It’s so common.  Because it’s just human nature to think, to presume and assume that we have a lot of time yet to live, so much so that it’s virtually impossible to even begin to imagine the world without us in it.

This deception is one of the devil’s most dangerous – and successful – weapons.

Because countless people “just keep going and going” through life without properly preparing for (or, in many cases, even considering) the life to come, eternity, i.e., without solidifying their eternal destiny… BEFORE ITS TOO LATE.

I’m sure that, just days ago, Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin thought he had “all the time in the world” before fainting and falling lifelessly to the ground in the middle of that Monday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals, as the whole world watched.  No doubt that but for the lightning-fast actions of the on-field first responders (and the prayers of countless Christians across the country and globe) he would indeed have left this world and immediately found himself in his new abode for all eternity, either Heaven or Hell, forever and ever and ever.  (It’s clear to me that God has a purpose for sparing his life – not just for Mr. Hamlin but also as one of the fairly-frequent reminders God graciously gives to the world that this current, physical life is in fact finite and will indeed end one day.)

Mr. Hamlin was spared… for now.  Meaning that he could go on to live for another 25 or 50 or 75 years.  Or he could get hit by a bus the next time he’s out and about.  That’s the whole point:  one never, ever knows exactly WHEN they’ll leave this life and begin the one to come, in and for eternity… so it’s ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL for each of us to MAKE SURE we’re on the right track, the right route, the right path – the one that leads to Heaven, not Hell.

Mr. Hamlin was spared, was granted more time to do that…

But that wasn’t the case for four precious souls attending college in Moscow, Idaho.  They were so young and truly just beginning their lives, on the precipice of finding themselves and making their way in the world, when suddenly someone murdered all four of them reportedly in a span of just ten or fifteen minutes.

Or what about the three other  college students – football players no less, for the University of Virginia – who went on a field trip that very same day… I’d bet all the money in the world that they didn’t have an inkling that when their bus returned to the campus parking garage, one of their former fellow football teammates would pull out a gun and start shooting, killing three, injuring two, and scaring (and scarring) the rest (probably for the rest of their lives).  On just that one day alone – November 13, 2022 – it was all over the news that seven  college students, full of life and potential, slipped into eternity.  Without warning.  No advance notice.

Or what about the people who went to buy some food at their local grocery store as they had a zillion times before but on this occasion in Buffalo, NY, on May 14 a person with hatred in his heart entered and started shooting randomly, and ten precious souls slipped straight into eternity.  Without warning.  No advance notice.

Or what about the thousands of people who, as they had countless times before, merely showed up at their jobs one clear, cloudless, bright-blue-sky September morning in 2001 at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – how many of them do you think even imagined that they’d be dead, they’d leave this life and enter the one to come in mere minutes, before the clock even hit noon?

Probably none of them.  Very likely not even a single one.

Like I said, it’s human nature.

It’s also the very reason that each person needs to consider, address, confirm  their eternal destiny RIGHT NOW, today, this minute, BEFORE it’s TOO LATE!

• “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to MAKE CERTAIN about” your salvation, your eternal destiny (2 Peter 1:10, emphasis added)
• “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; EXAMINE YOURSELVES!” (2 Corinthians 13:5a, emphasis added)
• “… behold, NOW is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, NOW is ‘the day of salvation'” (2 Corinthians 6:2b, emphasis added)

Because as far as I know, the “Grim Reaper” doesn’t send invitations.

If any of you haven’t yet “made certain” about your eternal destiny, of exactly where you’ll go when you leave this life and spend all eternity, I strongly, strongly, strongly urge and encourage you to do so RIGHT NOW.  Simply speak to God:  tell Him that you realize that you’re a sinner, confess your sins to Him and put your faith wholly and solely in His Son, Jesus Christ – in His prophesied immaculate conception (and not-so-immaculate birth, in a lowly feeding trough for animals), perfect life, and predicted death, burial and resurrection, which He lovingly underwent for you and for me, so that we can leave behind the sins of our past and literally become righteous, even the very righteousness of God, imputed to us through Christ and Him alone.

• “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:17,20,21)
• “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.  BUT when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, BUT according to His mercy…” (Titus 3:3-5a, emphasis added)
• “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…” (1 Timothy 2:5-6a)
• “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… For the wages of sin is death, but the FREE GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 3:23; 6:23, emphasis added)
• “… the name of Jesus Christ… there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10b,12)
• “Jesus said to him, ‘I am THE WAY, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.'” (John 14:6, emphasis added)
• “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, emphasis added)

Eternity awaits.  And for each and every one of us, the clock is ticking.

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