Last night I spoke to some freshmen at Thomas University. They filled up approximately half of the gymnasium bleachers and I stood at the center of the basketball court and gave my testimony.
The organizer John Rainey of Goal Line Ministries wanted me to speak to them about alcohol awareness (among other things). One problem that many youngsters have is that they think they’re invincible and will live forever. To most of them alcoholism is just a word and certainly doesn’t apply to them.
When I gave my testimony of the death and carnage that I’ve lived through (much of it caused by alcohol abuse); one could have heard a pin drop in that gymnasium. It was not a pretty story and from the look on some of their faces the realization that alcoholism is not just a word, but a black evil that ruins lives along with its companion illegal drugs had begun to sink in.
Most anyone familiar with my story knows that I went out and got very drunk and ended up in a head-on collision and very nearly died. What most don’t know about that terrible car crash is that it was the second head-on collision that I’d experienced, and in that first horrible car crash someone did die!
I was driving up a hill on a two lane highway and just before I reached the crest a car appeared in my lane. There was little I could do. I tried to swerve to their side to avoid them, but hit the passenger side head on, instantly killing the passenger, (a woman). The two people in the back of their car were seriously injured and one woman had both her feet cut off. The driver who was heavily inebriated didn’t get a scratch, (as so often seems to be the case). It was a bloody terrible sight and that remembrance along with the screams of those injured victims will likely continue to haunt me all of the way to my grave.
The day after Christmas legendary Coach Bobby Bowden’s grandson was killed in a car accident. He’d graduated from FSU in December. Two other boys died that night and one survived. Sigh . . . So much grief and tragedy tormenting family and friends with unrelenting fervor even to this very moment. Bobby’s comment was: “We should always be ready”.
Hmmm . . . “Be ready” for what?
Be ready to die! I told my new Bible study class that there is one ultimate statistic and it is an axiom; (1 out of 1 of us WILL die), and it can happen at virtually any moment and often comes without any warning. So whether you’re an 18 year old freshman in college, or an old man like me, we must all be ready for our own death.
What happens after we die?
Do we simply cease to exist like turning off a light switch? Statistics indicate that only 2% of the people in the world believe we merely cease to exist when life ends. According to the Bible we ALL believe in eternity. “ . . . He has also set eternity in the hearts of men.” Ecclesiastes 3:11. As for those who claim there is no God or eternity, the Bible states: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” Psalm 14:1. (According to my thesaurus we could substitute boob, chump, sucker, dupe, jester, clown, laughingstock, or buffoon for the word “fool”.)
The Bible indicates that we have an immortal spirit trapped in a mortal body that is released when the physical body expires. In other words we were created by God to live forever.
Where will we live?
We will reside either in heaven or hell forever and our destination will be determined at the judgment. Hebrews 9:27 “And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment”.
Some naively believe that our loving God would never send anyone to hell for eternity; (especially someone who is good like they are). In fact the Bible does indeed define God as love, 1 John 4:16 – And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.
No fear!
Whoa . . . Not so fast, according to the Bible God is also a fearsome Judge! Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness . . .
It seems like a paradox; how can pure love bitterly destroy? And yet there was a flood that destroyed the entire world save one righteous family; a fierce judgment that destroyed the entire population of Sodom and Gomorrah save one righteous family; and Old Testament blood sacrifice where something innocent had to die in order to atone for the sins that are so abhorrent to our holy God that by his very nature MUST punish sin in the most stringent way. God cannot tolerate sin in His perfect presence.
God is a righteous and a fearsome judge, and the wrath of God is a terrifying thing. Only those who have been covered by the blood of Christ, shed for us on the cross, can be assured that God’s wrath will never fall on them. “Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!” Romans 5:9.
As I looked around that gymnasium last night I softly told those kids that the doctors told me that they had at one point all but given up on me having any chance of surviving my car crash. I teetered on the verge of dying for days on end and was slowly slipping-slipping away, and very nearly did not awaken from the coma that I was in. Had I died, I would be in hell right now and I would know first-hand the sheer terror of almighty God forever. I shudder to think of that and every single day of my life thank God for Jesus Christ! And I thank God that I no longer get drunk or even drink alcohol.
Charles Spurgeon sums up this phenomenon as well as anyone I’ve ever heard: “No one knows the true God in the real sense of knowledge except through Jesus Christ, for no man comes unto the Father but by the Son. But even if he could know God, in a measure, apart from the Revelation of Him in Christ Jesus, it would be knowledge of terror that would make him flee away and avoid God! It would not be life to our souls to know God apart from His Son, Jesus Christ! We must know the Christ whom He has sent or our knowledge does not bring eternal life to us. But, Beloved, when we see God in Christ meeting us, demanding a penalty and yet providing it, Himself, decreeing the punishment most justly and then bearing it Himself. When we see Him to be both Judge and Expiation, both Ruler and Sacrifice, then we see that “herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins.” Then it is, in the knowledge of God in Christ and God through Christ, that we find that we have entered into eternal life!
John 17:3
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
January 9, 2014 – Click here to listen