Life is a journey. As with all journeys, we must know three things, or we will find ourselves lost. First, we must know where we are going. Second, we need to know where we are right now. And third, we must know the directions or have some sort of guidance system to reach our destination. If we lack knowing one or more of these we may be destined to wander around in life unhappy, lost and with no direction. It’s not hard to see how we would be lost if we did not know our starting point or if we did not have good directions. However, if we know where we are, but we don’t know our destination, or we have the wrong destination in mind, we would not recognize the true destination even if we were staring at it. We could even be lost with perfect directions, if we don’t know our destination. Most of the time we follow the crowd and do not use our own sense of direction. Be honest. Have you ever wondered if there is more to life than trying to make it to the end? Or have you ever said ‘’am I missing something’’? It might be helpful to read the travels of the children of Israel from when they left Egypt to when they entered the promised land. This was a group of people that were slaves for hundreds of years and suddenly one day they were free. What a sudden change in lifestyle! They began a journey to a place that was promised to them hundreds of years before. Physically, this could have been a three-day trip. But when they finally got there, most of the people didn’t recognize it as their destination or their promise. So, they ended up wandering for 40 years, lost again. I believe we have been given a perfect plan. Jesus came to give us the directions for life and the Holy Spirit to be a GPS. We Christians, have one or more of the following problems:
1. We may not realize that we are still lost either in Egypt or in the wilderness.
2. We don’t know where we are going. Most people think Heaven is the destination, when Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to us.
3. Jesus’ words or directions are constantly misinterpreted and not used along with the Spirit. Words are dead without the spirit, especially if the words are used incorrectly.
My journey began in a small conservative church. We believed in spiritual things like miracles, healing and speaking in tongues. I learned that this world is not good and we should be striving to make it to heaven. That was the destination of choice. If we died, however, without believing or doing the right things, we chose by default another destination, hell. So, life became a series of church events to get enough of God to make it through the week without sinning so we can make it to the right destination, heaven. At the same time, we were supposed to be trying to bring as many with us as possible. I realize every Christian denomination has a different view of salvation and how to get it and if we can lose it. But every denomination has the same premise, we must believe certain things to ensure our destination of Heaven. As I grew older and studied and read many different authors and the Bible over a period of about 15 years, I began to consider some ideas that rocked my world. Could it be that our destination or goal is not the Heaven that we always believed? Did Jesus come to the Earth to save us to Heaven? What if we should not be looking to leave this earth in the Rapture or longing for heaven when we die? What happens to the concept of salvation, sin or being lost when Heaven is not the goal? I really began to think about these ideas as I was looking at what we considered ‘’saved’’ people. Most ‘’saved’’ people that I knew were very unhappy with life. Saved people have the same divorce rate as ‘’unsaved’’. Saved people are stressed just as much as anyone else. Saved people are just as likely to be taking prescriptions for anxiety as unsaved. So, what are people saved from? Are we saved just to make it to heaven when we die or is there something else to what Jesus said when He promised to give abundant life and eternal life? Does eternal, abundant life begin now or after death or the rapture? If “Life” begins now, how can so many be saved and also be unhappy, unsatisfied and slaves to fear and stress? Could it be that many of us think we’re saved but are really lost? Is it possible that we could be going to church every Sunday but still be slaves in Egypt or wandering around lost in the wilderness? What If Heaven, as we understand it, should not be our goal. If Heaven is not the destination, what is sin? What does it mean to be saved or lost? Maybe we should reconsider our lives and the reason we are here. This is the reason for starting this blog. We will begin by entertaining the idea and the reason why I think we have the wrong destination as our goal. Sometime in the future we will discuss what sin, salvation and being lost might be considering the possibility of a new destination. Then we will discuss our life, what it might look like and the journey that we might take to find that destination.
But it all begins with the end in mind, THE DESTINATION.
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