Time...

[Be prepared, this is a very long one]

Yes, time is probably the most spent resource in the history of mankind. Each second ticking by is a second that we’ll never get back. Each second ticking by is one second less till the coming of Jesus Christ on the clouds of the skies -a second less till judgement day. Every second is worth at least one or two lives as well. Old statistics show that 150 000 people passed into the afterlife every day -150 000 that are recorded. What about the nameless thousands in the slums in India? Abortions? Gang related murders in dark alleys in Mexico? Or the lost tribes in the jungles of Africa, Madagascar, Asia, and the Americas that no man has ever seen [and escaped alive]?

Truly, for every second there are at least 2/3 people somewhere on this planet that close their earthly eyes and open them to heaven or hell. We might be called to be that person any time. But, the seconds that pass before we are pulled from this temporary sojourn on earth to something else might mean the difference between eternal life and perpetual death and temptation. Each second that passes might be our last. I heard an old uncle say once, “…until the good Lord decides it’s time, nothing’s gonna kill me. Once He decides it is time, nothing’s gonna keep me.” [From the movie ‘Do You Believe?’]

We do not know the time or hour that He will come for us. But let’s see how we waste our time, when it could have been practically applied to something that -I would say- is worthwhile.

Scenario:

Andrew -a typical dude from the South African port city of Durban- was always in search of the perfect wave, the perfect feeling, and ultimately, the perfect life. He had a wave tattooed on his arm, and only wore Rip Curl sandals and trousers. His hair was way too long -and always smelled of sea salt or perspiration. He could always be seen in red Ray-Ban sunshades with black, opaque lenses. He was the disappointment of a son that -unlike his older brother- hated school and never went to study further. He was always in search of the perfect wave. Always dreamt of it -lived to achieve it.

His dad was never at home as he was always overseas bringing in the millions when he came home once every 7 months. His mother tried to keep herself busy in their mansions near the sea. She would entertain from normal guests by day to the pool cleaner by night. She did not even try to honour her marriage, and neither did his dad.

Andrew always came home to find either his dad fighting with his mom, or his mom seducing another ‘no-name’ figure from downtown, or his brother glaring at him in disgust from another one of his university textbooks.

Andrew had finished school -barely- and spent his days hoping for nice waves at the beach, studying wave patterns and tides, and probing the web for satellite information about the ocean’s behaviour. He became frustrated one day with the ‘small’ waves that he had gotten so used to and asked his dad for a vacation to Hawaii -true surfers’ world that.

Before he knew it, he was jet-setting to a well-known holiday and surfing destination that Google -and few of his friends- had told him about. He had written on his visa application form; “I am going surfing”. He landed and was greeted from his first class exit by a hula dancer who placed a flower chain around his neck, courtesy of his hotel that came to pick him up. He loved it and nervously tugged his red shades with his forefinger to sit higher on the bridge of his nose.

10:37 a.m.

‘Man! Baby, this is the best hotel ever! Room service actually brings wine and champagne without me paying for a thing! I guess that is why I like this place so much… I ain’t paying for a thing! My… dad is…’ He told his girlfriend who was Skyping him. He set the Skype to nfull screen and adjusted the MacBook [with a built in camera] to give his girlfriend a better view of him.

‘Andrew, I know you love it in Hawaii, and I see that you have a profound inability to stay sober at the moment…’ His girlfriend said, as if she had wanted to say something else, as if what burdened her was not the fact that he had drank more in the past week than his mind was supposed to handle.

‘A pro… what?’

‘Look, Andrew, I have this really bad feeling that I will never see you again.’ said his girlfriend. Andrew rolled his eyes at her, ‘I am serious… And when that day comes that you will close your eyes permanently, will you go up or down?’

‘What?’ Andrew said and pretended to be tired as he rubbed his face and sighed deeply, ‘Please baby, don’t bring it up now. I am just getting the ‘island style’ feeling; I am not drinking… too much…’

‘That is not what I mean, and you know it…’ she said and frowned determined into the screen.

‘Look baby, I will think about it, but you know I am enjoying myself. I ain’t goin’ to no hell if I drink only one more glass of Stature from Kendall-Jackson, right?’ he said and indicated a one with his index finger.

‘I am warning you; you can die at any moment -who knows what the actual crime rate on Hawaii is! If you don’t believe with your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and declare with your mouth that He is Lord, then you will go to hell.’

‘Ah no… not my girlfriend…’ Andrew said and shook his head as he covered his face with one hand.

‘Please Andrew, for your sake, think about it. Remember, hell has no air conditioner or emergency exit...’ His girlfriend pleaded, ‘And, it has no Kendall-Jackson either…’

Andrew checked his iPhone and saw that the tide was just about ready to grab and go surfing.

‘Listen Carina, I must go -life calls me, I must answer.’ He said mockingly with an attempted insult.

She just shook her head and sighed as she ended the call without saying goodbye. He shook his head as well, and jumped up from his unmade bed to grab the perfect waves he so desperately sought.

11:19 a.m.

He sat on a rocky outcropping overlooking the waves as they rolled in to the beach. He waited and watched as each one broke and saw that some waves were bigger than others, but how the one just behind it was smaller. He then saw what he had come for; waves growing bigger and bigger.

12:02 p.m.

Andrew -in his tight wetsuit- attached the cord of his pre-waxed board to his foot and paddled out to see. He kept going deeper out to sea, diving under small waves. He then paddled to an area where the waves suddenly ‘dried up’. No waves came. It was gone. He almost patted the water, trying to feel the ocean’s power surging into a wave. Nothing…

12:11 p.m.

He thought about what Carina had told him. He had been pondering about God for a while, and it was like there was a tug that he could feel on his soul. Someone was trying to pull him ‘Up’, and someone was trying to pull him ‘down’.

Decision 1: He shook his head, ‘Nah, it must be all the wine…’ he dismissed the idea and carried on waiting.

Decision 2: He thought of it some more… ‘Well, I just want to finish surfing and then I’ll go Google this Jesus guy.’

Decision 3: ‘No… I know I am going to hell if I die… I want to commit my life to Jesus… Carina said I must just believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ Andrew thought for a while, on the right words, and he sent his hand through his hair and sat up straight on his board. He didn’t know what to say, but he figured that Carina’s instructions were obvious. He closed his eyes and shakily folded his hands in a prayer, ‘Um, God? Can you hear me? Of course You can -silly question. I know that I have always shoved You away from me -please excuse my bad manners… I am not exactly sure how I must ‘do this’, but Carina said that I must just say that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I -um- say now that I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God… uh, Amen.’ Andrew felt something warm on his inside, something he had never felt before. ‘Wow! That’s fast! Thank you God! No more Kendall-Jackson for me! A Christian doesn’t drink, right? Aw man…’

12:20 p.m.

It came… the power… the surge of the majestic waters that called him. He got ready to paddle and watched the wave as it came. He paddled a little ways in front of the wave and as the wave was about to start carrying him, he jumped on his board. It was by far the biggest wave he had ridden before, but there was no joy in it. Something was wrong.

12:14:11 p.m.

He was getting closer to the shore, and he still couldn’t shake his growing feeling of unease. The wave seemed to be breaking over him, and he was in the barrel. He had never experienced this, and it was almost a bit nerve wrecking as it seemed that the gap in front of him was closing. The gap between the ocean and what he could see out of the barrel. But he just let the power of the ocean propel him forward.

12:14:19 p.m.

Whilst in the barrel, something grey caught his eye from his left. Before he could do anything, it lunged at him with its 300 teeth and hit him like a train. He didn’t feel any pain except the blow, the crack of bones somewhere, and sudden shock as the water before him turned red… Black-out…

12:30:51 p.m.

White surgery light… pain somewhere -don’t know where… can’t feel a thing… something’s wrong…

‘We’re losing him! He’s fading…’

12:30:55 p.m.

Andrew was fully awake -but not his body. He hovered above it like the invisible ghost that he had become. He saw the doctor and the nurse as they still tried to revive him even after the heart-rate monitor had started screaming to testify of his deceased state.

‘No… he’s gone…’ the doctor said sadly as he finally stopped with blood all over his hands and his belly.

‘We did what we could doc…’ a nurse said as she put one blood-stained hand on his shoulder, ‘He was dead anyway. The shark took his arm, and even though the person that helped him to shore and phoned 911 couldn’t stop the bleeding… he was as good as dead before he got here.’

Andrew heard something and turned it came from outside the hospital. It came into sight…

Ending for Decision 1 and 2:

He saw that a dark spirit came for him. A skull protruding from a dark cloak and some sort of bent spear [threshing sickle] in its hand -the grim reaper had come for him.

He screamed and tried to get away from it somehow, but he was ‘anchored’ to the spot above his body. He yelled, ‘Help!!! It’s comin’ for me!!! Help me!!! Someone -anyone!!! Help!!!’

He saw that the doctor in the surgery swung his head around and back to the patient. He said in a terrified tone, ‘I can hear a man screaming.’

It made no difference as the reaper came to him, and just before it was about to get to him it swung its bent spear and he was suddenly in chains before a big book. It was closed, but then a Figure with the appearance of a man opened it to where Andrew’s name was. Andrew kneeled down in front of this Figure. He knew Who it was. It was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He threw a golden scale at Andrew, ‘You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. You are not part of My sheepfold, you are a goat. I know you not. Away with you to where there is an eternal lake, an eternal fire, and an eternal gnashing of teeth; for you refused the counsel of the godly and made a mockery the exhorting of the saints.

Although he had never heard the term ‘sheepfold’ or knew while he was on earth what ‘exhorting’ meant, he was sure that he was going to hell. He was also sure that if no one helped his family, then they would end up there as well. While on his knees he begged Jesus, ‘Please Lord, send an angel to warn my family! Or they will end up like me!’

Jesus shook his head, ‘If they did not head to the prophets, or the scriptures, or the signs and wonders, or my sacrifice on the cross, or my many followers that have spoken with them, or the dreams that I have sent them, then neither will they accept the warning of an angel.’

Andrew suddenly felt as if he was picked up. The grim reaper held him and took him to a vast chasm which seemed a million miles from the judgement book. The reaper held him over the edge and he kicked and screamed. It let go of him, and he fell into total darkness. He kept falling, but something became hot. It was a dark inferno. He was surrounded by lava which he could not see, and by a pain which was worse than anything describable. He shouted in his agony, but no one heard him.

‘Why didn’t I listen!? Why didn’t I listen!!!’

Ending to Decision 3:

He saw Who it was. Although Andrew had never seen Him, but he immediately knew that it was Jesus. ‘Lord..! Lord!’

He ascended upwards, gaining height and speed till he flew through the entire universe and was -in the blink of an eye- before a man -although He wasn’t a man. An angel stood beside Andrew and he spoke to him, “You are of Christ’s sheepfold, and now Heaven is your reward for believing.”

Andrew felt a peace unfathomable. Jesus held His arms out and Andrew ran to Him. Just before Andrew came to Him he fell flat on his face in reverence. He looked up and still saw the arms of Jesus open. Andrew got up and hugged his Saviour. Although he had never did the sinner’s prayer, or got baptised, or had been able to pour the last Kendall-Jackson down the drain: he believed that Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God. That’s all he needed.

Jesus showed him to a gate made of pearl. The beauty thereof was unbelievable. Inside the gate was a massive city. The city had golden streets and a river ran through the City and the Trees of Life on each side of the river bore fruit that seemed too precious and perfect to touch.

A Light came from the middle of the city. A Light so bright that it inspired worship upon sight thereof. The Light was the Creator, the Almighty God who had spoken everything into existence and who held the universe in the palm of His hand. Andrew fell down again.

‘Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy, Holy, Holy.’ He worshiped the Most High God.

Jesus later showed Andrew to his house, which Jesus Himself had built. Andrew could not believe the amazing craftsmanship, and in a style which no earthly architect could dream of designing.

An eternity worshiping the Almighty God and living in Heaven was such a great thought! Andrew went back to worshipping and fell down on his face, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy… Holy, Holy, Holy…’

Lesson:

How many times have we heard the statement, ‘Time is of the essence’? It is a reality. See, Andrew never knew that the shark would bite him in pieces. He could not possibly consider Jesus after the attack. He died, and what he did before the attack was what made the difference after death. See, it all boils down to the choices we do/don’t make while we have a conscious mind -before death. We see the difference it made in Andrew’s life and eternity. Do you know that it can be either obedience or ignorance that makes the difference in your afterlife?

Jesus is the way to heaven, and whether we get hit by a car, bitten in half by a shark, or simply pass in our sleep as a result of heart failure, we must decide where we want to open our eyes; in heaven, or in the judgement room where we will be shown away to hell.

Friend, I encourage you to make the wise choice; Jesus. He can never let you down. If ever you feel like taking this decision, send me an email and I will gladly help you to the best of my ability.

Notes:

1 The name of the character ‘Andrew’ was simply used as an illustration, no implications were meant on anyone.

2 In my endings of both Decisions 1, 2, and 3, what happens after death is merely based on ideas by me -the author- and what I have heard from various sources and authors. I have no idea what happens exactly.

3 My ‘setting’ of Heaven is completely based on the Bible, and no external sources.

4 The brands I used in this blog [MacBook, Rip Curl, etc.] were

not used to slight the creators thereof, or to discriminate against them, but simply for illustration.