and four college students in Idaho who simply went to sleep for the night and three in Virginia who simply boarded a bus for a class trip later that very same day, November 13, 2022, and the very near-miss of an NFL player in the middle of a Monday Night Football game a few weeks ago – and just last night it was ten people at a ball dance hall in Monterey Park, California.  But there will be many, many others in the coming months and years and probably days and even hours.  Which is why I put Follow-up “#1” in this post’s title.  Because there will absolutely be Follow-up examples “#2” and “#3” and so on.  Because just as the path of believers “shines brighter and brighter” throughout their lives on earth (Proverbs 4:18) so also unbelievers “will proceed from bad to worse” throughout theirs (2 Timothy 3:13).

As near-impossible as it is for human nature to do, I strongly encourage YOU to “brand your brain” with the firm fact that YOUR final day (yes, YOU!) and MY final day could be today or tomorrow or even ten or twenty or fifty years from now but the main thing is to realize that it could be today so as to give the urgency due to such an all-important matter, in fact the ONLY thing that truly  matters in this entire life:  where one will spend the life to come.

James 4:14 comes to a crystal-clear conclusion:  compared to eternity, this current life is literally like a single breath on a cold morning.  And 2 Peter 3:8 confirms that in eternity “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  The fact is that one day in eternity is equal to infinity  days on earth, but omniscient God knows everything including the fact that our finite human minds, which He created and designed, can’t truly comprehend infinity so He put it in terms we can  understand and digest easily, to make the exact same (poignant) point.

And, in the words of an old TV ad, eternity is final:  each and every person will in one split-second check in but will never, ever, ever check out.

Which is why I always say that the ONLY thing that truly matters in THIS life is that which impacts the NEXT one.

Please don’t put off for another day, even another minute, taking the time and focus to CONFIRM, to “make certain about” where you’ll be spending it.

• “… be all the more diligent to make certain about” your salvation (2 Peter 1:10) – that you’ll be spending eternity in Heaven, not Hell.  In unquestionable freedom and pleasure, not unquenchable fire and pain.

Because like I said in the previous post, the clock is ticking.

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