This week’s post is for “seekers”……people who are searching for truth, meaning, and direction.
One day, soon, you will die. You can quibble about how soon, but you and I cannot escape death. So, after you die, what comes next? This is the single greatest and most important question of your life. It is a question with extraordinary consequences. Many of us have given it little or no thought. This morning you got up and got dressed. At that point in your day, you had probably given more thought to your outfit than to your long term destination.
So, what are the possibilities for what comes next?
Nothing….dead black nothing……the lights just go out. The world goes on without you.
You go somewhere very nice. Everyone there is nice. All of the mean people (that is, the people meaner than you) are somewhere else.
You go somewhere that is not nice. All of the nice people are somewhere else.
Everyone (nice and not nice) goes to the same place. Your roommate could be Dolly Parton……or Adolph Hitler. It is a whole lot like our temporal world.
You go to a place where everything and everyone is just the way you want it……your own personal “designer paradise.” All of your dreams, no matter how nutty, come true. You may be alone. Everyone else will be in their own custom built eternity
You are returned to this temporal world in either a better form or a worse form……and the cycle repeats……forever…….until you get it right.
You go to a place filled with people just as broken as you are. But, they have been fixed. You have been fixed. This place is defined by love, justice, and mercy. It is defined by an intimate relationship with your creator.
There may be other possibilities, but these cover the main categories.
Now, look into your heart. Because the answer is there. The answer is there because it was put there…….by your creator. Remember, you are looking for the truth…….not what you want to be true. What you want to be true……your appetites…….is completely irrelevant.
I have found the last option to be the best.
If you agree, then you should study this option. Begin by getting a “red letter” edition of the Bible. This will have the teachings of Jesus in red ink. Take a few hours and read the red part. For now, that is what you need to know. The rest of the book is background information. You can dig into the rest of the book later.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Revelation 21:3-5, ESV