If the beliefs that we base our lives upon won't offer any comfort or meaning when we die, are they worth believing?  When someone you love passes away, don't you hope to be reunited with them someday in a personal, real way? If so, then the idea that we simply cease to exist or that we "become one with the universe" may sound poetic but it certainly isn't desirable.  We want the opposite of that - we want to live on in a real and conscious way, retaining our identity.

     C.S. Lewis said it well... "“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”  Something within us tells us that there is more than just this brief life here on Earth, and Lewis is saying that our longing and desire for that is evidence that there is something more.

     Some will readily embrace this idea and take it to the opposite extreme...believing that everyone goes to heaven when they die.  But something within us rejects this idea as well....Hitler, serial killers, mass murderers - they all get a free pass?  Most people experience both a desire to live on after their death and a feeling that what we do while here on Earth should rightly impact whether we go on to reward or punishment when we die.  This brings the really important questions: "How good is good enough?" & "How bad is too bad?"

     This is where the Gospel brings real hope & comfort for those who would recieve it.  The Bible says that we have all rebelled against God's rightful role as King in our lives.  But it also says that He loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die in our place and to offer us full and total forgiveness! This is available to anyone and everyone - no one is excluded from this offer of reconciliation and hope. We don't have to earn it - we simply need to accept it by faith.  

[9] because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. [11] For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” [12] For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. [13] For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9-13 ESV)

     You may have lived your entire life apart from God and spent it doing things you now regret.  You may have lived your whole life trying to earn God's love and favor.  You might feel like a pretty good person but hope that a few of your darker secrets don't catch up with you.  Wherever you are, the Gospel offers hope, right now, today, that you will live on after you die and be found righteous because of what Jesus did in your place.  Once you place your faith in Jesus the real adventure begins.

     That is a belief that is worth betting your life on...

[16] So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. [17] For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, [18] as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV)