Prelims

God gives mankind a certain amount of time to live and we can average it out to around seventy years and yet for some a lot less time is afforded them. This morning I will be attending a funeral of one of our boys aged just seventeen that we ministered to on a Thursday night. Praise God for the opportunity He afforded Mark and me. As slight as it may have been, the privilege of playing our parts in his life may just have been the thrust he needed to respond to the glorious message of the Gospel. It is only God who saves but He has chosen the gospel message to spark individuals into action. I am confident that the Lord Jesus Christ had an influence on his life. At a tender age of seventeen he has move from this realm to the next, he is now in the spiritual realm and in one of two places, hell the holding cell awaiting his eternal judgment or heaven awaiting the Lord Jesus’ second return where he will receive his glorified body; a topic for another day. This is what the Bible teaches; there is no other in-between state; we will either died and open our eyes in heaven or hell, Period! Never assume that you will have another day to put things right, as it may never arrive. Today is the day of salvation and life is filled with ignorance, God has spoken; “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Act 17:30-31) – The Lord Jesus died for sinners and not the self-righteous and God the Father confirmed this to the world by raising Him from the dead. However without repentance heaven will allude the sinner. 

Regardless of our allotted time, it is imperative that we call upon the name of the Lord Jesus to save us from our sins and the looming horrific judgment that God has in store for those who reject his grace. As for the Christian this is our time and we have to learn the lessons God wants us to learn, no differently to a father training his son up to the best of his ability as he looks out for his well-being, which is driven by love. God’s love is far greater. The enemy on the other hand feeds us with alternatives, like qualifications, self-worth and power in whatever form that may come within our given circles and obviously gratification of our flesh, lures that promise satisfaction and yet they are so temporal and can never be totally quenched. Have you not lived long enough to understand this? It’s one thing to struggle with a particular sin but quite another thing altogether when you do not see it as such and excuse it away as the niceties’ or necessities of life.

As for Kobus I am confident as I can be, God knows! That he is now in heaven, he heard the gospel and responded favourably to it.

Let us not say tomorrow we will right our wrongs, for tomorrow may never arrive. “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3)

Signing off

Tyrone