Finishing well
January 21st 2024 (Week 53)
Mark 13: 32-37
If you’ve ever attended a horse racing event you may well have witnessed the majestic sight of a jockey-laden animal pushing hard in the last few furlongs to win a hard-fought race. Winning wasn’t necessarily about how the horse started but how it finished.
Other sports have the same need to finish well. Anyone who has played golf knows the importance of “the back nine”, those last holes before signing off a round in front of the clubhouse. In football, a striker needs to have the ability to finish in order to score that all-important goal. But if there is one area where the word “finishing” means absolutely everything it's in the game of darts. The ability to finish well is everything in this traditional pub game. This was witnessed clearly when just a few days ago sixteen-year-old Luke Littler threw a nine-dart finish to win the Bahrain Masters, hitting the double twelve needed with a single arrow.
In all of those examples of great finishes the participants had the advantage of knowing exactly when their game or race would end. They could see it and it was real.
Our own lives, however, don’t always afford us that luxury before calamity strikes. We don’t see that accident about to happen, that cancer diagnosis, or that divorce that has been thrust upon us.
Sadly, all too often, we go through life believing that we are immune from all these dangers. But we don’t know if, how, or when these everyday issues will come – except for one of them. Death. We all know that death is inevitable. Not a single one of us can side-step it. And that creates a problem for everyone.
Many people take the view that they’ll get around to sorting out their lives sometime later and ignore that they don’t know “when” death is going to arrive or when Jesus will return. It may be that despite a terminal diagnosis, they have some time to put things in order but lots of people don’t get that opportunity. Many will choose to wait until the eleventh hour but die at ten thirty!
Mark 13 tells us clearly that we don’t know when the time will be. 1 Thessalonians 5:3 states even more graphically, “When people say everything is quiet and safe, then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labour, and people will not escape”.
There may be several things you need to sort out in the event of your death but the most important is your relationship with God. We may only be “here” for a short while, but we will go on to spend eternity elsewhere and your standing with God and His son Jesus will determine where. You can sail through life not caring about Jesus and spend eternity in Hell, or you can give your life to Christ right now and be saved for a life with Him and God forever.
If you want to share in the blessings that are already stored up in Heaven for you, you can pray this simple prayer:
“Dear God, I know I have sinned against you, and I have lived by my plan, not yours. I want that to change, starting right now. I want to turn away from my sins toward you. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for all I’ve done wrong so I don’t have to pay the penalty.
“Jesus, thank you for loving me so much that you took all my guilt on yourself. You made me acceptable for heaven, and I humbly ask you to save me. I believe in you, Jesus. And I believe you will keep your promise to save me instantly, certainly, completely, and eternally. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
If you prayed that prayer please speak to Pastor Neville, one of the other leaders at Gatehouse Church or someone in your own church.
Prayer: Father, thank you for each person who has prayed that prayer to you. Please bless them with the knowledge of your presence and peace.