Are you in or out?

*Blink* Half the people in your work place are gone, cars crashing, and a couple of airplanes start going down. The phone call falls silent. The cashier taking your money at the grocery store disappears. You see clothes, but no bodies. You hear the trumpets sound. Jesus came back for His people.

You knew it was going to happen. You had gone to church a couple of times and probably even paid attention once or twice. You remember hearing, “Jesus is coming back for His bride!” and may even clapped along with everyone else. You remember thinking that it sounded nice, but you weren’t sure if God was real or not. You thought that a lot of the things the pastor preached about sounded nice, well, except when he talked about sins you were committing. You remember going on Pinterest and repinning Bible verses with pretty pictures in the back. You remember “Sharing” posts on Facebook about Christian things and even typing “Amen” on “Would you allow Jesus in your home?” pictures. You remember putting “God first” on your Facebook and Instagram bio. You remember saying “God bless you” when someone sneezed or saying “I’ll be praying for you” when a friend was in need or suffering through something. You remember being a nice person to others and even giving a dollar to homeless people on the streets a couple of times.

When reality sets in that you’re left behind. All of a sudden your heart starts pounding. Fear instantly fills your spirit. You start to cry and fall to the ground. You start yelling, “I’m sorry, God!!!” and all of a sudden it hits you. All of a sudden every memory of the past flashes through your head.

You remember the times you joked about the Bible, you remember the times that you knew that fornication was wrong and impure, but you did it anyways. You remember the times you held a grudge against someone when you could’ve chosen to forgive. You remember the times your friend invited you to church, but you chose to go out and party instead. You remember the times where you felt you should pray, but you decided to hang out with friends instead. You remember the times that you said you loved God, but didn’t want to spend time praying or reading the Bible. You remember the times where you justified your sin. The times where you allowed yourself to gossip and speak ill of others (Psalms 34:13). The times where instead of showing compassion to others, you rejected them. The times where you supported sin because that’s what everyone else was doing (Rom 12:2). You remember opening pornographic websites and masturbating knowing that it was against God’s will for you to walk in sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:9-10, 1 Cor 6:18).

You remember the times where you didn’t stand up for the body of Christ when people around you were criticizing it. You remember putting other things before God, whether it was work, school, friends, family, etc (Matt 6:33). You remember making excuses about being too tired to go to church, but making a sacrifice to do other things (Luke 9:23). You remember saying that churches only want your money, but being willing to drop money on temporary possessions (Malachi 3:10). It starts hitting you that you were more worried about having a lot of money and having possessions that you didn’t want to surrender those things to God and walk in obedience. You start thinking about the fact that you thought you didn’t need God because your life wasn’t “that bad”. You remember calling people who went to church “Bible-thumpers” because they stood up to what the Bible said. You remember making excuses not to go to church because everyone at church was a hypocrite, but you knew deep inside that you didn’t have a relationship with God. You remember saying that the you believed in God, but not the Bible because the Bible was “written by man” (John 1:14). You remember the moments where you said “I’ll just ask for forgiveness” before knowingly committing a sin (Gal 5:19). You remember joking about “going to hell” for being mean to someone or committing a sin against God.

You start panicking realizing that since you’re left behind, that means the Holy Spirit is gone too. That means that you are alone. You realize that if you want to get right with God, you have ONE more chance, BUT you have no help. It’s just you alone. You and your flesh and this time, demons are unleashed all over the Earth. You start asking yourself a series of questions. “Why did you wait til it was too late?” “Why did you take God lightly?” “Can I fix it? If I can, how am I going to fix it?” “Why didn’t I just die to my flesh?” “Why did I allow myself to fall into sin knowing that Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice so that I wouldn’t find myself in this very situation I’m in right now?!”.

You look around you and you see people running and demons flying by. You see fire. You see people crying and shouting. You look to the person closest to you and they’re on the ground, on their knees, crying out to God and asking for God to take them with Him. You look around to someone else and they’re asking what happened to the people around them. You get up, you start walking outside. You see complete chaos. Cars have crashed into poles, inside stores, and into other cars. You see a couple of bikes on the floor with just clothes on top of them. You look up and you see a light.

From a distance, you can see people being lifted into the sky. Then all of a sudden, you remember that the people you knew that were Christians are gone. You start thinking about the fact that if you want to make it into heaven, you’re going to have to do this thing all alone. By this point, you’re feeling hopeless. You’re thinking, “If I had the Holy Spirit willing to help me where I was weak before and still didn’t do it, how am I going to do it now, when it’s just my flesh?”

You make way through the chaos and for some reason, you want to go to your church, the one you would go to occasionally. You see some people there that you would see on Sunday. You go up to one of them and say, “Why are you still here? You were a leader, you did so many things in church, how are you still here?” They look at you and you see that their eyes are bloodshot from crying and they say, “I knew the things of God, but I didn’t work on my relationship with God.” You pause and think to yourself, “What does that even mean?” and you tell them, “You went to church on Sundays, you were a leader, you were on the worship team, you led prayers when we gave our tithes and offerings, you took classes on the Bible, how is that not working on your relationship with God?”

They stare at you, look up for a couple of seconds in agony, and look back at you. With shame in their eyes and sadness in their voice they respond, “Yes, I was a leader, I took classes on the Bible, I was on the worship team, but behind closed doors, I verbally abused my spouse (1 Cor 13:4-7), I flirted with other people (Matt 5:28), I held grudges (Matt 6:15), I judged those around me instead of lifting them up (Matt 7:1), I looked at pornography (Matt 5:27-28), I gossiped (Exodus 23:1), I played the lotto (Prov. 13:11), I was constantly lying (Col 3:9-10), I would go away in the night and get drunk (Rom 13:13), I cursed others (Ephesians 4:29), and I was prideful (Prov. 16:5). When I prayed in the front of the church, I did it so that I could be seen and esteemed by others, I did it so that people would recognize who I was. I was doing it so that I could hold a position in the church. I never did things out of relationship with God, I did it so that I would be seen and glorified by man (Matt 6:1).”

You ponder everything that person tells you and you say, “But you didn’t kill anyone, you didn’t steal from people, you were a good person you just had flaws.” The person looks you straight in your eyes and says, “I did kill someone. Jesus died, so I could be set free from the things I knowingly was doing, which means that I took His death lightly and in vain (Heb 10:26). I was the crown on His head, I was the nails on His hands and feet, and I was the whip that slaughtered every bit of flesh in His body. I killed my spouse’s spirit when I verbally abused them and watched pornography behind their backs (Ephesians 5:25-33). I killed my marriage when I flirted with other people. I killed lost souls when I judged them and cursed them instead of lifted them up. I killed myself when I let myself swim in pride.”

You start hearing ringing in your ears and your body starts to shake. You can feel sweat on the back of your neck and you feel like your eyes are rolling to the back of your head. You look at this person and all of a sudden your vision becomes blurry. You take a seat on a nearby pew. Thoughts just start rushing through your mind. “How come I didn’t know all this? And why did I take learning the things of God and the words written in the Bible so lightly?” You grab unto the side of the pew and your hands are sweating and it slips. You fall to the floor. You can’t get up so you just lay there looking up.

You start questioning every past decision you made. “Was it worth going to the club to get drunk and not going to church to hear the word of God? Was it worth being in that relationship that you knew wasn’t the one God had for you? Was it worth having sex with all those people and not getting any emotional fulfillment? Was it worth holding grudges over mistakes people made? Was it worth freely cursing others because it made you feel better in the moment? Was it worth judging others who stood up for God and His commandments so that you were part of the “in” crowd? Was it worth staying home and watching things you weren’t supposed to rather than going to church and getting your spirit fed? Was it worth getting extra hours at work and not going to church on Sundays? Was it worth not tithing because you needed that money in the moment instead of being obedient to God and trusting that He would provide? Was it worth being prideful and not accepting God’s help when in the end, you ended up with roots of bitterness and resentment? Was it worth it? Was it worth secluding yourself from people who were going to convict you spiritually so that you wouldn’t feel judged or forced to realize that the things you were doing were wrong? Was it worth conforming to the world because you didn’t want to be known as “that person”? Was it worth filling your ears with secular music instead of worshiping God? Was it worth lusting constantly instead of seeking God’s will in your romantic life? Was it worth it?!”

Suddenly, you find yourself screaming out with your eyes shut and at the top of your lungs, “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! It wasn’t worth it!!!! None of it was worth it!!!! I should’ve surrendered my will! I should’ve fought my flesh to have a relationship with God! I should’ve read the Bible more! I should’ve prayed more! I should’ve worshiped more! I should’ve died to my flesh! I should’ve done more!”

*Alarm beeps* With your heart still pounding and your body still shaking, you open your eyes. You’re in your room. Your hands are filled with sweat. You slowly get up from your bed and notice that something is different about your room. You notice this old Bible that someone gave you a long time ago is opened, which is strange because you haven’t opened that Bible in years.

You look down at the pages and you see this verse highlighted:

 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21‭-‬23

 You see a note written next to the verse and it says:

“I love you and I want you to love me too. -God”

There are many people today playing with their salvation. Where do you stand with God? If today were the day when Jesus came back for His church, would you stay? Or would you go? Some people didn’t wake up today, but you did. If you’re not where you should be with God, repent before it’s too late. Jesus loves you so much that He died for you, so that you wouldn’t have to be far from God, so don’t take His death for you lightly and come back to your first love with God. If you don’t know what to say, just simply say this prayer:

“Heavenly Father,

I recognize that I am a sinner and that my sin separates me from you. Today, I freely repent of all my sins and ask Jesus to be my savior. Jesus, come into my heart, come into my mind, and dwell in my spirit. I break every covenant with the world, with my flesh, and with Satan. If I were to die today or if you were to come today, I would wake up in your arms. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”

God bless you all!