“At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27). The apostles were looking intently up into the sky as Jesus was being lifted into heaven, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven (Acts 1:11). We don’t know when our Lord is coming back to this earth, but we do believe He is coming soon. The fact that Jesus is coming back should inspire us to live holy and righteous lives.
One of the biggest mistakes we make in our lives is when we try to determine how close we can live to this sinful world and still be a Christian. It seems like Christians are always asking which worldly things we can engage in and not be alienated from the Lord. How close can we live to the worldly ways and still walk with the Lord, and is it right for a Christian to do this or that. Many people are wanting spiritual leaders to set the guidelines of what is right and what is wrong; what is sinful, what is not sinful. The reason is that they want to live their life on the ragged edge of how God wants us to live our lives. How close can I live my life to the wicked ways of this world and still go to heaven is not the important question. The important thing is to walk as close to the Lord as we possibly can while living in this wicked world.
Trying to find that fine line between what is right and what is wrong for us to do is not the important thing. The important thing is: “Does what we are doing please the Lord?” That should be the basis of how we judge what we are doing—does this please God? Would God be pleased with us doing this? Would we want to be doing this when Jesus comes again for the church? Quite often I find professing Christians wanting to argue with me, as they seek to justify the things that they are doing. I’ll just give them the Scriptures and they get angry with me. But I have come to realize that they are not only angry with me, they are also angry with God—angry with what God has commanded us to do.
Jesus said, “I do always those things that please the Father”—and that should be the standard that we set for ourselves. If it’s our desire and purpose to only do those things that please the Father, we really don’t have to worry about anything else. Our chief desire should be to please God. As the cherubim are worshipping God, giving honor and glory to Him and saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” At that same time the twenty four elders fall down before God to worship Him, saying, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for You have created all things, and for Your glory they are and were created” (cf. Revelation 4:8-11).
We were created for God’s glory, and the prime concern for our lives should be to bring glory to God. “Am I pleasing God? Does my life bring glory to Him?” Because that is the purpose for our existence, and our primary concern should be pleasing God in all things. Paul tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (cf. Romans 12:1-2).
There are several strong warnings in the Bible about rejecting Jesus Christ as our Savior. The Bible says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the Blood of the covenant that sanctified Him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?…It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:26-31).
About 30 years ago a man in his 50s, with a new commercial pilot license, asked me about becoming a crop duster. I told him that it might be a mistake to start out at his age. Later on I told him that if he intended to do this he should buy a plane that was built for agriculture spraying because of their good flying qualities and safety factor (he had bought a small two-place plane with a belly tank on it). He ignored my advice in both cases and he was killed a few weeks later when he crashed his plane.
If we ignore God’s warnings to us of His wrath to come on this sinful world, we are putting our eternal life in jeopardy. While we are on this earth we can make a decision that will put our name in God’s book of life and give us eternal life with Jesus Christ in Heaven. I cannot understand why a person would reject eternal life in heaven with God in exchange for few years of sinful pleasure on this earth, and then an eternity in hell with Satan. “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). When Jesus comes back to this earth, He will be your Savior or your judge—the choice is yours to make!