Musings: Now that's scary

This is the time of year that people like to get scared.  There’s scary movies.  There’s scary costumes. It’s good to get scared. It’s kind of fun. We scream, we close our eyes, we want to get scared. Because we know it isn’t real, and on Monday morning, we go back to work or school and everything gets back to normal. I mean, it’s fun being alive.  But what about when you aren’t anymore. Alive, I mean. Well, we tend to not think about it. The chances are pretty high that you and I won’t die today, next week, or even next year.

Why even take the time to write about it?  Well, Jesus did.

Jesus spent most of His life talking to us about the end of ours. It mattered to Him. I mean, did He say that it was easy to follow Him? No. He said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” He is telling us, right there, we have to give up the way that seems natural to us…and follow Him. He says we should always love Him the way we did at first. I appreciate that so many churches preach a Gospel that is filled with God’s grace.  They say “No matter what you’ve done, or are doing, come to Jesus.  He wants you.  He loves you.  He will forgive you.” And that is truth.  100% truth.  Come to Jesus. He will forgive you. He loves you.

But then, as we grow, we understand that our flesh is at war with our spirit. War. And Jesus tells us time and time again how to win the war.  We tend to ignore Him. We want the peace that He promised, but we have to lay down things that displease Him.  You know what they are. I know what they are.  I mean I’m not saying these things, He is. Over and over.

And then we will all face judgement. In Matthew 24, He tells us that He will judge us on whether or not we fed the hungry and thirsty brother or a sister, were kind to a stranger, or a naked brother or sister and in our compassion and we clothed them. What? He doesn’t care that we were deacons or on the worship team? Nope. He also talks to those who didn’t feed a hungry brother or sister, ignored they were thirsty, they were strangers and they didn’t invite them in, they were sick and in prison and they didn’t help. He said, “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 26:45).

We were busy. We didn’t want to ignore Him. We had things to do.  We didn’t have time to feed and clothe those people. We had a family to clothe and feed. Right?

Let’s be rocked to our core with His words. Wake up and do what matters to Him.

One day, at the end of time, He will judge us. He will separate the two groups. One to eternal life. One to eternal punishment.  Forever. And ever.  Now that’s scary.  That’s very scary.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Musings: Now that's scary