So when I hear someone say, “I want to live life and have fun first” when referring to turning their lives around and “getting right with God,” I have to sadly shake my head. My question to them would be, “Do you want to take that chance, knowing that you may die unexpectedly and go into eternity without God?” That is just like playing Russian roulette.
The critical thing that these people do not know is that
there are no second chances after death. Your eternal destination cannot be
changed once you die, and that is a very long time to pay the consequences of a
bad decision. Many of those who end up eternally in hell will remember with
deep regret and sorrow all the times someone witnessed to them and they still
decided to reject the truth.
I believe that the Christian life is a LOT of fun! Just
because we are committed to Christ and walk the narrow way and according to the
Word of the living God does not mean we live a boring, unfulfilled life! Quite
the contrary!! When the Lord is in your life, you will experience more peace
and joy than you ever imagined, especially when the really difficult storms come
along! You will no longer have to fear death because you will know without a
doubt where you are headed afterwards.
Although we are saved solely by grace by believing that
Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins, paying the penalty of death
that we deserved and that he rose again, we live by the standard that God set
forth in his Holy Word. We do not live this way because we “have to
live by all the do’s and don’ts in order to go to heaven.” We live by God’s
standards because we love the Lord and desire to please him. We are also thankful
for all he has done for us. Not only this, but we know that God’s ways are the
best ways to live and will actually protect us from a lot of heartache and difficulty
we could avoid. We are being made holy, as he is Holy. He
desires for us to have a fun, fulfilling, prosperous life and he knows the way
to do this is to strive for always doing the right thing.
Sin will get us nowhere. It may be fun for the moment, but the
long-term consequences are usually too high a price to pay for a few minutes or
hours of pleasure and excitement. Twice in my early 20s, I got really drunk
when I went out celebrating with a few friends. Stupid thing to do, I know. The
first time, I made a fool of myself in front of my new husband by walking in a
stupor and then I threw up out in the parking lot. The second time, I was
confined to bed for over 24 hours because I literally could not stand up without
being horribly dizzy and throwing up. Needless to say, that was the very last
time I drank alcohol!
I found that the deeper my walk with the Lord has become
over the years, the better my life has actually gotten and the more fun I have
had! This is hard to explain to the world who only sees Christianity as a “boring
religion of a bunch of sticks in the mud.” I find it much more fun living in freedom and getting together with my
brothers and sisters in Christ with whom I have that common ground of faith,
knowing that someday we will spend eternity together in heaven. I will also finally
get to meet in person those people whom I have “met” on different social media
sites whom I only hear of their God stories and see their pictures for now. I
am encouraged by their walk, just as they are encouraged by mine. It will be
wonderful to give a hug to and thank in person those brothers and sisters I only
got to “know” through cyberspace on this side of heaven.
All of this being said, if you are waiting until later when
it most likely will be too late to get saved (become right with God), your
later may be too late. Do not let fear or anything else hold you back from
coming to know the Lord as your personal savior NOW. I cannot promise it will
be an easy road, but it will be MUCH better and a lighter load with the Lord’s
help and the help of your brothers and sisters who will lift you up in prayer
when you need it.
What are you waiting for? The time is NOW.
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