Imagine being lost in your sin and the wrath of God is abiding over you (John 3:36).
Imagine feeling guilt and shame and fear for not living right. Imagine coming to an honest acknowledgment and admission of your sins and seeking Jesus.
Imagine turning your life over to Him in faith as you repent and commit your life to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Imagine by faith in God’s grace you are buried with Christ in baptism for the forgiveness of all those sins.
Imagine God washing away all of those sins and giving the Holy Spirit to live in you as a down payment for your future inheritance.
Imagine walking through this life with Jesus as His blood continues to wash away your sins.
Imagine growing up in your faith and actually becoming more and more like Jesus every year.
Imagine being on your deathbed with total peace and confidence because you know exactly where you’re going because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Imagine entering into heaven and standing right there smack dab in the presence of God and you are welcomed with open arms and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:14-30).
What will your response be? Do you imagine you will jump for joy or cry tears of amazement and relief? Will you shout “Hallelujah” or be unable to even talk? I don’t know about you but I can only imagine.
Read I Thessalonians 4:13-18 and Revelation 21:1-4. Then listen to I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
Revelation 21:1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”