It has been some fair amount of time since last I posted. Thank you to all those who have followed my blog for continuing to check-in, waiting for the next post. Your wait is over! The dry spell has ended and I trust that you will find the following worth the wait!
Ten Minutes to Live
What if… you only had ten minutes to live and you knew it? Is ten minutes long enough to pray through every sin you can think of to try to make certain you have a welcoming smile from ‘St. Peter’ as you approach the pearly gates? If you are a born-again follower of Jesus Christ you won’t need the ten minutes to spit out a mouthful of sins to get a ‘pass’ from Saint Peter and besides, I don’t see anything in scripture that puts Peter working security at the gate. It is true that Christ gave him the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 16:19) but the Kingdom of Heaven and the New Jerusalem, which is the cube-shaped city as big as the entire eastern U.S. from the Mississippi RIver to the Atlantic; the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes; are two different things. The keys are the tenets of the faith, what one must truly believe to be born again. Action taken in that regard here on earth will have eternal consequences, perhaps a better word, more positive at least, would be results. In fact, the Bible tells us two important facts about entry through the gates of pearl. First, those gates never close. (Revelation 21:25) and it is Jesus who turns people away from Heaven in the ‘Last Days’ (Matthew 7:23) and God who executes the judgment at the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-15)
For the families of those who were on board the German Lufhtansa flight whose co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and proceeded to crash the plane into the side of the Alps, TNM professes our heart-felt sympathies. Those on board had about ten minutes, knowing they were about to enter eternity. What if that were you? At some point, we will all have just ten more minutes before we die. The most important difference is that we probably won’t know when that moment will come. The key is to be prepared for it, whenever it might be. For those who boarded that plane with their spiritual house in order, their’s was but a moment of terror that within a split second they did not even remember it anymore. All painful thoughts or hurts vanished as they saw their Savior face to face. For others, the terror of those last ten minutes was but a faint precursor of the terror that would devour them without destroying them for an eternity to come. Their terror would be unending and there, sadly is nothing at all that can remedy that for them now. If only they had heeded the words of the Lord before that fateful day. It is important to understand that for those who have placed their faith in Christ, their position is already in heaven. It is an act that is completed, not a decision yet to be made when they stand at the pearly gates. To read more about the decisions that are done before they happen, watch for our upcoming Ministry Minute; Finished Before It Begins.
God bless!
Doc Riggs' Ministry Minute 