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| Where
Are You Going? |
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| Dee Bowman |
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Everybody’s going somewhere. The kids
are going to school. Mom’s going to the grocery store, Dad’s
going to work. Uncle Zeke’s going to the dentist, Grandma’s
going to the doctor.
The fullback’s going toward the goal, the baseball player’s
headed for home. The point guard’s shooting toward the basket,
the tennis star’s hitting toward the line.
Everybody’s going somewhere. No matter who you are, you’re
going somewhere.
Where are you going?
Are you going to get better? Christianity is a life of spiritual
growth. If you don’t grow you stagnate. If you don’t grow
your body deteriorates. But unlike physical growth, spiritual
growth is a matter of choice—you decide to do it, it doesn’t
come naturally. “Desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye
may grow thereby, says Peter (2 Pet. 2:2). And, “grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” he
said (2 Pet. 3:18). If you decide to grow, you have to have
regular feedings of spiritual sustenance. And please understand,
it may not always taste good. Are you going to get better?
Are you going up or down? It’s one way or the other. You’re
either making progress in your spiritual life, or you’re
defaulting. You can’t go to heaven by standing still. You have
to make up your mind that whatever is necessary, you are going
up. Heaven is always seen as “up.” And you can’t go up by
just sitting around doing nothing or just by standing and
watching others go by. Hope is one of the vital considerations
in the Christian system and it always looks up toward a desired
expectation. “…continue in the faith grounded and settled,
and be not moved away form the hope of the gospel” (Col.
1:23). It’s your choice. You going up or down?
Are you going to try harder? Trying is what Christianity is all
about. It’s hard to try harder sometimes. It takes courage,
determination, endurance to make the grade, to climb the hill,
to make it home. But when the going gets tough—uh, you just
have to try harder. “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith and I
have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show
thee my faith by my works” (Jas. 2:18). If you have faith you
have to show it by works; you can’t just sit and affirm it,
you have to get up and get with it.
Are you going to heaven? Now that may not sound like much of a
question—not until you consider that every person who
doesn’t go to heaven goes to hell. There’s no in-between
room. It’s one or the other. “Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and
may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14) is
a great assurance for those who are going there. But listen to
the only other side of the story: “And death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14-15) and that’s the same
as describing the ungodly such as will “have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second
death” (Rev. 21:8).
Well, I think you get my point. There’s just not any
in-between. You’re either a Christian or you’re now, a
disciple or not, a worker or a shirker. How’s it going with
you?
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Copyright (C)
2008
Southside Church of Christ
All rights reserved.
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