You Are On the Edge Of Eternity

© 2023 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

Today we visited a friend of many years.  She was recently placed in hospice care to await her entrance into eternity.  This can be a difficult time, even for someone trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  It is often accompanied by discomfort.  It’s also difficult for those saying “goodbye” to one they love.

Jesus described two people who passed from this life into eternity.  It is a sobering account in which those two individuals experienced drastically different outcomes.

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:  And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,  And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;” (Luke 16:19-22)

 Notice:  We’re not told that the beggar was buried.  Could it be that the dogs licking his sores disposed of his body?  The rich man’s burial, however, did him no good.  Jesus’ next words describe the rich man in his eternal condition.

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.  But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.  And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” (Luke 16:23-26)

Then the rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers to avoid this place of torment.  However, Abraham told the rich man that God’s prophets had provided sufficient information for them to be so warned.  Today, you and I have that information, and more, in God’s Word, the Bible.  Years ago, a fellow Air Force officer told me he didn’t want his life hampered by Jesus’ righteous demands.  He said he would wait until he was on his death bed to repent and ask forgiveness.  If he has persisted in that mindset, he is either already suffering the rich man’s agony, or soon shall be.

Jesus Christ once told a woman that the well water she was drawing would never eternally quench her soul’s thirst. (see John 4:13).  Instead, He told her:

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14)

Are you pursuing only the temporary water of this world?  Or, will you pursue the eternal water of forgiven sins provided by Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary?

 

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