Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Inside Information on What's Ahead - #5535

Friday, March 28, 2008

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I had just finished having lunch with our friends Curt and Laura, and Laura had to hurry home to get ready for a major social gathering at their house that night. Curt and I went in another car to visit a friend of his in the hospital. Later, as we came out of the hospital, Curt's cell phone rang. It was Laura. She was stuck in a bad traffic jam. Her message to her husband was very clear: "Don't come this way! Take the other way!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Inside Information on What's Ahead."

Laura didn't want the man she loves to end up in the mess she was in. She knew what he was headed for, and she wanted him to go another way. That's what Jesus wants to do for you. He knows the terrible situation we're headed for after our heart beats for the last time, and He's warning us about it. He's directing us to another way.

That's why He told the story that is our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Luke 16 , and we're beginning with verse 23. In His story, Jesus tells about a rich man who died and went to hell, and a poor beggar named Lazarus who died and went to heaven - or "Abraham's side" as it's described here. The Bible says, "In hell, where he was in torment, (that's the rich man) he looked up and he saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side." He begs Abraham to send someone from heaven with just a drop of water because, as he said, "I am in agony in this fire." But Abraham says it's impossible because "between us and you a great chasm has been fixed."

Listen to the rich man's response: "Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment." Abraham responds that they already have the Bible, God's Word, to warn them. The rich man answers, "If someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." It's clear that this man who knows what eternity away from God is like is desperate for others to know what they're headed for, which our Bible already makes clear.

Based on this amazing inside information of what's ahead, the sobering truth for all of us is this: if every living person knew now what every departing soul discovers, we would all run to Jesus to save us. But we can know now. That's why the Bible repeatedly describes what only God could describe - the awful eternal consequences for our rebellion against our Creator. Anybody else who speculates on what happens after we die, is guessing. God knows. The Bible says that every one of us has defied the order of the universe by, in essence, saying to God, "You run the universe and I'll run me, thank you." And we've taken our life where we wanted it to go, done what we wanted to do, and then maybe we've tried to pacify God with a little religion that in no way can pay the death penalty for a lifetime of disobeying God.

But in the greatest act of love in history, Jesus, as the Bible says, "carried our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24 ). God's Son did all the dying for all your sinning. He took your hell so you could have His heaven if you grab Him in total faith as your personal Rescuer from your sin and its penalty. But you have to give you to Him. The consequences of not doing it are unthinkable but they're very real. Anyone who's ever gone into eternity without Christ knows that, but it's too late to change it then. It's not too late for you.

God is giving you this opportunity; the only one you can be totally sure of. This is your guaranteed opportunity to trust His Son. Right where you are, would you tell Him, "Jesus, I abandon my control of my life. I'm giving myself to you as my Rescuer - my only hope." If that's what you want, you're ready to begin your relationship with Him to be forgiven, to change your eternal address, I hope you'll go to our website, where I've put there some simple information to help you know how to begin your relationship with Jesus. Just go to yoursforlife.net.

Please grab Him, while you still can.