What separates you from this life to eternity? One breath, one last breath! None of us know when that breath will be taken but it is pretty definite that we will all take it one day as long as Jesus tarries. There is no getting away from it. Whether we live to be 70 or 110 it is going to happen. My question to you is do you know what will happen when you breathe your last breath. Do you know what is waiting on the other side of this life?

We make decisions every day, we wake up, take care of children, go to work, or maybe some just play golf or go to prayer meetings or church. Every one of these activities involve choices about getting something specific done. There is one choice for us that we cannot afford to leave out. That is the choice about our eternal life. What is going to happen when this life is over?

Recently I visited Michigan and I was sitting with a group of people at a party. The subject of cremation came up and then the biggest question about the finality of death was talked about. One woman said she was not sure that when she died her spirit would leave her and go to heaven. She exclaimed, “I hope so.”  Listening to her speak I realized how many people go through this life with not only fear of death but fear of what is going to happen after death. I knew her heart was searching for answers but she was not quite ready to hear them yet. This left me wondering if she realized that no man or woman knows when that moment will come and instead of being sure their eternity is settled in their heart they continue to go about their business day after day.

 How about you my friend, are you just passing through this life without realizing what will happen at the end of it? Is it easier not to face the reality of it than to know the truth within your heart? Many people die suddenly, they wake up that morning without knowing it is their last day on this earth. Whenever I hear such stories I always pray that they knew the One in whom their eternal life was.

 Death is final, as I said earlier only one breath separates us from this life into death, there are no more choices to be made after that, it will be too late. Listen to the parable Jesus told his disciples in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 16: verses 19-31,

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of my finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son remember in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and you are tormented, and besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to there cannot, nor can those from there pass to us. Then he said, “I beg you therefore father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, “No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” But he said to him, “if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.”

Abraham spoke of Jesus, even though He came and rose from the dead, even though He came speaking of the Kingdom of God, even though He warned them and went about doing good to all who followed Him, yet they did not believe He was the Messiah. They crucified Him, and buried Him, refusing to believe His words, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but through me.” Jesus came for a purpose, to die for you and me that when we die, if we believe on His name, on His righteousness, on His sacrifice we will be taken from this earth into His Kingdom. We will see His face and we will not be in the flames of hell. When Jesus took His last breath, he sighed and said, “It is finished.” Jesus accomplished the plan of Our Father in heaven, he paid the price for the sins of the world, and He shed His blood for our sins that we might have eternal life.

We also have a purpose on this earth and it is my prayer that when we breathe out last breath we too can say, “I have run the race, I have finished my course, I have fought the good fight of faith, and now I will go home to My Father in heaven. What confidence and assurance we have in the Word of God that if we believe on the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we will be saved. Salvation is a free gift, there is only one thing you have to do and that is to receive Jesus as Your Savior before you take your last breath because once you have, you have run out of choices. Never again will you have the opportunity to call on His name, to walk in His ways and to be confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it, and He will receive you into His Kingdom when you leave this earth.

Death is final, everyone will experience it until Jesus returns from heaven, and we will all breathe that last breath. For those of us who know Jesus, there is great hope and expectation alive in our hearts, for we know that not even death can separate us from Him. We walk through this life with confidence and face the trials and tribulations that come our way with a knowing in our hearts that one day we will walk on streets of gold.

Are you ready! Do you know when that last breath will be taken? Are you willing to take the chance that you will leave this earth and maybe enter into eternity? Are you sure in your heart about your future? Do you truly understand that it is on this earth we make our choices about our eternal life? My friend, if you are not, then I pray that today You will seek Jesus with all of your heart, that you will accept His forgiveness for your sins, and that you will settle eternity in your heart before you take that one last breath. Remember, there is only one thing between you and eternity, ONE BREATH!!!!!!!!

Pat Couchman
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